Category Archives: Year 6

The Spherisect, a bio-luminescent inhabitant of the rust-coloured planet – Mars – lives a placid, timid life as the most intelligent specimen on the planet. Although it is not fully identified to the human race, scientists are intrigued by its many impressive qualities: it may reveal vital evidence that could enable humans to survive independently on the red planet.

This diurnal extra-terrestrial has a translucent exo-skeleton that secretes luminous light as it ventures into Mars’ darkest crevices. Adapting to the harsh climate, the Spherisect has fascinatingly programmed its skeletal wings to cover and wrap around its spherical body according to the temperature.

Because of its miniscule size and extreme civility, it does not hunt: it absorbs nutrition through its wings by settling inside dew droplets and rain. Although this microscopic insect cannot easily be seen by humans, sensational receptors on Mars’ predators can find the seldom seen Spherisect. Surprisingly for such a harmless looking creature, the Spherisect has its own methods that warn predators: it blinds the despicable beasts of Mars with its rounded body, which is known to glow as bright as the sun. Despite the Spherisect’s many hunters, it is almost impossible to make them extinct: their continuous cell-division cycle will only be complete when the sun dies as Spherisects need the sun to keep their reproduction process healthy.

Probably the most peculiar creature ever known is the Six-winged Terror! All scientists who have learnt about this stunning animal have brought mankind one step closer to actually going to Mars. These mysterious creatures live deep down a trench called Hanzdie. And, in Hanzdie, there are many forests including Itamie, a small forest where Six-winged Terrors live.

These fierce creatures are solitary and the only thing stopping you becoming its lunch are its eyes. Six-winged Terrors have huge eyes but are clearly visible to the naked eye. These beasts have eyes like snakes which means it sees temperatures of other animals. Six-winged Terrors have black markings around their eyes which absorb the sun’s glare.

On their feet, they have special grips which allow them to gracefully glide around trees but, if you get a closer inspection, you’ll see on its back feet it has feet dedicated to rocks and sand.

Six-winged Terrors have extremely sharp beaks mainly for one reason and that is during summer, they leave Hanzdie and go to the top of Mars’ surface. Out of Hanzdie, Six-winged Terrors are small, but their prey is bigger so it jabs its beak into its prey and leaves it to bleed to death.

Six-winged Terrors have two remarkable bits on their bodies. One is its hypnotizing tail which it uses on the face of Mars to escape predators. And second is its spike on its head which it uses to chop small trees to get the golden sap which it uses to recharge its camouflage so it can survive.

During mating season – spring, the end of males’ tails grow very bright and they show it to females in hope to beat other males but sometimes there is a fight to the death. To mark their territory, Six-winged Terrors fly up high and spread their wings and the shadow marks the males’ territory.

Could Six-winged Terrors be the key to survival on Mars? If we study Six-winged Terrors, we may be able to go to Mars but if we go, we could also endanger them by throwing rubbish into Hanzdie.

This electric viper is found in the worst storms. It has jetpack shoes to help it in the storms. The storm attacked the electric viper’s prey. It has conquered the strongest beasts.

It goes in a pack of a million electric vipers. They hunt together to get their prey. They stop to meet then bang noses to get treats out of the soil. All the electric vipers do it to get the best out.

It sleeps inside craters the size of icebergs. Only two of them can fit in the craters. If you have a family, then you have to dig a bigger hole.

The electric viper has electric hands so when it sees its prey it shoots it with electric bullets out at him. Then it paralyses them and then the electric viper picks it up and puts it in his pot.

This species is in danger of being extinct. We need to get humans up there to help them.

This magnificent creature, has recently been found on Mars. This strange creature was found when a scientist [called Fin] was mining a sort of iron ore and it just walked by; we saw it suck up loads of iron ore with his big nose. When he made eye contact with the scientist, it jumped up in the low gravity and blew out scorching hot air out of his four legs. This species is extremely rare and dangerous. DO NOT APPROACH ALONE!!!

