Year 13 student, Nathaniel Heath, outlines the recent science trip to Berlin: “Berlin was a great school trip, we made full use of the U-bahn trains to get about; on Monday, our first day, we had a lovely meal at a restaurant and visited Alexanderplatz. The second day we visited the Berlin Life Science Learning Lab where we learned how to split and analyse DNA and made bacteria glow. In the afternoon, we went on to the Berlin Natural History Museum to see the original archaeopteryx fossil, which provides evidence for the link between dinosaurs and birds. We then proceeded to the restaurant for a traditional Bavarian meal and then to Alexanderplatz again to go up the Berliner Fernsehturm Tower and looked down on the whole city in the evening light. When Wednesday came, we went to the German Technical Museum for a guided tour where we looked at exhibits on trains, planes, boats and other feats of engineering. The afternoon was spent at the Spectrum Science Centre, which had many cool interactive practicals on light, sound, electricity and magnetism. We also had the opportunity to go to Check Point Charlie in the afternoon and see where people used to cross from East to West Berlin, getting a real feel for the unusual history of the city and viewing the Berlin Wall, Reichstag parliament buildings and the Brandenburg Gate. Day four was our last day where we went to the Archenhold Observatory which had the Treptow Giant Telescope, the world’s longest refracting telescope. This visit also included going into the planetarium and seeing a great show on the night sky, and then we looked at a 5 million year old meteorite and tried to lift it between us. Overall, Berlin was an interesting and fun learning experience.”
Miss Boneham, Physics teacher, said: “The trip was a resounding success with exemplary behaviour from the students, lots of interesting places visited and a great time had by all!”
