THE science department at Benjamin Britten High School, in Lowestoft, has had a busy couple of weeks.It held a rocket day and were joined by students from Lothingland Middle School to compete in a series of challenges.

THE science department at Benjamin Britten High School, in Lowestoft, has had a busy couple of weeks.

It held a rocket day and were joined by students from Lothingland Middle School to compete in a series of challenges.

They looked at the basic principles of flight along with designing a time delay motor for rockets and the the teams built their own water rocket before launching them. All teams went away with a certificate presented by high school head teacher Trevor Osborne with the winning team of Luke Canham, Omar Hassan (Lothingland) and Curtis Shape (Benjamin Britten) won a limited edition t-shirt.

Benjamin Britten also competed in the practical events of the science Olympiad at UEA, Norwich. The team comprised of Myles Cooper, Rachel Smith, Alex Heard, Charlotte Godbold, Jessica Hughes, Juliette Hughes, Tim Prior, Ricky Edwards, Rosie Warnes, James Cartlidge and Tom English. They had to undertake a series of challenges mainly centred on the theme of space as it was to mark the year of astronomy. During the day a lecture by Dr Robin Catchpole, on modern astronomy was attended.

The final of the year nine top class quiz was also held at UEA. The high school team had to face Wymondham High School in 10 interactive science rounds. The challenges involved playing noughts and crosses with a science theme, to pointing to various parts of a pig's anatomy. The team narrowly missed out but came away with silver medals and consisted of Claire Scrivener, Rachel Smith, Connell Parr, Myles Cooper, Will Cone, Morgan Jones, Michael Hone, Lily Foster, Celine Brent, Chris Smith, Simon Cross, Tyler Rumsey, Antony Dinsdale, Ben Irwin, Charlotte Godbold, Alex Heard, Claude Painter-Wain, Peggy Wong, Adele Deady, Charlie Beech and Robbie Lugo.