The Science of Chocolate

by Yvonne Baker

The sign of a good party is when guests are reluctant to leave. Similarly, the sign of a good day sharing science, technology, engineering and mathematics with people must be when they are still there, exploring resources and sharing ideas, long after you expected the place would be empty.

So it was with our second family open day at the National Science Learning Centre and the National STEM Centre. This time the day was themed around chocolate, which was bound to bring people in, but with over 300 children, parents, grandparents and others choosing to spend a sunny April Saturday with us, I think we can justifiably call it a success.

Professor Paul Walton from the Department of Chemistry at the University of York kept the youngest to the oldest (and there was quite a range) enthralled with a romp through the chemistry of chocolate, making quite complex science understandable and engaging. His talk culminated in the world premiere of a chocolate so smooth and luscious that the faces of those lucky enough to taste it said everything – this really is a substance which, although not containing oxytocin (‘the cuddle molecule’), does a good job of making us happy partly through the wonders of chemistry. We learnt about jiggly and straight molecules, skin elasticity and the chemical formula of a human being (it’s complicated!). We also got to understand why you lose your taste when you hold your nose – in the case of chocolate, it’s down to those volatile polyphenols!

Watch the video to get a feel for the day

Here is the entire video of Professor Paul Walton’s presentation – although be warned it is over 35 minutes long, with variable video and audio quality

Our thanks should also go to Flavoursense Nation for their range of hands on activities exploring the role our senses play in the perception and experience of flavour and foods.

What makes effective science practical work?

by Pauline Hoyle

We  recently held a one day professional development day focussing on what makes an effective science practical. This post pulls together my presentation, including video interviews with Robin Millar from the University of York, Fred Young, Chief Executive of our partner organisation in Scotland, SSERC, and Ian Richardson a former HMI for Ofsted.

The slideshare presentation has links embedded to our YouTube site for the video presentations. You can watch the full playlist of science practical work videos there.

As part of the day we asked teachers to give their views, here are the post it notes, I’m afraid you may need a magnifying glass, but if you click on them they should become large enough to read.

Why do Practical Work?

Reinforces what you are doing?

Purposeful, real-life

Team work – responsibility

To make risk aware

What makes practical work effective?

Being clear about objectives

Well planned practical work

We have a range of  science practical work courses running across the network of Science Learning Centres and a specialist practical work course for PGCE graduates.

Psychology Training Courses – An interview with Jeremy Airey

In this pyschology video interview, Jeremy Airey outlines the national network of Science Learning Centre’s psychology training courses for teachers and lecturers. He articulates the importance of psychology teachers continuing their professional development throughout their psychology teaching career, particularly the importance of keeping in touch with contemporary psychology research.

This psychology video will be particularly useful for teachers who are considering options to improve their psychology teaching.  It outlines the various pyschology  training courses offered by the National Science Learning Centre and indicates which courses are best suited to various career stages or subject understanding.

The courses Jeremy refers to in the video are:

Starting out with Psychology Teaching and Learning

Going Further with Post-16 Psychology

Assessment for Learning – the teachers perspective

In our latest video, we interview three science teachers from across the British Isles who attended our Assessment for Learning course in York.  These are their opinions and thoughts.

If you can’t view YouTube videos you can also watch the video on the Leading Assessment for Learning in Science course page.

Class. Clips. Action!

By Maria Rossini

Using video footage in lessons has, thankfully, come a long way from the realms of tiny TVs on trolleys and remote controls without batteries.

Nowadays, the biggest bugbear is that many schools block online streaming from sites like You Tube.

Never fear though, there are some great sources of searchable clips, often tailored for education, that should make it safely through the fire-wall.

Where to find clips

Two excellent sources of video are the National STEM Centre e-library, and the BBC’s ‘class-clips’. Both are completely free to use, and should make it through firewalls as they are from trusted education sites.

Whether you are an early-years teacher looking for lambs or a secondary teacher covering the Big Bang, there are free clips available to help to inspire and inform your students.

Some BBC clips, such as ‘The Wonders of the Universe’ or ‘Inside the Human body’ are purposely tailored for education: They have the same look, feel and voice as the documentary, but with much more curriculum-linked concepts and vocabulary. That’s because the BBC occasionally makes clips alongside documentaries, consulting with teachers and education professionals to make them as useful as possible in the classroom.

Using clips in class

 Once you’ve found an inspirational clip, how can you make the most of it?

One technique featured in an  LSS[1] activity, is to give students the title of the video presentation before watching it. Ask them to note down what they would expect to find out, and what questions they have. After sharing these, watch the clip.  Any unanswered questions can become a research task/homework. This works well with topics where students might have some prior knowledge around the topic, like this one on the speed of light.

In another LSS activity, students watch once without writing (good for clips that have a ‘wow’ factor, like this one about sight). They then note their responses, what they learnt, and what questions they still have. After sharing these, they watch the clip again. It’s amazing how many of their questions they manage to answer on a second viewing!

There are lots of ways to integrate clips into lessons, but the best ones, including the two examples from LSS have some things in common:

Do:

• Watch with a purpose (either on a 1^st or 2^nd viewing)
• Engage students in their own learning – get them to pose questions
• Vary what you do – don’t always use clips in the same way
• Use clips as a springboard for:
  • Discussions (around content/ethics/how science works)
  • Productive/creative activity
  • AfL/APP activities

Avoid:

• Posing all the questions yourself
• Using clips as a time filler

Do you have any other do’s and don’ts or experiences with video in the class room that we could add to this?  Please comment.

