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Tuesday
23 October 2001
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| Local
children gravitate towards Newton |
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| Maths
was brought to life today for 1500 Northern Ireland
children, who are now planning to become the scientists
of the future. The Southern Education & Library
Board (SELB) has been hosting a weeklong event involving
a real life Isaac Newton at the planetarium in Armagh.
Children from Newry, Armagh, Dungannon and Lurgan arrived
to join in with Peter Joyce, an actor from England who
transforms himself in to Sir Isaac Newton, dressing,
talking and telling stories of his discoveries and day-to-day
life as it was in the 16th century. |
| Isaac
Newton, most famous for his discovery of gravity when
an apple from a tree dropped on his head, got the first
year students actively involved through out the day
and finished off with the children designing and producing
a rocket. The hand made rockets were then launched in
to the sky with the assistance of a water launcher,
situated in the planetarium grounds. |
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| Esther
Ross, SELB Advisor for Mathematics is in no doubt about the
success of such an active way of teaching maths to young students,
"We have children from all academic levels here today
and they have all participated, understood and most importantly
enjoyed Isaac Newtown. Our aim is to bring the whole concept
of maths to life and highlight the fact that real people with
real lives invented many of the mathematical concepts we take
for granted today. Of course Sir Isaac Newton being most famous
for his discovery of gravity is the ideal candidate to talk
to the children and explain things in a practical and interesting
way."
Peter Joyce, alias Isaac Newton has researched his character
thoroughly and in fact lives in a house that Sir Isaac actually
lived in many years ago. "I love coming to northern Ireland
to talk to the children and participate with them in such
an active way. I travel all over England and Scotland as Newton
and believe that this form of role-play is an extremely useful
tool for helping children with their studies and learning
about fairly serious issues while having some fun."
This is the second year, the SELB have invited Sir Isaac Newton
along to participate in such an event and has again proved
to be well received by both teachers and children in the local
area. |
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