C
arbon footprints. What do these words mean to you?
It could trigger the words ‘global warming’ or ‘climate
change’ in your head, or generate images of whirling wind
turbines and shiny solar panels.
In March this year we took part in the National Science and
Engineering Competition held at the NEC in Birmingham with
our project on carbon footprints. Your carbon footprint is the
amount of carbon dioxide, CO
2
, that you release into the
atmosphere by carrying out daily activities, from eating a
banana (which, by the way, has a footprint of roughly 80g
of carbon dioxide, CO
2
), to taking a shower. Imagine three
party balloons filled with carbon dioxide: this is the same
amount you are releasing every time you eat
one banana! Carbon dioxide emissions have
a significant effect on our Earth - hence the
term ‘footprint’ - by contributing to global
warming. They add to the greenhouse
effect, the trapping of the sun’s heat in our
atmosphere. Excessive amounts of this results
in climate change, which is why it is important
to reduce our CO
2
emissions.
‘So how can I help?’ you may wonder. That is
exactly what we thought, and so we decided
to find out exactly how much of an impact
we were making by calculating the carbon
footprint of a girl coming to WGGS. By working this out, we
could reduce our emissions by being able to set ourselves
targets and tackling the areas which contribute the most
carbon dioxide. We looked at how everyone travels, what
we eat for our packed lunch and our energy consumption.
We began our project by conducting a sample survey, and
found that almost the same number of people walked to
school as those who drove! However, those who travelled by
car had significantly higher footprints (as walking emitted no
carbon dioxide at all!). Perhaps we should consider making
more of our journeys on foot.
The finding that surprised us the most was that the majority
of our footprint by coming to school was caused by our food
and this was only from lunch. Imagine if we had factored
in our other meals too! A diet rich in meat had the greatest
footprint, followed by a pescatarian diet, then a vegetarian
one and finally vegan. Astoundingly, the difference between
a meat and a vegan diet is 74g or CO
2
per meal. Perhaps
we could vary our diets to include less animal and more
locally sourced products. It may not seem like much, but over
a whole year 1300 schoolgirls could make a tremendous
positive impact!
Our finished project included an eco-friendly model of our
school (complete with a spinning wind turbine), a video clip on
the supply chain of our food, a ‘Guess your Carbon Footprint’
game, and an interactive questionnaire, all of which were
presented to an esteemed panel of scientists. We arrived on
Tuesday evening to set up our stall, connected
the wires on our model and had a final
practice before presenting to the public and
the judges on the following two days. As the
competition was held at the Big Bang Science
Fair. We had plenty of opportunities to take
part in other activities around the exhibition
hall. These included a live operation theatre
workshop where we helped perform surgery
on animal organs, attempting to be television
presenters at the BBC dome, finding out how
our gas comes to us from the National Grid
and watching a show by Stefan Gates – who
we also happened to see tucking into hash
browns at breakfast. We learnt so much from these activities,
and from visiting the stands of other contestants, opening up
our minds to how Science is present in all aspects of our lives.
Our experience was concluded with the awards ceremony,
which took place on Thursday evening. This was a lively event
where we heard from a number of scientists from various
organisations, talking about their specialist subjects. When
they finally announced that we had won the Junior Science
and Maths Prize, we could not quite believe what we heard
(and to be honest, we still cannot!). Although it marked the
end of our time at the Science Fair, it certainly did not mark
the end of carbon footprints, for we still need to continue
reducing our emissions!
I
n October half term a group of 19 A-level physicists and
3 teachers travelled to Geneva, Switzerland for a visit to
the CERN facility.
After an early morning flight and a short train ride, we
arrived at our hotel in the centre of Geneva. From here we
went straight to the United Nations building for a guided
tour. This building has been the centre of major international
negotiations since the 1930s. In the evening we had a delicious
dinner and then split up to wander through Geneva’s historic
districts. We saw fascinating sights such as the flower clock
(largest second hand in the world), the longest bench in the
world and the Reformation Wall, possibly the longest wall in
Geneva.
On Saturday, we ventured out to the CERN facility itself. This
is the premier site of Physics research in the world, involving
12,000 scientists from over 100 countries. It is the home of
the Large Hadron Collider which is a 27km long tube running
beneath the Swiss Alps and crossing into France for some of
its length. The LHC is a particle accelerator with the goal
of creating conditions similar to that at the beginning of the
Universe. Protons are injected into the ring, accelerated to
very nearly the speed of light, then smashed into each other
creating an explosion of new particles and energy which can
be detected and analysed by the scientists working there.
The most recent big discovery was the confirmation of the
existence of the Higgs Boson which will enable scientists to
begin to understand where mass comes from. CERN has been
at the forefront of research since the end of World War II. It
brought together scientists from around the world in the spirit
of cooperation and mutual learning. It has given us many
advances that we take for granted such as the World Wide
Web and other more exotic things such as anti-matter and
Z-Bosons.
On our tour of the site, we saw gigantic magnets cooled with
liquid helium, bubble chambers and other detectors. We
visited the CERN canteen to have lunch amongst the working
scientists and followed that with a visit to the CERN museum
which documents the long history of the site.
On our final day we wandered around Lake Geneva,
marvelling at the beautiful buildings belonging to high end
fashion chains and watch manufacturers. We made sure to
visit some of the many amazing chocolate shops and load our
bags with sugary goodness for the journey home.
The CERN trip is a brilliant experience for students interested
in science and engineering. It shows how scientific methods
are practised in the real world and gives the students the
opportunity to feel what it would be like to work at the
cutting edge of science. The chocolate is great too.
Mr A Whalley
CERN 2015
The Chemistry Department is extremely proud of these amazing achievements, as well as those
of all the girls who have represented the school at other events. Please feel free to speak to the
Department if you are interested in finding out more or getting involved in these types of activities
in the future!
17
16
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
Anisha Mehta 10A and Maya Harji 10A
STUDENT REPORT
STAFF REPORT