It has a boiling hot volcano resting on its back. They have a phobia of humans and anything that is not from their planet. When its volcano is full with lava, it glows. At night, its lava also glows so the creature can see: it can’t see in the dark. It has no tail because if lava spills on him / her it will set its tail on fire; but, if it spills it on its skin, it will not hurt: its skin is rock solid.

This species will survive for as long as it wants to as long as his lava keeps on going. Also, if it is ill it will go to a volcano and find as many flammable things [e.g. coal, Mars wood, etc.] to make its lava stronger to get it more healthy. The female has a smaller volcano on her back, so that the males can show off to the females. They sleep in the day time so that its lava is not that visible; it will sleep near a volcano so it can camouflage.

Also, they have big ears so that they can hear if anyone [of their own species] is in danger. It eats space bugs and space bunnies to get more nutrition. Moreover, it sucks up all of the iron ore from the floor so that it can get more nutrition; it also makes his or her skin harder as it makes the scales stronger. If it is scared, it will jump up in the low gravity and blast hot air out of his four hooves so it can zoom away from predators: it is normally slow because of its very heavy volcano.

Stephen Hawking, (8^th January 1942 – 14^th March 2018)

A renowned inspiration, Professor Stephen Hawking is world famous for his work in science. A mathematician as well as a physicist, he was the man who came up with the ‘black hole theory’, which has improved people’s understanding of space and the origins of the universe. Not only that, he suffered from motor neurone disease since the age of 21, meaning that he could not speak or write down his theories and that makes him even more of an inspiration because most of his complex ideas were created using his mental skills alone.

Stephen was the eldest of four — he had two younger sisters (Mary and Philippa) and Edward, an adopted brother. His father — Frank — was a doctor and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps but Hawking didn’t. With his mum, Isobel, they made an eccentric family, eating their meals in silence whilst reading books. Visitors would often comment on the masses of papers scattered around the house. However, Stephen himself didn’t learn how to read until he was eight.

At school, he earned the nickname Einstein despite being one of the weakest in the class. His father wanted him to move to Westminster School but, on the day of the scholarship, he fell ill meaning he had no scholarship and ended up staying on at St. Albans school with his friends. Some say that this benefitted him because his maths teacher inspired him to become a mathematician.

In his childhood, he had had several hobbies: playing board games, making model boats and planes, and taking clocks apart to reassemble them but was often unsuccessful. However, throughout his life, he liked fireworks — making and watching them — and, on his 75^thbirthday, there was a huge firework display in honour of him.

Despite not learning to read until the age of 8, he had always enjoyed maths: he had liked it so much that he wanted to go on and study it, but Frank wanted him to study medicine. Compromising, Stephen went on to Oxford University to study chemistry and physics. In 1959, he started his degree but hated it. After that, he concentrated less on his work and got a reputation as rather a joker and a daredevil who was simultaneously clever. In fact, he devoted his second year mostly to fun.

After his time at Oxford, he went on to Cambridge University to begin a PhD in cosmology. However, he struggled in the subject due to his lack of maths. Not only that, he began to struggle with everyday things: dropping items, tripping over and becoming, overall, more clumsy. He was a small man and so, when Stephen joined the rowing boat club, he had coxed the boat but even that was beginning to become a struggle. When he returned home for Christmas, his mum noticed a significant change in his behaviour and admitted him to hospital. There, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and was told he would live no longer than two years. At the time, he was 21.

Due to the shocking news, Hawking found it difficult to work, losing hope on his dreams. However, the man soon realised that his disease was slowing, meaning he might live more than two years. This filled him with hope once again and Stephen decided to go back to work, making the most of what he had left.

Just before he had been diagnosed, he met Jane Wilde, who was the most positive force in his life. Against her family’s advice, they got engaged in October 1964 and later were married and had three children Lucy, Tim and Robert. His wife loved him and he loved her but he was reluctant to accept help and even when he began to struggle with walking, he refused a wheelchair as long as possible.

As the illness worsened, the scientist learned that he couldn’t write and he became more frustrated by his limitations especially since in the 1960s and 1970s there was little technology to support him. Luckily though, he was a theoretical physicist rather than practical. As a result of this, he could still think through his work but it is still amazing as he couldn’t write down his thoughts.

