NEWS
Welcome to the summer issue of our
Newsletter. In this issue three teachers and one scientist involved in
the Bristol Partnership Network provide glimpses of a few of the
things in progress.
Partnerships sometimes evolve slowly, because the reality of today's
world is the pressure of immediate priorities. But that is no problem
provided commitment exists. Our Partnerships focus on a longer term
dimension. The Trust's task is to facilitate continuing relationships
of trust and commitment between individual teachers and scientists,
relationships with the purpose of bringing "Science for Real"
experiences to young people. We help the partners to determine
realistic targets for "Science for Real" which fit their circumstances
and opportunities, each of which is different, and in networking
outcomes.
Networking is crucial, and this will be increasingly assisted in
Bristol by our partnership with Bristol LEA through the Bristol
Education Intranet. Other ICT networking developments are currently in
progress, and these will be reported in future Newletters.
For now, we urge all Network members to establish
email communication, and as a first step to email your editor on
Eric.Albone@clifton-scientific.org if you have not already done
so. All Bristol schools now have this facility, and if you are a
teacher and do not know how to set about this, Bristol LEA have a
special helpline at (0117) 903 7999.
If you are interested in obtaining more
information on any of the items listed in this Newsletter, please do
make contact.
| WELCOME: NEW BRISTOL
TEACHER-SCIENTIST PARTNERS |
- Christ Church Primary School Teacher Marcelo
Staricoff, partnered with Bristol Royal Infirmary scientist Claire
Stewart.
|
- Hareclive Primary School Teacher Richard Mines,
partnered with British Aerospace scientist Ben
Fellows.
|
- Lockleaze School Teachers Cleo Letts and Tim Cowell,
partnered with scientist Wendy Newton, Ministry of Defence, Abbey
Wood, Bristol.
|
- Speedwell School Teacher Andy Davies, partnered with
scientist Giacomo Piccinelli from Hewlett Packard Laboratories,
Bristol.
|
| We look forward to sharing the outcomes of their experience
in future Newsletters. |
NEWS
|
WE WELCOME OUR PANEL OF
DISTINGUISHED PATRONS
Since our last Newsletter we have been much
encouraged to welcomed as our Panel of Patrons the Rt Hon the Lord
Jenkin of Roding, the Lord Walton of Detchant, the Rt Hon Sir
Richard Needham, Professor Colin Blakemore, FRS, and Professor
Richard Gregory, FRS, all of whom very much share our vision. We
thank them for their support, which will be invaluable.
|
|
PILOT DfEE LOTTERY-FUNDED
SCIENCE SUMMER SCHOOL AT FLORENCE BROWN SCHOOL
Teachers Dick Berry of Florence Brown
School, Fiona Standen of Novers Lane Primary School, and
their colleagues, are working with the Clifton Scientific Trust on
a Pilot DfEE Funded Science Summer School this July. This is one of
only 25 pilot schemes being run across the country this summer, and
the only one in the Bristol area. In this pilot we seek to bring
experience of Science for Real to some 40 Y5-Y7 special
needs pupils from the two schools through specially tailored
visits, events, projects and sports activities involving linkage
with outside scientists and engineers.
The week finishes with a festival at Florence
Brown School on the afternoon of Friday 30 July at which pupils
will present some of their findings to the local community.
Members of the public are invited to attend, and if you are
interested in learning more, please do let us know.
|
PUPILS AND THE
PUBLIC
Pupils from Bristol schools have been involved with professional
scientists and the community through the St Mary Redcliffe Journey
into Science programme with which Clifton Scientific Trust is also
linked. Earlier in the year this involved pupils from St Mary
Redcliffe and Temple School in the public presentation through drama
of a project exploring the hidden forces at the heart of medieval
engineering.
This followed an earlier public debate
(press release available), led by a
panel of sixth form pupils from four Bristol schools informed by
Professor Alastair Campbell, Director of Bristol University's new
Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Professor Colin Blakemore, FRS,
Professor of Physiology at Oxford University on "What's wrong with
cloning?". St Mary Redcliffe Journey into Science Project is
funded through the Royal Society and British Association
Millennium Awards Scheme to encourage people's understanding of
science, engineering and technology in the community.
|
IT'S YOUR
ENVIRONMENT!
