Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 5219 SPORTS TRIPS AND VISITS Year 9 Physics ‘Big Quiz’ On Tuesday 26th January, sixteen students were selected from Handsworth Grammar School to compete in the 11th annual Physics ‘Big Quiz’. This was held at the University of Birmingham, with 90 teams taking part, representing schools from all over the West Midlands and Staffordshire, including many of our selective school ‘rivals’. We arrived at the University at 9:45am with Mr Jones, Head of Science, confident that we could win this year to match the achievement of last year’s HGS teams! The morning began with a word search round and, after this, we were formally introduced to our hosts and made acquainted with the rules. The most important of these rules was that each team, of which we had separated into four groups of four, had access to a ‘Joker’, which allowed our points to be doubled for that single round. It could be used in any round apart from the final round, which we were told in advance was on ‘The Physics of Einstein’. There were three rounds in the morning session. The first round was some questions on ‘Waves’, followed by a round in which we had to identify an object from its description. Round 3 contained a number of mathematical questions which we had to solve. At the end of each round there was a ‘Spot Question’ for which we had to get the closest answer e.g. what is the mass of the Sun in kilograms? (My group and Vyom’s tied on this question; sadly, he won the chocolates). We were then treated to a lecture by Professor David Evans from the University on the subject of how Physics has created heavier elements, and what elements are inside our bodies. There were three further rounds in the afternoon. The first one was to identify famous scientists from a picture and/or a description. Amazingly, we guessed four right out of ten! Round 5 was a miscellaneous round; finally there was the round on the ‘specialist’ area of study – The Physics of Einstein. HGS Team A (Fronz, Gyani, Ali and Edward, all miraculously in Nelson) claimed first place out of the 90 teams. Their prize was a large trophy that the school will return next year and a smaller trophy that the school will keep. The four winners also each received a medal and a telescope. HGS Team B (Godfrey, Anmol, Ismaeel Y and Matthew) came 4th. HGS Teams C and D (Nayan, Sharujan, Bobby, Ismaeel M (me), Farhaan, Vyom, Amritpal and Daanish) won the spot prize about the mass of the Sun and also came joint 5th overall. Everyone was pleased with their achievement and happy to retain the trophy from last year. Finally, on behalf of all of us who participated, I would like to thank Mr Jones, who recruited us. I would like to wish Mr Jones good luck in finding people in the current Year 8 who will live up to the phenomenal and flabbergasting standard set by our year group and last year’s Year 9! Ismaeel Mahmood 9A Science Fun at Birmingham University We recently took Year 7 pupils to Birmingham University for some Science Fun. Here are a couple of articles from pupils who went on separate days: 15 DECEMBER The trip to Birmingham University was very interesting and very informative. We listened to two lectures, one on Chemistry and one on Biology. In Chemistry, we were taught how different atoms fuse together to create different elements but our main topics that we were taught were light, energy and mass and how they were and can be produced. Before starting the lectures, we were allowed to sing some Christmas songs. In the Biology talk, we were taught how much sugar can be in just one product; the ‘winner’ turned out to be a bar of dairy milk chocolate, which also came high in which product has the most fat. They gave us gifts for volunteering to help with the demonstrations. We weren’t the only school there. There were other schools such as Holte School, Camp Hill, Alvechurch, St. Michael’s, al-Hijrah and Bishop Challoner. A few practicals were carried out in both lectures, like seeing which gas can produce a different colour in a burning flame – lithium produced a red colour for example. The trip was very interesting and I hope that we can go on a trip like it again. Hasnain Jafer, 7N 16 DECEMBER On the 16th December, 30 Year 7 students were given the opportunity to go to the University of Birmingham to attend two Science lectures. We boarded our minibuses at 10.40am to depart from school and arrived at the University at around 11.20am. We then entered the auditorium where the lectures were going to be held. We first spent more than half an hour singing many famous Christmas songs like Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ by Shakin’ Stevens and one of the most loved Xmas songs ‘I wish it could be Xmas everyday’ by Wizzard. We joined in with the many other schools there. However, the best part was when Mr Mohsin was chosen to sing Xmas songs in front of all of us. At 12.00pm the first lecture began, ‘Physics Hot and Cold’, given by the physicist Dr Evans. Dr Evans taught us many new and interesting facts and figures throughout the lecture. We were given information on temperature, heat, hot/cold spots in the Universe and the reactions caused by temperature. Our lecture included a lot of practicals involving liquid nitrogen. Did you know that it is physically impossible to reach a temperature of -273 degrees and that scientists use the temperature measurement Kelvin instead of degrees Celsius? After we had our ten minute lunch break, it was time for our next lecture on ‘Health and Nutrition’. We were taught how fitness affects your health and how much sugar is in certain products. The lecture was based around 10 experiments which included an explanation of the substantial amount of calories in some of Britain’s favourite food like jacket potatoes, coke, burgers and chocolate. It was very interesting and we all learnt a lot of fascinating and useful information. In my opinion, I really enjoyed the experience. If you have the chance of going, I would recommend it. Rohan Minhas, 7A.