Have you subscribed to the Science Learning Centres You Tube Channel?  Here you will find a range of testimonials about our courses, demonstrations by our technicians and views from our Professional Development Leaders.

---

[1] Learning Skills for Science helps teachers to integrate learning skills into the teaching of scientific content. At the moment LSS resources are only available to schools who have attended a Learning Skills for Science training course, run by the Science Learning Centres. Go to www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk for dates of training events.

Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Science Leaders’ Conference: Achieving Excellence in Science in the New Educational Landscape

by Emily Perry

The 2012 Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Science Leaders’ Conference has Achieving Excellence in Science in the New Educational Landscape as its theme.

We will be exploring what we mean by excellence through two themes: leading a science team and managing the curriculum, while placing these themes in the context of a changing educational landscape with new school structures and the review of the National Curriculum.

To start us thinking about what we mean by excellence, here are two videos to watch which describe contrasting systems of education.

The first explores the education system in Finland, consistently reported as one of the leading education systems in the world.

The second video describes a system of education at the other end of the economic spectrum, in which children teach themselves using the internet.

We think that both videos show aspects of excellence.  But what do you think? What are the similarities and differences between the systems?  What can we learn from them for our science teaching in England?  Is there anything in these videos which you think we do better?

We are interested to hear your views both about these videos and about how we reach and maintain excellence in science teaching, so post a comment below in response to the videos and let us know what you think.  The best comment will receive a free place at the conference.

The Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Science Leaders’ Conference takes place on 2 March 2012 at the National Science Learning Centre in York.  For more information about the conference, and to book your place, visit www.slcs.ac.uk/go/yh/rslc.

Bring Science to Life: CSI Forensics

Our latest video is a spoof based around our course Bring Science to Life: CSI Forensics.  The footage is taken from the actual course and features Brian Hook and Clive Donner, both former members of New Scotland Yard’s anti terrorist branch.

The course provides an exciting and interactive way to bring science to life in and around the classroom and provides a number of key hooks to interest students.

1. They may well have seen police investigations on TV.  This course provides you with the skills to carry out a real crime scene investigation and embed scientific practice and understanding through it. The techniques used on the course are, as far as possible, accurate methodolgies for collecting and processing evidence as done in police laboratories.
2. By carrying out a CSI – type activity in your school you will also be able to provide students with ideas for career paths using science.

In addition the crime scenes participants work on, are recreations of actual crimes Brian and Clive have worked on.

This course has been a very popular course,  We’d love to hear back from you if you have been on it and how it worked for you back in the classroom.

Physics for Non Specialists Video

Are you teaching secondary school science and looking for a range of effective teaching strategies, particularly to help with your physics lesson plans? This video from the National Science Learning Centre in York, focuses on science teachers who don’t specialise in teaching physics.  Participants on this physics for non specialists course undertake a residential continuing professional development period to improve their physics lesson plans through reviewing and updating effective teaching strategies for physics as well as their understanding and knowledge.  Science teachers will cover developing successful teaching strategies in physics  as well as a range of classroom management strategies. During the course there will be the opportunity to visit the National STEM Centre which houses a range of physics teaching resources.

Katy Bloom, Professional Development Leader at the National Science Learning Centre, discusses the issues facing schools teaching physics, in particular where non-specialist physics teachers are teaching the subject. Katy’s course, Physics for Non-Specialists, can assist to develop confidence, knowledge, understanding and anecdotes to successfully teach physics for 11-16 year olds.

You can find more information on the Science Learning Centre website for courses relating to Physics for Non Specialists.

The network of Science Learning Centres offers a range of continuing professional development physics training courses for all levels of the curriculum.

Merry Christmas from the Science Learning Centres

Welcome to the last of our resource and activity gifts for Christmas.

A huge thank you to all of our delegates who have participated at one of the Science Learning Centres across the country this year.

Here are the last of our resources for you to share, use or take inspiration from.

Primary

(Please scroll down for Secondary)
In this video, Zoe Crompton provides winter and snow related ideas and activities for primary school children.

Winter Primary Science Activities

►

Here are the primary CPD courses coming up in the New Year.

Secondary

This video shows Simon Quinnell demonstrating a range of experiments which can be performed at the Christmas dinner table.

Science Activities for the Christmas Dinner Table

►

Here are the  secondary CPD courses coming up next term.

If you like the ideas behind Simon and Zoe’s videos and would like to learn more demonstrations then you should consider attending our practical demonstration courses:

Technicians as Demonstrators:  The Practical Demonstrator in the Classroom

or one of our regional demonstration courses.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported the network of Science Learning Centres over the past year.  In particular to the major funders of our awards and bursaries.

The Wellcome Trust		Department for Education
AstraZeneca		AstraZeneca Science Teaching Trust
BAE Systems		BP
General Electric Foundation		GlaxoSmithKline
Rolls-Royce		Vodafone
Vodafone Group Foundation

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year from the Science Learning Centres and the National STEM Centre, we look forward to welcoming you back in 2012.