The Schrödinger Programme

Last term saw the return of the popular Schrödinger Programme, an initiative started two years ago by the Science Faculty to help students develop their appreciation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) disciplines, beyond the GCSE curriculum, and to make their first steps towards a successful application to a top university in a Science or Engineering degree.

At the core of the programme was a five-week project chosen by the 29 highly motivated students, inspired by their interest in the world at large. Popular topics included the physics of projectiles (whether launched by air pressure, catapults, cricket bats, simulated golf clubs or hockey sticks) and complex dynamic problems such as the synchronisation of pendulums, the motion of a falling slinky, the completion of a loop-the-loop and the motion of a building during an earthquake. One particular group combined chemistry and physics to analyse the wavelengths of light emitted when different metal salts were heated.

The students certainly enjoyed their projects and it was impressive to see how confidently they presented their findings to an audience of students, parents and staff. In their own words:

"It has been a wonderful experience completing the Schrödinger project. It required a lot of problem-solving and resilience to set up a practical that actually worked, and we greatly enjoyed developing these skills. We learnt about our subject through extensive research and learnt how much work goes into carefully planning a scientific experiment. Overall it was great fun! Thank you to all the teachers/technicians that helped us along the way."

“I really enjoyed taking part in the Schrodinger project and creating my own experiment. It was a great opportunity to learn how to conduct my own experiments, and I learned a lot throughout the experience. Although I was really worried for the presentation evening, it was an amazing culmination to all the hard work we had put into the project, and in the end I had an awesome time.”

“We both really enjoyed our time during the Schrodinger project. We learnt a lot and had an incredible time being able to design and carry out our own experiment. It taught us both key skills of resilience - when we had to amend our project multiple times to ensure it is successful, and of teamwork - sharing tasks to complete it in the time allocated. It was an amazing experience which could not have been achieved without the help of all of the physics teachers. Thank you so much!”

The presentation evening’s audience was highly impressed by the creativity and analytical abilities of the students and perhaps most of all by the perseverance and ingenuity they showed in overcoming the challenges encountered on their journey from idea to conclusion.

Congratulations to the group on completing their projects and the best of luck in their future scientific endeavours.