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Posted on January 3rd 2018
Cambridge Trip
At the end of December, a group of Year 11s and 12s, along with a Senior Perfect from Year 13 and Ms Arif, went to Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. We went there to list to a lecture by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the discoverer of pulsars. Pulsars are extremely dense neutron stars that release radiation. Although we didn't understand all of the physics, we had an awesome time and tried to understand as much as we could. Dame Bell Burnell is a vocal about promoting women's recognition in male dominated jobs. For example, she didn't receive the Nobel prize for her discovery but her male supervisor did. She is really keen to make that change and make females recognized in the work industry, specifically around science careers. For that reason she is part of a group of women who have set up the Athena Awards. Universities have to show they are women-friendly in order to get the Award, which has attached funding.
After the lecture we meet some undergraduate students who currently study Natural Sciences. They answered our questions about what Cambridge is like and how they couldn't believe it when they received their offers. We were left with motivational advice to at least apply because you may just be accepted.
It was an honour to be invited to the lecture however it wasn't the only fun part. After eating our post-lecture dinner, we went outside and it had been snowing. The snow was beautiful and although freezing we still went out and played with it. After all there is a saying that we are all children at heart. It was settling on the ground beautifully, unlike here in London, and we even made some snowballs. Finally exhausted yet content we made our way back. The coach journeys were exhausting and some of us even fell asleep during the ride home. Needless to say it was totally worth it and even though we came back quite late, I'm sure all of us would happily do it all over again.
Amber and Hana, Year 11