Treetops A Montessori and International Baccalaureate School Overnight Stay at Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre Our Upper Primary students recently experienced all that the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre has to offer, by staying there overnight and exploring the night sky.
The bus ride from Darlington to Gingin takes over an hour but it was worth it with the level of excitement from students once the ‘Welcome to Gingin’ sign came into view, as well as the Discovery Centre’s infamous ‘leaning tower of Gingin’ which the Karri class would later climb to the top of. Students and staff were guided around the Centre by Mitch the Astronomer, who explained how the displays work, introduced them to the telescopes that they would be using that evening,
and gave students the opportunity to go inside the pretend space shuttle which simulated g-force – this is what astronauts use for preparing to go into space. Later in the afternoon, Karri class headed off to the tower they had spotted through the bus windows, in order to test the laws of gravity by dropping water balloons from the 45m height. The water balloons were different sizes and some students predicted that the bigger balloon would fall faster than the smaller. However, students discovered this was not the case when Mitch dropped both balloons at the same time and they
August 2022 – Darlington Review
landed together, consistent with Galileo’s theory that time of descent is independent of mass, meaning that objects will fall at the same acceleration. Following exploration of the exhibits and a presentation on light pollution and our Solar System, it was finally dark enough for students to head outside and use the telescopes. They were lucky to have a lovely clear night so that they could see lots of celestial bodies, including the Jewel Box cluster and the Proxima
Centauri star. They also got to see a close-up of the moon which was amazingly bright! After a day of wonderment, they were all eager to climb into their sleeping bags and go to sleep - but there was still more to see the next morning! Students and staff were out of bed early to witness Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn aligning across the pre-dawn sky, which Mitch showed them with his laser. After packing up their gear, the Karri class stopped by the gift shop to buy a souvenir coin for their classroom, then boarded the bus to head back to school. What an adventure!
49