Quick Dips

Physics/Astronomy School

Over 100 students attending Canterbury University's 5th Winter School in Physics and Astronomy got a chance to quiz New Zealand physicists and the country's science minister, Simon Upton, about the prospects for science and technology in the 21st century. The far ranging discussion covered everything from current moves in the science curriculum to possible areas of major importance in the next century.

One of the organisers, Dr John Hearnshaw, said that the school gave brighter pupils a foretaste of the intellectual stimulation they will encounter at university.

"New Zealand is actually doing very little for the abler students," he said. "I think they need stimulation, and that's what the Winter School is all about -- not knowledge, but about stimulating their interests."

The students had a chance to demonstrate their grasp of practical physics. One of the workshops involved tying an egg to the end of a bungy cord and calculating the correct length to drop the egg just above the nose of the student lying one-storey below. On a more serious note, course lectures involved everything from cosmology to nuclear physics, teamed up with visits to the National Radiation Laboratory and the Birdlings Flat Upper Atmosphere Physics Research Station.