Andrew Hanson from NPL lights up Siena Society

On Thursday, 10^th May, the Siena Society was treated to a dazzling lecture on the Nature of Colour by Dr Andrew Hanson from the National Physical Laboratory in nearby Teddington.

He introduced his talk by explaining with great energy and expertise how our eyes interpret colour and that images are created by the way our eyes respond to lights within a spectrum. Our eyes can only perceive a limited spectrum of colours. At one extreme, ultraviolet light would destroy the biology of our eyes and so we are prevented naturally from seeing it. At the other (infra-red) end of the spectrum, the light is simply not powerful enough to excite our eyes into action!

In addressing the question: what are complimentary colours? Andrew illustrated the answer very cleverly. He got us to stare at a union jack made up of Cyan, Yellow and Black. After we had stared at the image for about 30 seconds, the image was removed but to our amazement an image remained etched on our retinas. But the image was in red, blue and white!! It seems that there are 3 ‘additive’ colours: Red, Green and Blue which essentially add light to create a whole range of other colours. (TVs use these 3 colours). The true complimentary , ‘subtractive’ colours which take light away, are Cyan (-Red), Magenta (-Green) and Yellow (-Blue) which are used by artists and ink-jet printers. What was particularly interesting about this was that it would of course be prohibitively expensive for a printer to achieve a pure black from these 3 colours which is why our printers have a separate, fourth colour-off-black.

Andrew Hanson spoke with huge enthusiasm about many other fascinating facts about colour and addressed the tricky question of whether what I perceive as being blue is what you perceive as blue with great dexterity... and I would highly recommend a look at a short video of Dr Hanson lecturing on the Craziness of Colour at http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxTeddington-Andrew-Hanson-Co

What will studying at a Russell Group university really be like?

As part of the Extended Project Qualification Programme and general Sixth Form Studies, Chris Fuller from the University of Southampton’s “Learning With Us” Programme visited St Catherine’s to give  our Year 12 and 13 students a taste of what will be expected of them should they go on to study at a Russell Group University. 

The girls discovered that the days of having learning handed to them on a plate will be well and truly over once they get to a university like Southampton, where the emphasis is quite different from school: it is less about lecturing and teaching and much more about cutting edge research intensive learning.

Chris Fuller began by literally throwing our girls in at the deep end with a fascinating lecture entitled “The Only Game in Town?” Unmanned Drones in US Counterterrorism and Wider Foreign Policy.

Although the students were initially rather daunted, thanks to Chris’ totally engrossing style and delivery, impressive use of a power point presentation of maps, charts and video clips (plus the novelty factor of each girl having her own hand held voting device!) – the lecture quickly became very interactive with the girls being invited to cast their vote on different key issues thrown up as the talk progressed.

An informal seminar followed the lecture - mimicking what would happen at university - where Chris handed over the floor to the girls to debate whether or not the US, having declared “War on Terrorism” had “just cause” and whether the use of proactive military force such as unmanned drones designed to kill leading members of al-Qaeda were, in fact, effective, legal or, ultimately, moral.  The argument between torture, killing and legal methods is a precarious one and it was fascinating to see how the girls battled to formulate an argument for or against the different aspects of the matter under discussion.

The topic was then made startlingly relevant when, the very next morning, the issue of America’s use of unmanned drones was on the BBC News – providing a clear evidence of how academic study relates to real world events.

The final element of the session provided valuable advice to those students who will be beginning to research and write their EPQ paper over the summer to makes sure they “explode” the terms of their proposed titles so that they are not impossibly wide and also to use as many primary sources as possible. 

All in all, it was a highly informative and interesting series of talks which will have given the girls an invaluable taste of the exciting and different challenges that lie ahead for them in Higher Education.

Mrs J Bailey

Director, Gifted and Talented Programme

Sixth Form Open Evening- tonight!

Doors open at 6.15pm this evening. All are very welcome to come along. There will be presentations by the Headmistress and Head of Sixth Form and tours of the school which will provide opportunities to meet various Heads of Department to discuss A level options.
Refreshments will also be available.