2nd – 6th July at Magna Rotherham

Yes that’s right – free, which is why there’s not much time get book your places. This is a national event with schools from all over the country taking part but as it’s in Rotherham, we’d like to make sure that YHGfL schools make the most of this fantastic opportunity. Sign up for as much or as little as you want. Take your pupils or just go yourself, it’s all free and runs over 5 days so loads to choose from:

• 5 days of hands-on interactive and inspiring workshops and lectures from leading figures in education and industry.
• Fully inclusive workshop schedule – from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 5.
• A fully engaged curriculum – Coding/Programmer/Computer Science, Art, Maths, Physics, English, Drama.
• 750+ workshop places and 2000+ activity places – applications encouraged from schools across the country.
• 250 CPD opportunities for teachers and educators to develop existing and new digital skills taking game creation back into the classroom.
• Industry-lead careers surgeries, vital advice and guidance for schools and young people.

For every you need to get the most out of this event, visit the website or download the Planning Your Visit document. They’ve even done your visit risk assessment for you!

http://www.gamesbritannia.com/2012/assets/planningyourvisit.pdf

http://www.gamesbritannia.com/2012/index.php

Thursday 2nd Febuary 2012

Don’t know your wordle from your voice thread? Do you thinking tweeting is for birds? If so then this is the course for you. Find out about the wealth of freely available online tools that can be used to enrich learning in your classroom in a wealth of curriculum areas from Maths to Art.

Who should attend: Primary School teachers, HLTAs and GTP students.

Venue : West Yorkshire TBA

Click HERE to link to the booking form and cost information

National Science and Engineering Week

9–18 March 2012

The Great Global Adventure:

This out-of-the-box poster competition is a simple way to take part in National Science & Engineering Week, either as homework or a class project.

The British Science Association is launching an ideas challenge for 5 – 14 year olds asking them to invent a multi-terrain global racer that uses renewable power.

Pupils will need to invent one method of transportation that can carry themselves and two friends across a range of challenging terrains in their global adventure! The race could last many weeks, so vehicles will need to be large enough to carry supplies.

Racers must be presented in the form of a poster with a drawing of the invention accompanied by an explanation of how it works. Full teacher’s notes will be provided.

Entries will be judged by a panel and the best researched and explained in each category will win a selection of prizes.
Macmillan and Kingfisher Childrens’ Books are generously providing £25 worth of books for each age category. There is also a Nintendo DS up for grabs for each of the younger age categories plus a Nintendo 3DS for the winner of the 11-14 age group. The closing date for all postal entries will be Monday 2nd April 2012.

For more information and registration visit the British Science Association website. You will also find many usefull classroom resources for NSE week on the site.

The National History Museum have just announced 21 session dates for Spring 2012 for key stages 2,3, 4 and post 16 pupils.

Their videoconference sessions allow your pupils to meet some of the 350 scientists working at the Museum and share the excitement of fieldwork and new discoveries. The sessions cover a range of topics and in Spring 2012 they will follow scientists travelling to remote areas in Costa Rica, the Bahamas and Vietnam. Great for topics on the rainforest, minibeasts, habitats and a range of other science and ecology based curriculum areas.

You can take part in online events with scientists before they embark on fieldwork, communicate with them when they’re out there and then hear about their results when they return. These sessions are always very popular so book early to ensure you avoid disappointment!

To find out more, visit

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/education/school-activities/videoconferences/index.html

Please contact videoconferencing(at)nhm.ac.uk if you have any questions.

If you have never been involved in a video conference session before you’ll be amazed at just how easy it can be! For further support and advice why not email us at YHGfL  contact(at)yhgfl.net

High resolution photographs from the Royal Collection now available on NEN gallery.

The ‘Heart of the Great Alone’ exhibition featuring photography from the Scott and Shackleton expeditions is now showing at the Queens Gallery – Buckingham Palace.
LGfL is pleased to be working in partnership with the Royal Collection to bring high resolution photographs of pictures and learning resources from The Heart of the Great Alone exhibition. Ten of these iconic images have been made available via the NEN Gallery for teachers to incorporate into their teaching.

Guidance is provided on how to make the most of the high resolution quality of the resources, along with commentary’s of the major photographs from the exhibition.

