General Chat:

[PaintedDiary]

Published: 20th June 2007
Macclesfield Express News, England

Students’ Poetry Bounced Off The Moon



Martin Bluck, Sascha Gilmour, Maire Robinson and Philippa Michell read the poems which were bounced off the moon as radio signals from Jodrell Bank.

Martin Bluck, Sascha Gilmour, Maire Robinson and Philippa Michell read the poems which were bounced off the moon as radio signals from Jodrell Bank

SAY Cheese! Starry-eyed kids thought lessons were out of this world when their poems were ‘bounced’ off the surface of the moon.

As the lunar lines rocketed skyward youngsters were over the moon as they created literary history by sending verses nearly 238,857 miles into space and back. Excited pupil Sascha Gilmour, nine, who saw her poem beamed up, said: "It was a once in a lifetime experience."

Chelford Primary was among a constellation of schools taking part in workshops to create space age verses.
Groups worked with astronomers and experts in speech and drama to compose and perform poems inspired by the idea of moonbounce.

And a lucky few were invited back to read out their poems which were beamed up to the moon, bounced off its surface and their echoes picked up by the Lovell Telescope 2.5 seconds later. Nine-year-old Martin Bluck and Philippa Michell, ten, also saw their words travel to the moon and heard their echoes.

Philippa said: "It was something I was really looking forward to and it was amazing."
Tim O’Brien, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, said: "This happens through a process called moonbounce which occurs by sending radio signals to the moon and detecting their echo when they return to earth two-and-a-half seconds later."

Pupil Maire Robinson, 11, who also took part in the workshop, added: "It was very exciting because you wouldn’t think that sending poems to the moon would be possible."

Headteacher at Chelford School, Alison Scott said: "They can’t wait to visit Jodrell Bank again. All wrote really good poems, and they were very different. It was so exciting and a day they will never forget.

"As they finished reading one line, they could hear the line coming back to them."
The ‘moonbounced’ poems will now be displayed in school and on the Jodrell Bank website.

She added: "I’m really proud that our children were chosen to take part in such a wonderful event."
The Hot Spot, Jodrell Bank’s new summer pavilion, hosted last weekend’s First Move literary festival which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first time the Lovell Telescope moved under power.

It also featured authors Alan Garner, Jeannette Winterson, Jed Mercurio and a host of Jodrell Bank astronomers.
The telescope, named after its creator Sir Bernard Lovell who turns 94 in August, has helped scientists monitor the heavens since 1957.

First published by the Macclesfield Express

[zaac]

only u pd...only u lol

[PaintedDiary]

The Following Text Is Quoted:

Originally Posted by zaac

only u pd...only u lol

LOL Thought you would say somethin like that...

PD