In 1985, he visited CERN in Geneva, Switzerland and contracted pneumonia. He had two options: a life-support machine or a treatment that would enable him to breathe but he would never be able to speak again. Immediately his wife had refused the life- support machine, meaning that he would never speak again. A tube was inserted into his neck to replace his airway and he got a computerised speech synthesiser. Although, when he had passed away, it was said that he most regretted not being able to play with his children, he would often give them rides on his wheelchair and sometimes they would type swear words into their dad’s voice machine, joking being in their genes!

Since he was such an inspirational person, Stephen journeyed around the world and met many people like Nelson Mandela, Obama and H.M. the Queen. He also starred in many television shows and cartoons – Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Comic Relief. To add to that, he opened the 2012 Paralympics.

Throughout his life, he had adored his space but, due to his illness, he couldn’t ever go to space himself and so, after being in a wheelchair for 40 years, he went on the ‘Vomit Comet’, which was a space simulator. Later on in life, he also wrote a children’s space book with his daughter Lucy.

Yet again because of his disease, he didn’t have much time with his wife and so they divorced. He then remarried one of the nurses but described their relationship as volatile. However, shortly before his death, he regained contact with Jane his first wife.

However unfortunate we thought he was, Stephen described himself as lucky and not only because he was the longest-lived motor neurone disease sufferer, but also because he was able to have the technology that he had. As a matter of fact, he became an ambassador for the disease. Most astonishingly, in the last years of his life, he could only move one muscle in his right cheek (which he used to control his computer) meaning he could only smile and use one eyebrow.

Stephen Hawking  (8^thJanuary 1942 – 14^thMarch 2018)

Stephen Hawking, a world-renowned inspiration is most well-known for his brilliant theory about black holes. Despite a rare illness, he continued in physics until he was 76, producing scientific breakthroughs as well as teaching at a maths institution in Cambridge. His understanding of black holes has helped prove the big bang, the origin of the universe even more than before.

As a young boy, Stephen loved making model aeroplanes and playing board games. Although he was part of an eccentric family, who loved books, he was not that keen on learning; in many ways he was quite similar to Charles Darwin who thought of the theory of evolution.  Despite this fact, Frank Hawking, Stephen’s father, who was a medical researcher, decided that his mischievous son needed a scholarship to get the finest education. Disappointingly for his father, he was ill for the exam and therefore stayed at St. Albans school with his friends and his usual teachers. Some say this was actually better for Stephen as he had a good maths teacher who inspired him to become a mathematician.

As he came closer to going to college, he became more keen to get a degree in maths although his father still wanted him to study medicine. In the end, his hopes were spoilt because the degree he wanted at his chosen college wasn’t available. Instead, he studied chemistry and physics.

During his time in college, Stephen missed several lectures and didn’t enjoy the work he was set, probably largely because he had had his heart set on studying mathematics. As he realised his final exam for physics and chemistry was coming up, he had to work extremely hard to get a grade that would permit him to pursue his dreams. Although he came just short of his needed grade, they let him pass with a first, meaning that he could go on to study cosmology (the study of the universe) at Cambridge.

As he progressed through his first year, he became more clumsy and fell over more often. Eventually, he learned that these were symptoms of motor neurone disease. Over Christmas, he was diagnosed and told that he was expected to die within the next two years.

Through his later life Stephen Hawking became an internationally known professor despite his challenging disease; he also appeared in several television series and films such as Star Trek, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory. As well as this, he became an ambassador for charities supporting motor neurone disease and also for the companies who provided him with his speech synthesiser. Frustrated by the restrictions, he was depressed for many periods of his life. He did not leave his chair for 40 years until he experienced a simulated weightlessness chamber, ‘the vomit comet’ which enabled him to bob in the air as if he were in space: this was his dream.

His scientific theories will go down in history and he will be remembered as an inspiration to the whole world. People say his work was like Mozart never writing a single note down and that he had all the qualities needed in a human: resilience, perseverance, trust and hopefulness.