Christmas Rush

Well what a surprise! There we were gearing down for the holidays so to speak - with 2 more bookings to do - when suddenly out of the blue we have 5 schools in the next week!

We are off on a grand tour of Cheshire next week - Macclesfield,  Crewe, Warrington and Sandbach. Topped and tailed by a day in Sefton and one in Maghull.

So I have just put the finishing touches to a seasonal secondary show based around chemical reactions. This is funded by the RSC so I have used our usual secondary show - I Wasn't Expecting That - dropped most of the biology and physics and boosted the chemistry plus added a few seasonal demonstrations and changed around colours to add a more Christmas feel - plus lots of instant snow!

The day in Maghull is at a primary school and will be more hands on in the classrooms so we will need to create some practicals for the really young ones - the older ones can make slime and bath bombs but I need to have a good think about what we do with reception - all good work towards our new session at the NW ASE conference next March!

We will also be going to MMU at Didsbury just after the Christmas holidays to work with student teachers on being creative with the science curriculum.

It's all go!!

So hopefully there will be pictures galore and a write up of our adventures -  watch this space.....

Chemistry at Work event

Helen and I had a busy day at Manchester University's Chemistry at Work event sponsored by the RSC.
Approx 120 year 8 and 9 pupils attended from quite a wide geographical area.
This type of event is designed to introduce school pupils to scientists from industry, especially chemists, to give the young people a feel for what careers there are using chemistry.

This isn't the first event of this kind we have done and originally we wondered just what we could contribute - after all we still work in schools. We decided to create a presentation about a day in the life of a science presenter and show how we use our science knowledge to make science accessible to others.
The presentation is a behind the scenes look at how we research materials, test resources and create shows. We share how we approach explaining difficult concepts to different ages and of course we have lots of gadgets, gizmos and props to have a go with.

We have discovered that our giant hyrogel balls are an enormous success with pupils and teachers, especially this time when one of the staff had a great camera and was taking some wonderful close up shots!

Colour changing straws, our now famous thermochromic mug and some of Helen's great demos such as the Freaky hand went down well.

And then a make and take muffin bath bomb with bubble gum fragrance.

It was really great to meet up with Trinity School Manchester - we know them from our Catalyst days - a great group of youngsters!
At the start of the day Emma Lewis our host from the University side asked the schools about their views of science - we had quite a mixed bunch - not everyone was thrilled to be there! I asked some of them what they had got out of the day and was very pleasantly surprised when lots of them said how much they had enjoyed our session and were genuinely interested in how we got into our line of work.
Many thanks to Emma Lewis from the university and Kat Presland from the RSC for asking us to be part of a great day.

We have a similar event in July at Jaguar in Speke organised by MerseySTEM - so I will be keeping my eyes open for some cool resources! What a great job!

Sharing the good news with student teachers

Went out yesterday to Manchester Met Uni. delivering two sessions to third year student teachers at the Science learning centre in Didsbury.

The day was a special event about being creative in the primary science curriculum and I had been asked to talk about hands on lesson ideas particularly the sort of thing I have done on the RSC North West Trust Primary Science DVD.

Helen Ross came with me and so armed to the teeth with all sorts of household containers, jugs, saucers and kitchen ingredients we set off to enthuse about science.

It was a good opportunity to show how simple kitchen ingredients can be used to open a lesson or set an interesting homework or even start off a project.

We showed them a couple of clips from the DVD but then Helen WOWed them with her ping pong ball on a milk bottle - her volunteer really didn't know what would happen so her amazement was truly genuine!

I demonstrated making a lava lamp with water,oil and a fizzy tablet and then showed how you can set a great project by finding liquids with different densities and layering up a cocktail.

The freaky hand - inflating a rubber glove with carbon dioxide produced by vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - went down really well.

Then we all had a go at "art on plate" - drops of food colouring into a saucer of milk and then touching the milk with a cotton bud dipped in washing up liquid and seeing what happens.

The exit poll reviews the students were asked to do were extremely complimentary.
You can find clips of the DVD on You Tube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrqhVHanagU
this one is art on a plate and I think there are about 20 or so clips.

I was reminded of a tutor I had at training college - a wonderful lady called Freda Davenport. She was an older woman who felt like our grandma - she was so friendly and nothing was too much trouble - it was only after a couple of years I found out she had more degrees than you could shake a stick at.

She was a mine of amazing ideas for student teachers about to go out into school who had been given some grotty subject to try to teach ( with no resources of course!). She also taught the science specialists practical science and Design Technology. I still have her notes - they were so good - and I used her ideas all through my teaching career and on into being at Catalyst.

A friend has commented that I have turned into her - what a compliment - because she was wonderful and I only wish that all student teachers could have someone like Freda - not just for the ideas but for the way she instilled us with confidence in our own ability without being a soft touch.

 I wonder where she is now??

Primary Science DVD launch

At long last we have the launch of the RSC NW Trust sponsored Primary science DVD. I had not realised that it was in 2008 that I was approached to think of something to help primary teachers be inspired to have a go at experiments based around Materials and their properties ( chemistry type stuff). I immediately thought of my good friend and fellow science buff Lorelly Wilson who does the most amazing science shows. Lorelly's shows are quiet and quite serious but fascinating and full of great science ideas - my shows are much louder and often very messy but we complement each other well.
Together we came up with the idea to create a DVD of short clips for primary teachers to give them ideas for classroom experiments, starters or just simple let's have a go and see what happens type science.
We both knew that specialised equipment and chemicals are virtually unheard of in a primary school so it would have to be based around everyday containers and household chemicals that everyone could get hold of. After many months of planning we finally were ready for two days of filming here at Catalyst with the fantastic Centrescreens production company from Manchester. Cheryl our producer guided us through the filming process, re-takes and goofs and the final result is amazing - even though I say it myself. Plus thanks to the faith that the RSC NW Trust put in me all that time ago we have been able not only to fund the filming but also reproduction and distribution so any primary school teacher, student teacher science ambassador or interested science presenter,  can have a copy for free.
Catalyst has taken on the job of sending out DVDs on request plus the local sections of the RSC have been lending a hand and distributing within their area.
Last Thursday we held the official launch - attended by Andrew Miller chair of the science committee at the House of Commons, local MPs and the great and the good with a smattering of local teachers and supporters for good measure.
Thank you to everyone who helped to make this possible!

The Manchester RSCYM have even put the clips on You Tube! So if you want my autograph....actually if you want some ideas grab a DVD!