WHO said that girls are not interested in science? That old theory was disproved by Walshaw Girls' High School, Burnley, during their recent Industry Day for year nine students. Joanne Glover, a pupil who took part in the event, has sent us her own account of a day to remember, and Helen McCabe reviews a "learn as you play" CD Rom.

WALSHAW High School's Action in Science and Industry Day was a great success.

Not only was it an excellent new learning experience but it was also interesting, sometimes amusing and a very enjoyable day.

The event consisted of a series of presentations performed by people who gave up their time to produce such a special day for us.

I can say, on behalf of all my year, that it was a day we won't forget in a hurry.

My personal favourite show was the "hot air" demonstration. We were shocked and delighted to discover just how much air was in marshmallows. They blew up to the size of a tennis ball and really whetted my appetite.

Another impressive fun event was one where a poodle-shaped balloon was put in liquid nitrogen. When it came out it was a shrivelled balloon, but "magically" as it warmed up again the "cold dog" returned to its original state. I know many of my friends were intrigued by the "blow up" planetarium. We saw a virtual reality night sky in our school hall during daylight.

Now we also know the secret of how to cover up our trail, if we decided to commit a crime, thanks to Jackie Newman, Lancashire Constabulary scenes of crime officer.

The grand finale was when Mr John Kinsman and Mr Alan Goodwin, from the Royal Chemistry Society, performed some dangerous and inexplicable reactions, one of which even baffled our science teachers.

Thank you to all who gave us such a treat and an innovative day of science experiences.

Pinball's wizard

Pinball Science, by David Mcaulay, Dorling Kindersley Multimedia CD Rom, Price £24.99

PINBALL Science's animation is like a well drawn cartoon, including mammoths which tell you if your answers are correct.

Its idea is rather strange, the crux of it being that a professor is stuck in orbit and cannot be rescued until his "Great Works," or large pinball machines (in a village, on an island and on the moon) are repaired.

The repairs are done by collecting components shown on a blueprint. For each component you have to answer three questions, such as what is the earliest known explosive? Information is provided which you can use to research the answer.

The answers are not hidden, usually appearing in red type, and there isn't a penalty for a wrong answer. Every time you collect a component you are told what it does and how it works in the game. There is also a bonus question to make it work better.

Once the machine is constructed, you play pinball until, for example in the village you launch the balloon. A difficulty of the game is that you have to successfully complete one level to reach the next and you cannot skip a level if you have previously completed it. I think this because it was quite easy to win the first level of pinball, but we spent ages on the island without completing it.

The disk jacket says this game is directed at 9-14 year olds and I think that the lower end of this range would really enjoy this game. It does teach you quite a lot about physics. However, if you were younger than me you might need to read more of the writing to work out the answers.

Overall, the idea of making physics fun and easier to understand was a good one, as was the building of the pinball machine and the free subscription to the online magazine, comes as a bonus with this programme.

HELEN McCABE

They're all good sports

THEY think it's all over - not you know what, but we do have winners of our NIE competition to write either a match report of any school sports event, or a letter in praise of your favourite footballer.

Pupils from St Wilfrid's CE High School, Blackburn, swept the board in both sections, winning four of the five prizes awarded, with the fifth winner from Nelson.

The best match report, on a game of rounders, was submitted by Phillippa Thirkettle, of St Wilfrid's.

The letter writing winners were Valencia Chambers, Ryan McMurray and Andrew Holden, again all from St Wilfrid's, and Imran Hanif from Nelson.

All prizewinners receive a copy of The Ultimate Football book by sports writer Ivor Baddiel, published by Dorling Kindersley and including a World Cup wall chart. In addition, Valencia gets a copy of the FIFA World Cup super stars booklet for producing the best written sentence in her letter.

Hectic day at school

THE "Meadowhead Mayhem" was one of the six newspapers created in a day of hectic activity by pupils in a Blackburn school as part of their NIE project.

Children in year five at Meadowhead Junior School were set the challenge of finding news reports, information and advertisements from copies of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and using these to create their own newspaper pages by a set deadline.

Class teacher Heather Gilbert, with some along with many of her pupils, decided that their day as journalists was not as easy as they expected it to be, but that their hard work had been worthwhile and the event had been great fun.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.