During National Science Week in March, Clifton
Scientific Trust worked in partnership with the Environment
Agency, the Natural Environment Research Council, English Nature,
the Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions (DETR),
and the British Association for the Advancement of Science in
mounting the very successful "It's Your Environment" Display at the
Mall Shopping Centre in Cribb's Causeway, Bristol, providing
another meeting point between scientists and young people.
|
- Following the success of the Fourth UK-Japan Science,
Creativity and the Young Mind Workshop in Tokyo last year, we were
delighted to be invited to submit an invited paper "Science
Education for the Real World; a Challenge to be Addressed" to the
Journal of Science Education in Japan (now in Vol 22 #3 pp119-129),
copies available on request. We are now beginning to consider the
possibility of a Fifth Workshop in the UK in the year 2001 as part
of the nationwide Japan 2001 Festival. Interest has been expressed
by the Japan 2001 secretariat in London.
- The Trust's work with HSE on Student's Perceptions of Risk and
Risk Education has attracted considerable interest. Brief accounts
have been published in Science and Public Affairs (Royal Society
and British Association), Autumn 1998, and in Chemistry in Britain
(Royal Society of Chemistry), April 1999. We are currently
examining possibilities for taking this work forward with HSE in
relation to our Science for Real philosophy. We are also in close
touch with the Royal Society of Arts Redefining the Curriculum
project.
- KEY SKILLS THROUGH SCIENCE FOR
REAL
Cleo Letts, Science Teacher
and Head of Year 8, Lockleaze School, Bristol,
writes:
|
I was delighted to be invited to bring a team of pupil
scientists to take part in the "Science for Real" Bristol School
Science Miniconference organised by the Trust and hosted by British
Aerospace last year (see Newsletter, Autumn 1998).
Our team were excited about their research on factors affecting
stomata distribution in plants and were keen on the idea of having
time out of school to present their findings. No one in the group
had previous experience in public speaking or of reporting on
scientific findings.
The day was motivational for us all and I was particularly
gratified to receive so much such positive feedback from our
participating pupils. |
|
Outcomes are important and here I would like to record one
recent example where a pupil who took part cited the experience of
presenting his work at the Miniconference as real encouragement and
good preparation for an interview he set up to gain work experience
with a local vet.
With heightened confidence he contacted the vet surgery, asked
for a placement and following a successful interview landed a
prized Saturday position in a busy practice.
Thank you for the opportunity of taking part. Keep us informed
of other events. |
Lockleaze teachers Cleo Letts and Tim Cowell are now partnered
with scientist Wendy Newton, Ministry of Defense, Abbey Wood, Bristol
in a cross-curricular programme related to exercise
physiology.
- SCIENCE FOR REAL AND SPECIAL
NEEDS
Dick Berry, Deputy Head of
Florence Brown School, Knowle, Bristol, has been involved with
Clifton Scientific Trust in utilising the potential of science for
real experience with his pupils for some years. His pupils have even
presented their work at the Royal Society in London. Florence Brown
School is a school for pupils with special educational needs. Dick
writes:
Florence Brown School has long been committed to working with
scientists and engineers. Our school caters for young people with
complex educational needs and the conventional science curriculum is
often not appropriate. In science, although we do not disapply
young people, we are selective about content. We have discovered over
many years experience that if the content is relevant to the young
people and to their everyday lives, they can be as engaged, enthused
and inquiring as their peers in mainstream. It is crucial to capture
their interest and to present science in a way they can relate to.
Science for Real through partnerships with scientists in the outside
world is just made for this.
We have worked with Clifton Scientific Trust over a number of
years, first on an extensive ongoing student project investigating the
strength of various concrete mixes. We used our findings to make and
market garden furniture through our school-based company, Green
Fingers plc, to fund school holiday activities.
This has included a number of scientific expeditions to Lundy
Island investigating the black rat population which inhabits its
cliffs. In these, a number of Florence Brown students worked with
students from Clifton College and other schools, under the guidance of
CST's Dr Stephan Natynczuk, himself a field ecologist who had trained
at Oxford University Wildlife and Conservation Research Unit, and Paul
Smith, Head of Biology at Haileybury College.
Florence Brown students entered into the spirit of things with
great enthusiasm, and played more than their part in making the
expeditions successful.
To return to our Concrete Project; this was advised by
University of Bristol Civil Engineer Rowland Morgan, who has since
become a governor of our school. It was supported by a grant we
obtained from the Royal Society-ASE Scientific Research in Schools
Scheme.
Rowland has now worked with us over a number of years and some of
his university students have also played a key role in the concrete
project.
