Flights of Inspiration: www.sciencemuseum.org.ukflights Eighty years ago this month, Captain John Alcock, Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown and a pair of fluffy toy cats made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. They won the Daily Mail’s prize of pound;10,000 for their efforts - three times the cost of the wood, wire and canvas Vickers plane in which they made the epic flight.
This, and other voyages from the early days of powered flight are chronicled on the site, a joint product of science museums in Britain and the US. There are newspaper cuttings, diary extracts, letters and flight logs, technical details and a Teachers’ Zone which explains how the material relates to the national curriculum.
The Scottish Parliament www.scottish.parliament.uk By the time you read this, the dust from the state opening of the first legislative assembly on Scottish soil since 1707 should have settled, and the Parliament’s newly-elected MSPs will be getting stuck into business as legislators.
If you wish, you can watch them live on a“webcast”. The site also does a good job at introducing the assembly, from historical, procedural and political perspectives.
There are lists of MSPs, archives of parliamentary questions and reports, plans of the building on The Mound, and impressions of the new Parliament building at Holyrood, scheduled to open in 2001.
An embryonic teacher’s and young people’s centre offers activities and puzzles for primary and secondary children, with more promised.
bill hicks: https:www.tes.co.uk
