After that, we went to the planetarium, where we learned useful information about stars and planets, for example, how to see Orion’s belt.

The shop was great. They sold telescopes, pencils, pens, rubbers, notepads, posters and other items.

I really enjoyed this trip and learned quite a lot - I would love to go back there again!

Bénédicte Cooke

Here is another account of the trip
On Wednesday 8 February the U3 went on an interesting visit to the Birmingham science museum, known as Thinktank. The journey was quite long, but we still managed to have fun chatting to all our friends on the coach.

We arrived at the huge building full of energy.  We all had very high expectations because a few people had been there before and couldn’t stop talking about how incredible it was.

We walked around the museum in groups.  There were various hands-on activities including an IMAX theatre and an amazing display of stars in the planetarium, where we settled down to watch the show. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the night sky appeared on the ceiling showing lots of stars and planets like Mars. A yellow tinge showed the pollution from a city. We were then transported to the countryside, where the sky was astonishingly clear and many more stars shone. The way the show was constructed was extremely clever, as it was full of information and incredible visions. We were bombarded with fascinating facts and shown extraordinary discoveries. Shooting stars, planets, star signs, star constellations and rockets - you name it, we saw it!

Our favourite part of the museum was learning about animals. There was a section which showed you how a polar bear keeps warm and how its body is adapted to the cold. There were also three different types of animal skulls and you had to decide from the evidence whether or not they were nocturnal. We also enjoyed learning about all the various materials you find in a house. There was a cross section of a house showing all of the different materials used.

We thoroughly enjoyed going to Thinktank. Going with the school was a really fun experience, even for those who’d already been. At the end the only question we had to ask was…Can we go again?

by Frankie Moss-Lawton, Rebecca Muress, Hannah Naquib and Alice Stevenson

Click here to see more photos: http://www.kingsleygallery.co.uk/index_files/thinktank.htm