Age Range: 11-14

The Battle of Britain was one of the most important Allied victories of the Second World War. Radar played a vital role as an early warning system for incoming German bombing raids.

The introductory video ‘Battle of Britain’ shows how this pivotal four-month battle could not have been won without the early warning from radar and the diverse men and women of the RAF.

In the history activity students examine the role of radar in British strategy and the importance of the Battle of Britain to the UK in 1940 and the diversity of those involved.

In the STEM activity students build a ping pong ball model of a radar station to explore how the position of targets that they cannot see can be found. As an extension they can follow some of the steps that radar operators undertook in order to process the data.

Equipment list

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED PER PAIR OF STUDENTS:
A target board (see Technician notes)
A copy of the STEM student instructions
Ruler and pen/pencil
Two ping-pong balls
Two sheets of A4 paper
Sticky tape
Metre rule
Stopwatch or timer function on a phone