Friday Headlines

26 January 2018

On Monday 22 January, eight girls from Year 9 travelled to Birmingham University to participate in the Big Physics Quiz. This annual event is organised by the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy and Outreach Department and takes the form of a general knowledge quiz for local schools.

Having arrived early, the girls had the opportunity to go on a quick campus tour before heading to the Great Hall to begin. The girls split themselves into two teams of four, and got started on the first activity of the day, which was a spot prize word search.

It was time for the main event. In the morning, contestants competed in the first three rounds and were quizzed on topics including Sound & Vibration, Kinematics and a ‘What am I’? The rounds were challenging, but the girls battled through. They then had an extremely interesting lecture on nuclear physics from Dr Tzany Kokalova Wheldon. After a quick lunch, the quiz resumed. The rounds in this session were ‘Who am I’?, Materials and a specialist round based on knowledge of Astrophysics.

There were over 100 teams and 400 individual students competing in the challenge on the day. Competition was definitely tough but, despite not winning, all of the girls had fun and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Bethan, Hermione and Charlotte - Year 9