‘Space exploration. Is the money spent on such projects justified?’ was the focus a science soirée organised by San Andrea senior school’s Science and Technology Department.

The event included interactive experiments and fun science-related activities carried out in the chemistry, physics, biology and general science labs that are not included in the school’s or the national curricula, thus exposing students to different aspects of science.

These included parabolic motion, electrostatics, alternative energy and circuits, carbon dioxide, heat transfer related experiments, and human anatomy and interactive quizzes, the importance of oxygen and hydrogen generation and testing, magic drinks and changing copper coins into silver and gold, plant life functions, investigating the energy content of various foods and cheeselet-making.

In the computing lab, students presented Boolean logic gates, circuits, Java programmes based on space and other activities, interactive websites dealing with space telescopes and NASA exploration and graphics.

Also on show was a scale model of the Rosetta space craft, with information boards and presentations on this mission as well as the Hubble space telescope and space spinoffs that people benefit from in everyday life.