STEAM Trip

In the last week of term 3 and 15 students and three staff embarked on an amazing trip to Orlando Florida for a STEAM based tour. We started off with a free day to explore Universal Studios and we all enjoyed finding our way around the theme park such as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Seus Landing, and going on lots of rides such as Revenge of the Mummy, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

and the VelociCoaster. 

When we returned to Universal Studios we also took part in some education sessions with our lovely teacher Ana, who had even researched GEC before we arrived! We looked at the engineering principles of the Six Degrees of Freedom, the physics that go into creating an exciting ride and the wide variety of different job opportunities at the theme park.

We spent two days at the Kennedy Space Centre, and it was amazing to see the Saturn Five rocket and take a tour seeing launch sites and the huge NASA building. There was plenty to explore and lots of hands on activities. We were lucky enough to participate in a chat with an Astronaut, where we met John Fabian, who went on 2 space missions in the 1980s and shared his experiences of being in space as well as answering all our questions. 

On our second day at the Kennedy Space Centre we participated in the Astronaut Training Experience, where we undertook a range of simulated tasks that we would do if we were really astronauts! This included a walk on Mars via VR headset, a trip in a simulated rover, where we flipped over 360 degrees as we landed on the surface of Mars, and a take off and landing, with everyone taking on different roles, which was quite stressful! We also had time to explore the main exhibits such as the actual Atlantis rocket and the computers used by NASA for the moon landing.

At Full Sail University we went on a fascinating tour of the campus, seeing their back lot of facades used for student films to the collection of Grammys and Oscars won by former students. Students spent a day learning how to make 2D games using Game Maker. Students also learnt about building games using Unreal and put their own creative spin on their games.

We were also lucky enough to go to Disney World, spending a day at Hollywood Studios and a day at Magic Kingdom. Students learnt about the physics of Disney parks, created their own theme park and of course, got to enjoy lots of rides! 

We finished the trip off with a session at iFly, where we got to experience indoor skydiving and calculated our terminal velocity.

A big thank you to all the students who went on the trip for their exemplary behaviour, to Mrs Kindler and Mr Siriamphone for an amazing trip, and Mr Hamer-Smith for all his work organizing the trip.

Penny Marks

Office Administration