Physics Hexathlon
Published: 27 January 2020
This year, schools in the North Dorset & South Somerset Partnership will be taking part in a series of ‘Physics Hexathlon’ events. These events will see Year 10 students competing against each other in a range of competitions and challenges.
Six teams compete in each Hexathlon, which involves four practical challenges and two pen and paper quizzes. In this first Hexathlon, students from Sherborne Girls and Gillingham School pitted their physics wits against each other. In the practical challenges, students were working to create a magnetic launcher and investigating wind turbines, bridges, and floating & sinking. In the quizzes, they tested their knowledge with powers of 10 and physics trivia.
“This is a new event for our partnership that we have developed for this year,” explains partnership co-ordinator Jason Blake, physics teacher at Sherborne Girls. “Other partnership schools are scheduled to hold their own Hexathlons later in the year. We have used our Ogden funding to help with any transport costs, refreshments and prizes.
“In the future, we hope that this activity will fund itself as the schools are very keen to do outreach around the initiative and involve their wider communities. We can really see the value in promoting these STEM activities and the Ogden funding has given our ideas a real kick-start,” concludes Jason.