Debbie Beaumont, Head of Chemistry
at Shelley High School, Huddersfield,
organises events in her school.
"'Who wants to be a scientist?'
is based on a well-known quiz format.
It is a PowerPoint presentation which
we ran in the hall using a laptop
and digital projector, but it works
just as well in class using overheads.
To save ink print overheads in black
and white format.
Questions are based around the 'Who
am I ? ' activities included on
this CDROM.
With some year groups we ran the quiz
as an inter-form competition and asked
form teachers to organise teams. For
others, the first four teams to turn
up got started! Again a small group
of pupils organised the publicity,
and one of our staff took on the question
master role. You can customise the
questions on the PowerPoint quiz or
use them as they are.
Each team will need their three lifeline
cards to use once in the game. The
game runs for about 20-30 minutes
with four teams. You do need the killer
question at the end for tie-breaks.
Several local museums were happy to
send us complimentary tickets, pens
etc. to use as prizes, although the
most popular prize were the cinema
tickets! We also included science
dictionaries and popular science books
in the collection."
"Cyber Café uses the
many websites of scientific interest
that students can discover at lunchtime,
after school or during science lessons.
- Small
groups of pupils designed and put
up posters around school.
- Pupils
approached their year tutors for
a publicity mention during assembly.
- Desks
and chairs were set up at one end
of the room to serve drinks and
biscuits.
- Photographs
were taken and pupils produced their
own display for the ICT room, including
site evaluations for other pupils
e.g. Can it help with homework?
How easy is it to find information?
- Each
pupil voted for their favourite
website.
Links to useful websites are listed
on this CDROM."
Maths & Science
Science trails are a series of fun
activities set up around the school
grounds for pupils to complete. There
can be a range of prizes for the best
entries. As science trails are generally
outside events, the beginning or end
of the school year are good times
to hold them. You could use them as
an orientation day for primary pupils,
with Year 7 pupils helping and learning
alongside the younger pupils. This
is the approach that Chris Escreet
took at Appleby Grammar School. His
account was published in the ASE journal
School Science Review. The article
can be viewed from the link below.
Chris provides copies of the worksheet
resources used during the 'Maths and
science fun trail' at Appleby.
Physics
It is not often that pupils are given
physics exercises outdoors. Student-teachers
from Oxford Brookes University helped
redress the balance with 'A physical-science
trail'. Their account includes details
of stations they set up for Year 8
pupils around the campus.
Contact local museums, universities
or businesses for speakers. Universities
will often send a speaker into school,
free of charge, to provide an illustrated
talk. The department secretary can
usually suggest a good contact if
you have an area in mind. Professional
bodies can often suggest a local scientist
who will come into school to speak
to your pupils.
SETNET (Science Engineering
Technology Mathematics Network) has
58 member organisations representing
Government, industry, the engineering
professional organisations, education
and educational charities. SETNET
has established SETPOINTS in
the UK which operate as a focus for
teachers, business and industry to
obtain information about relevant
resources, schemes and initiatives.
SETPOINTS encourage co-operation
in the scheduling and organisation
of joint projects and events. They
can provide contacts with local professionals
and PhD students in your area. Telephone
SETNET on 0800 146415. More
information is available at www.setnet.org.uk
This initiative is supported by Sheffield
Hallam University, The Royal
Society and SETNET. It
places PhD students in secondary schools
to work with teachers to help and
encourage students with their science
as part of the Pupil Researcher Initiative.
More information is available at www.shu.ac.uk/schools/sci/pri
Your school head can also quickly
become an expert with our off-the-shelf
assembly speech. They may be very
grateful!
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