BBC Stargazing Live!
On Tuesday, 17th January Maths and Science students from Chichester Colllege provided educational entertainment at Fontwell Park Racecourse for BBC Stargazing Live.
Mark Nason, section leader in Maths; Science and Social Science, who was responsible for our participation said, “Ours was clearly the largest and most impressive contribution to the event. The students involved had a fantastic time and we now have some really high quality resources that we can use again in the future”.
The live science demos included rocket launches, alien slime and impressive LEGO® robots. These took place while enthusiastic stargazers used their guides to identify constellations and details of the moon through brief gaps in the cloud.
For more information visit: www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/stargazing/.
Slippery Sausages
Mr Bill O’Hagan, winner of ‘Britain’s Best Sausage Maker Award’ gave a master class in sausage making to the first year Diploma in Professional Cookery students.
The day started with a talk on the importance of using only the finest fresh ingredients and absolutely no mechanically recovered meat, genetically modified ingredients, colourings, preservatives or any other artificial additives.
The students were keen to get some hands-on experience; trying their hands at forming and linking. After a full day, the students cooked some of the sausages along with mashed potato and onion gravy, and sat down to lunch with Bill.
Calculated Counsel
Professor James Hirschfeld, senior tutor in Mathematics at the University of Sussex, visited Chichester College to speak to first year Mathematics students to give them an idea of the importance of maths in the real world and what jobs Mathematics graduates may go on to do.
He began by explaining the structure of degrees at Sussex, before going on to list some of the jobs that recent graduates have taken, from accountants and teachers to interpreters and prison officers.
Professor Hirschfeld then demonstrated some of the maths behind data security, such as a mathematical lie-detector in the form of an error-correcting code, after which he answered students’ questions about applying for university.
Students were advised to ‘throw away your calculator’ as our visitor gave his opinion that students rely too much on their calculators and too little on their brains!
AQA Baccalaureate
The AQA Baccalaureate is an extra qualification that can be taken by students who fall into our ‘Gifted and Talented’ A-level programme. To achieve the Baccalaureate students need to complete a minimum of three A-levels, extra accredited voluntary activity and an Extended Project.
The Extended Project is a research-based project (rather like a university dissertation) which requires students to demonstrate both research, analytical and written skills. The standard expected is exceptionally high and students on the programme attend extra support sessions to help them prepare for this assessment.
Chichester College is delighted to report continuing excellent results which are well above the national average, particularly for similar centres.
Pass rate Grades A*-C National Average
2011 100% 53% (similar centres), 81% (all centres)
2010 100% 81%