Here’s S5 pupil Michael Smith’s report on a recent, very successful science endeavour. I recently took a trip over to the University of the West of Scotland - joined by fellow pupils Lyle MacDonald, Jack Murdoch and Sam Templeton, and by Mrs. Scott of Largs Academy’s Physics Department - to compete in the final round of a three-round physics and general knowledge quiz, organised by the WoSPEG (the West of Scotland Physics Education Group.)
Upon arriving for the first round, we got to see some cool experiments involving levitating magnets and liquid nitrogen, and we each got free refreshments and a WoSPEG mug for taking part, reading “I ❤ physics” (the mug, not the refreshments).
After watching some cool physics stuff, we were abruptly plunged into an intense test of knowledge and reflexes which pitted us against three other schools: Boclair Academy, Bearsden; Larbert High School, Falkirk; and Shawlands Academy, Glasgow. And of course, it goes without saying that we smashed the other teams by… a single point. Alright, maybe not quite smashed. In fact, the score by the end was so close that there were actually two teams tied in second place, so after they did the sudden death question - the answer to which was an admitted lucky guess - we ended up tied in first place, along with Larbert. Since we got there without the extra question, however, I’m comfortable enough saying we won.
The competition consisted of a number of rounds, starting with an intense general knowledge buzzer round - which was, in retrospect, a very fortuitous way to start, as it yanked me out my state of sleep deprivation in a way that no caffeinated beverage ever could. Following that, we had a combination of buzzer and individual question rounds. These were mostly physics-based, with the occasional peppering of general knowledge and current affairs. We did pretty well in every round, with the exception of the anagram round.
Anyway, anagrams aside, we managed to win, taking us to the semi-final round against St. Columba’s, Kilmacolm, and Renfrew High School, Renfrew. In this round, far more smashing took place, and this was proper, serious smashing; we managed to win by a margin of sixteen points! Even the dreaded anagram round was no cause for concern - I managed to answer all but one, and I was only beaten to that one by a fraction of a second by my own teammate, getting us the point anyway.
So that brought us to the final round. Sadly, this round wasn’t a victory for us (so we didn’t get the awesome trophy that looks like a moon lander). A lot of the questions in this round were considerably trickier; and I’ll also personally admit to the moronic mistake of confusing an image of salt crystals with an image of ice cubes. Apparently the words “400 nanometers” meant nothing for me for a just brief moment. In the end, the winning team was Dunblane High School.
Still, this was the first time Largs has even reached the final round. Ever. And the score by the end was exceedingly close. There were two teams in joint first place, putting us in joint second - but then the tiebreaker for first place bumped the second place teams down to joint third. Overall, this was a very good outcome (and it did still yield us, in lieu of a fancy moon lander thing, some Amazon voucher currency and nice runner-up certificates).
I would like to thank Mrs. Scott and WoSPEG for giving us the opportunity to take part. I also congratulate Lyle, Jack and Sam for their exceptionally excellent question-answering - and of course, Dunblane, for their arguably slightly more exceptionally excellent question-answering. I hope they bestow utmost respect upon that moon lander thing, because it’s so really very cool.