Visit Report : Gairloch High School

School: Gairloch High School
Location: Wester Ross, Highlands
Date: 08/05/2018
Duration: Full Day
Modules: Stars and Constellations : S1
Nature of Light : S1
Solar System : S1
Modern Telescopes : S1
Hunting for Asteroids : S1 – S3
Robotic Telescopes : S2 – S3
Pupil Participants: 62
Adult Participants: 4
Visit Activity: 20



Description:

The village community of Gairloch is located on the north-west coast of Scotland, and is a couple of hours drive from Inverness. After meeting Scott off the flight from London, we headed through the mountains to a fine B&B in the village, which would allow us to make an early start. Although it only has 130-ish pupils, Gairloch High School had a nice feel to it, and the students seemed polite and enthusiastic. We spent the morning with S1 (age 12-13) and covered a range of topics, including the Solar System, Nature of Light and Stars and Constellations. We also had a first run out for our Modern Telescopes talk, which seemed to go down well. After lunch, we worked on computers with S2 and S3, where we undertook the Robotic Telescopes and Hunting for Asteroids modules. By the end of school, it was a very sunny day, so we enjoyed a stroll to the local sandy beach before returning to the school to start setting up for the community event. We were joined at 17:30 by 20 members of the local, and not so local (some travelled 30 miles to join us) community. We had some very science driven pupils, and just as curious parents and adults, who had a series of mini-talks about Gravity, the Nature of Light and the Solar System.