Many golden efforts by budding physicists

The Physics Olympics, now in its second year, was organised by Chorley’s Albany Academy in partnership with the Ogden Trust and brought together students from high schools to compete in a series of physics based challenges.

Youngsters spent the day using their skills to complete a range of activities testing their knowledge in a practical way.

The events were designed to be fun and engaging, but with a strong link to physics.

Among the activities on offer were Jelly Baby Towers, which saw students having to build as large a tower as possible using only jelly babies, and pasta and balloon powered cars, where students had to make cars travel the furthest distance.

The vehicles were created out of card, plastic wheels, sticky tape and imagination.

Head of the science faculty at Albany, Natasha Fox, said: “It has been fantastic to see the students so enthused about physics topics and competing in a friendly way.

“All students excelled and it was a pleasure to see four from Albany winning the overall trophy and first place in the Fermi Quiz.”

The competition was open to schools from across Chorley and South Ribble who are part of the Ogden Trust, a charity set up specifically to promote the teaching and learning of physics.

It also addresses the shortage of physics teachers in the UK by funding programmes that encourage young graduates and career changers to go into teaching.

Others schools which took part in the Physics Olympics included Chorley St Michael’s CE High, Hutton Grammar School, Croston Bishop Rawstorne, Holy Cross Catholic High and Balshaw’s CE High in Leyland.