Luke

We had a busy evening last night and again this morning at school with the opening of their new science centre. To mark the formal opening of the new facility, the school hosted two NASA astronauts who together with a team of scientists organised by the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) ran a week-long ‘Mission Discovery’ course.  Mission Discovery involved young people from a range of local schools, not just Thomas' school, to work together in teams to devise an experiment which will eventually be flown and tested on the International Space Station. 

Last night we were invited to watch the 6 final teams who had made the shortlist. While the scientific explanations went way over my head, I was very impressed with the presentations and the confidence and knowledge with which the young people delivered them. The winning team's project will now be taken up by Kings College London University and next spring it will actually be flown into space on their next mission - how cool is that?!

This morning we were led by the prefects on organised tours through the new facilities (We deliberately did not go in Thomas' group). This was followed by a presentation from the two astronauts, who between them have flown 9 missions into space. It was so interesting and told with such humour too. It has been such a memorable experience for the school.

We finally got home at lunch time. Luke arrived home last night from university for the Easter holidays (holiday?... he will be working on his dissertation all holiday!) and so he had to be my blip today, as it was his 23rd birthday on Wednesday and I always like to take a birthday photo each year.