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

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.

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!

To celebrate climate week, BCS has launched a digital media competition for schools. The challenge is for schools to get their students to create a digital media project on climate change or environmental issues, which can have either a global, national or local focus.
The competition is open to all schools and all students and there are a range of prizes available – including the latest iPad2 in a special ‘green’ cover – and there are a variety of ways to enter.

The project can be a video, podcast, presentation, animation or website offering a wealth of choice for pupils and teachers. The BCS state that they aren’t looking for a Hollywood blockbuster- Try to keep it short (such as a one minute TV ad, or up to a 5 minute documentary for video, a 3-5 minute radio show or a 30 second animation)

The competition is open to all students from schools and colleges under the age of 18 and the closing date is July 1st giving you plenty of time to prepare your entry.

For further information visit the BCS website
http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/39406

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/

Planet Foss is an amazing websites that brings creativity and technology into the science curriculum in an incredibly simple and meaningful way. Students are encouraged to take photographs of a range of different scientific concepts in the real world and upload them to share with others. For example in the Force and Motion category students are asked to upload images showing motion, gravity or speed.  In addition to uploading images students can also search for and view images taken by others.

How can I use Planet Foss to enhance teaching and learning?

One of the most tricky aspects of science can be relating it to the wider world and the fact that science is a key part of everyday life.  Through using the challenges on the site and developing your own challenges you can really get your pupils thinking about science in a new and exciting way.  Why not set the activities as a simple monthly homework challenge via the VLE or use a blog to share some of the best images from the site or your students work?

Many of the images from the site can be used as a stimulus for discussion- for example choose an image and ask your pupils what they think it represents. How is it showing the concept? You could also print some of the images and ask the pupils to sort them into categories- a simple thinking skills activity that can be highly effective at provoking discussion.

http://www.fossweb.com

National Science & Engineering Week… Science events for everyone, 11–20 March 2011

Everybody is talking about the sciences and engineering this March as the UK’s widest celebration kicks off with the theme of ‘communication’. Thousands of events and activities in all types of venues will show how science and engineering relate to your everyday life, from intimate café discussions and shopping centre science busking to city-wide science festivals!

Click HERE to see what is going on in and around around Yorkshire

or  here http://www.britishscienceassociation.org and maybe register your event

Google has partnered with CERN, Lego, National Geographic and Scientific America to create an exciting global science competition- the Google Science Fair. The competition is open to students all over the world who are between the ages of 13 and 18 and runs from 11 January to 4 April 2011.

Whilst the idea of a Science Fair is distinctly American don’t let this put you off. Your students build and submit their project (either alone or in a group of up to 3) entirely online using Google Sites.

Taken from Google Science Fair FAQs

A science project is an in-depth investigation of a scientific question that involves forming a hypothesis, testing your hypothesis with an experiment, making your observations, drawing conclusions and presenting the findings.

While there are different ways to break down the steps of the scientific method, the Google Science Fair asks students to complete the following sections:

• Project Summary
• About Me
• The Question
• Hypothesis
• Research
• Experiment
• Data
• Observations
• Conclusions
• Works Cited

For further information visit

http://www.google.com/events/sciencefair/index.html