To view the images visit http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/gallery14904-.html

For further information on the exhibit  www.hotga.lgfl.net

www.bp.com/bpes/howscienceworks

How Science Works – Clip Bank is a free interactive Science resource from the BP Educational Service. It provides students aged 11-16 with great examples of real-life science in action.

Short, engaging stimuli show students the real-life application of science within the context of BP’s business. Linked to the UK curricula for Science and Chemistry, How Science Works – Clip Bank features a range of multi-media, including:

• Video clips
• Animations
• Interactive activities
• Photo slideshows
• Teacher guidance
• Curriculum links for Key Stage 3 (KS3) and Curriculum for Excellence Sciences
• Links to all major exam boards at Key Stage 4 (KS4) and Standard Grade

Topics covered in this resource include:

• Hydrocarbons from crude oil;
• Properties of hydrocarbons;
• Polymerisation;
• Combustion of fuels;
• Energetic reactions.

Find out more at www.bp.com/bpes/howscienceworks

“The video will be an excellent way of introducing this abstract topic to pupils and helping them to put a face to the concept. The animation will reinforce their understanding after the calculations.” Secondary school teacher

For other free resources from BPES please go to www.bp.com/bpes

Young Science Investigators: Project Kit www.bp.com/bpes/ysiprojectkit for primary (KS2 with a bit of stuff for KS1) – focuses on science in the real world giving pupils activities to do inside and outside the classroom. Usual high production values, including animations, teachers notes etc. This resource is part of the ‘Young Science Investigators (YSI)’ series of resources. These enable children to work through the activities with Kate, Dev and Beepy, the online YSIs, see how they do it, and then explore, discover and understand the experiments/projects themselves. All of the YSI resources are highly engaging and interactive. You can see a selection of them here: www.bp.com/bpes/ysi.

This November the UK government will be heading to Durban, South Africa to join in the big climate change debate and we need your help make sure that young people’s voices are counted when it comes to the big decisions!

One Step, a campaign run by the UK Youth Climate Network, wants your help to collect 5,900 pledges – the number of miles from London to Durban where the conference takes place in November. Together your steps will make a difference and help encourage the government to act faster to tackle climate change.

Write your pledge of action on a footprint that will be sent to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, before he goes to the next climate change meeting in South Africa.
The winning entry will WIN A NEW BIKE worth £130.00* and the 10 runner ups will win lots of fun green prizes. The best entries will also be displayed on the Make the Link – Climate exChange website

Support their campaign by producing your own pledge or ‘step’

• Get some recycled material, step on it, draw around your foot and cut it out!
• On the front of your foot: Write “The steps we need to take for a sustainable and green future are…
• On the Back of the foot: Make your own individual pledge of action and add your name and age
• Make it as creative as possible
• Send your step to:

  Eco Competition
  Make the Link Climate exChange
  Plan UK
  Finsgate
  5-7 Cranwood Street
  London
  EC1V 9LH

  or scan and email it to hello@mtl-cec.org

• Don’t forget to include an address with your entry so they can send you your prize
• Tell your friends – www.mtl-cec.org/eco-competition or download the flyer here!
• DEADLINE October 28^th

Show.me.uk is a free to use, non-commercial site produced by Culture24, packed with games and resources generated by the UK’s museum, gallery and heritage sector.
Whilst the website is aimed at young people it also has a  section for parents and teachers. The site also has a section on Place to Go, here you can find out about museums, galleries, archives, science centres and heritage sites in your area- great for finding places for a school trip!

Khan Academy is an online library of over 2100 videos and 100 self-paced math, science, and history exercises for students.  The library is extensive and covers K-12  (UK year 1-11) maths, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer. As with many online videos the films are hosted on youtube which may be blocked in your school. For further information about unblocking youtube contact your Local Authority helpdesk.

How can I use Khan Academy to enhance teaching and learning?

Video can be an incredibly powerful tool for pupils when learning or practicing new concepts and ideas, use Khan Academy in the classroom on laptops or mobile devices as a mini tutor on demand to fill any gaps or just offer reassurance. The site is also worth sharing with parents who are looking for ways to support their child at home; maths can be a particularly difficult area as for most parents it has been many years since they have worked on quadratic equations or fractions and this site will help with supporting them.

Finally as we approach exam season the site is an incredibly useful tool for helping pupils with their revision in an appealing way.

http://www.khanacademy.org/