Great Scot - The Scotch Family Magazine - Issue 151 September 2017 GreatScot_Internal_Sept_2017_FA | Page 30

Tours and Excursions
“The activities
certainly unveiled
our great Scotch team
spirit, as success
demanded teamwork
and coordination.”
Great USA experiences
for budding scientists
Twenty-seven boys from Years 8 and 9,
accompanied by three staff members, undertook
a tour of some of the best science experiences the
USA offers.
The tour began with a real cultural eye-opener,
as we arrived in San Francisco on the day of
the Pride Parade. Streets were blocked off, and
we had to walk several blocks with our luggage
through the parade crowd to reach our hotel.
Berkeley University is a huge campus with
many unique traditions, and boasts a long list of
Nobel Laureates. I found the massive libraries
particularly impressive. Many transuranium
chemical elements were first discovered here
by Glenn Seaborg, and the university is also
known for cancer research, including one of the
most recent and important discoveries: CRISPR
gene-editing technology.
The Exploratorium Museum was full of science
gadgets, gizmos, gyros and other goodies. The
exhibits were fun and interesting, and scientifically
quite complex. Examples included the double-slit
experiment, showing that things can be both
waves and particles, and Arthur Gordon’s gear
that only turns once every two trillion years.
Before we left San Francisco, heading for
Orlando, we also visited the imposing Alcatraz
28
Island, and stopped at the wonderful Golden Gate
Bridge for some photos.
In Orlando, en route to the Kennedy Space
Centre, we saw alligators ducking in and out of
the swamps. Entering the space centre, we found
a collection of tall standing rockets, and inside
the complex we were blown away to witness
the actual Atlantis 5 Space Shuttle. To think that
such a behemoth was in space not so long ago
… A real highlight was our lunch with astronaut
Norm Thagard, who recounted his career as
an astronaut. His story was very inspiring and
powerful; I know a couple of us who now want to
be astronauts based on his story alone.
While in Orlando we visited Universal Studios,
where we went backstage to see the technology
behind the rides. Some took up the challenges to
visit every G-inducing, head-spinning attraction
possible, and succeeded! We also visited Full
Sail University where we got to work at creating
some levels for a car race game, as well as having
a crash course on 3D game programming and
creation.
We then flew to Huntsville, Alabama, for our
live-in week at Space Camp. Huntsville was the
home of Wernher von Braun and his colleagues,
who helped to launch man to the moon on the
Saturn V, which was housed in the museum at
Space Camp. We did G-force accelerators, scuba
diving, realistic space missions and even built and
launched our own rockets.
The activities certainly unveiled our great
Scotch team spirit, as success demanded
teamwork and coordination. As a bonus, we were
treated with a Fourth of July firework spectacular.
Space camp was an absolute highlight; we made
many new friends from all around the world as well
as enjoying an extraordinary learning experience.
A huge thank you to Mr Peters, Ms Gates
and Ms Ardley for the planning and organisation
that made the tour such a success. This was an
experience of a lifetime for anyone who wishes to
become an astronaut or a rocket scientist in the
future, or is simply passionate about science and
space. You must sign up for the next US Science
Tour and NASA Space Camp!
JASON CHAN - YEAR 9
Great Scot Number 151 – September 2017