Year 9 scientists have been having a smashing time doing some destruction testing in a study of materials science!

Taking real world construction as their inspiration, the students created cast concrete slabs, some of which used paperclips to model large scale reinforcing steel bars.

Testing took place by hanging weights of increasing mass from each slab as it was suspended in a frame. The quality of the material was such that quite a few of the slabs made it through unscathed as the students ran out of weights!

Some of them did fail quite spectacularly and even under the controlled conditions gave everyone cause to jump!