We were fortunate enough to be selected to display our work at
the Royal Society's Annual New Frontiers of Science Exhibition and
Soiree in London in 1995. It was truly wonderful to see our
students in evening dress confidently and articulately discussing
their research with some of the top scientists in the country.
Indeed, the largest crowd in the building gathered when in the
interest of measuring concrete strength, a concrete gnome was beheaded
by a weight released in a special machine we had devised which used
spaghetti sticks to measure the upward swing of the weight after it
had done its job. This moment was one of the highlights of my
teaching career.
Since then, we have been involved with the Sports Turf Research
Institute from Bingley, West Yorkshire in a brief project on growth
and properties of sports turf.
Due to the distance, significant student contact with Dr Andy
Newell from STRI was not possible but he was extremely helpful and
with him we drew up a Research Programme, and students learned a
great deal about grasses. Certainly OFSTED were impressed by the
students knowledge and application.
Much else has also happened, and the programme is continuing. I
think that we have proved that science can be relevant and fun even
for students who have learning difficulties if it is tackled in this
down to earth way; indeed they have a great deal to
contribute.
We are now planning for the DfEE Lottery Pilot Science Summer
School we are running this July with CST, with lots of visits and
expert input which I am sure will be a great success. Young people
do like to engage with other adults who are not their teachers. In the
process, partners from outside the school have every chance of making
a great impact on the future outlook of these young
people.
Robert Brice, St George's Primary,
Brandon Hill is partnered with Dr Vincent Smith, of the University of
Bristol Physics Department.
Vince writes that last year he visited St George's Primary. Pupils
heard how scientists explore very small things with very big
equipment, including very strong magnets.
Vince took along some pictures of experiments in progress at
Fermilab and at CERN, and also did some demos with permanent magnets,
sorting new (steel) pennies from old (cupro-nickel) pennies. He showed
them that a magnet drops more slowly in a copper tube than in a
perspex one even though it does not stick to copper, as they had just
observed with the pennies, and thought why this might be.
This was followed up this year by a class from St George's
visiting Vince in the Physics Dept where he works.
He gave them a tour of the building. They saw the radio telescope
on the roof, a fly in an electron microscope, the library (lots of
books!) and a lecture theatre. They played with jumping rings'
(electromagnet) and electrostatics experiments ('Star Wars' with fluo
tubes and a Tesla coil; big sparks from a van de Graaf) and visited
the low-temperatures lab (examples of enormous Thermos flasks) and the
Royal Fort garden. Then back to the lecture theatre, where he showed
them games with liquid Nitrogen, and finally used it to make
ice-cream. As in all good children's parties, they took home balloons
filled with helium.
The children wrote back a mass of really excellent "thank you"
letters.
- ROCKETS AT RED MAIDS'
SCHOOL
Vera Macdonald, Head of
Science at Red Maids' School writes
I have always been interested in bringing new ideas and methods to
my teaching and so when I heard that the "Bristol Science Partners"
scheme was starting up to bring together scientists and teachers, I
attended the first meeting.
My scientist partner was (and is) Dr Roger Moses, an engineer at
Bristol University with a special interest in rocket science. We
discussed possible ways forward, and as I was then about to start up a
lunch time club, this seemed a good project area. I approached a
nucleus of ten Year 11 girls whom I knew were generally interested in
topics outside the normal curriculum. I thought their enthusiasm would
infect others - and it did!
Roger began by speaking to the girls about his work, he showed a
video of "Ariane" and he generally made them think! He showed them a
prototype rocket made from a plastic bottle. He explained how, the
bottle could be filled with differing proportions of water and air,
the contents then compressed with a bicycle pump, and how this could
be made to take off. The challenge the girls confronted was to
explore how the proportions of water to air in the rocket were
related to the height it reached. The girls had among other things to
devise their own methods of measuring the altitude achieved it
reached - a very useful exercise and not at all straight
forward.
The next steps were the construction of the rocket models and
launching them. Safety issues, the materials to use, power, recovery
cost and so on all had to be considered. Dr Moses also introduced us
other types of rocket and we gained a lot from visiting Matra Marconi
Space in Bristol. As part of National Science Week, the team of year
11 girls gave a presentation to our year 7 pupils - a talk and
demonstration. This was an outstanding success.
The club has engendered much enthusiasm for science and has
encouraged more girls to consider "A" level science, it has also
fostered many valuable "key" skills.
One way forward we are now considering is the Rocket Club nucleus
to form a club, for younger pupils in the school, which the older
pupils can lead. It really has been a most valuable all-round
experience, and one which is continuing.
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