On the 20th and the 21st of April, S2’s were extremely lucky to get a visit from the Army, Specifically, some members of the Army’s STEM team. Corporal Gary McGlynn and Corporal William Milligan-Manby came to the school to allow the pupils take part in a day of hands-on activities with ‘Operation Rocket Car’.

The day started off with a really informative presentation from Cpl. Gary and Cpl. William on what the STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering and Maths) team do as well as all the career paths the army has with regards to STEM subjects.

After some eye opening information about the Army and the huge array of careers they can offer the day got even more interesting. The kids had a small session about the evolution of ‘the racing car’ learning important tid-bits of information about shape and weight and their relationship with speed. The children were then tasked with making small cars, with the use of a basic template, foam blocks, and a handful of basic tools, that would be powered by a rocket to see who could get their car to go the fastest.

This really was an exciting experience for the children and one that had EVERY ONE of them engrossed in the task at hand. It would be appropriate to say that the S2’s are a competitive bunch!

The children had to use the information they had gained from the previous presentation to ‘fine tune’ their little foam blocks into the fastest land machines they could create.

Once the cars were ready and had wheels attached, they were weighed to see if the weight had any relevance to how fast the cars could go. The teams all predicted who would be first, second, third and so on using the weight and shape as a contributing factor.

Once the weighing and predicting was complete, we all headed outside. The cars were then attached to a wire so they didn't shoot off in the wrong direction! We were given a safety talk, then one by one the rockets were placed in to the cars, wired up to a button, and one person from each team was designated ‘Button Pusher’. The kids were surprised by the speed and noise from the rockets and their competitive spirits were on full show as each button was pushed.

Each car passed a sensor that indicated what speed it travelled at, and the speeds were recorded by Cpl. Gary or Cpl. Will. Once we were all back inside, speeds were shown on the board to determine which team got the fastest.

Over the 2 days, some great speeds were recorded, The winning clan was Lomond who recorded a lightning speed of 59mph. Alder were the second fastest clan with 57mph and Nevis were 3rd fastest with 52mph.

The children were an absolute delight and really made Lochgilphead Joint Campus proud with their impeccable behaviour and perfect manners. A really good day was had by all and we look forward to welcoming the STEM team back!