In praise of student placements

Purely by accident we got roped into a foreign student placement. One of our board members asked if we could help her out by having a German language student who is also a chemist on a three week placement with us. I was not sure at first because the placement was supposed to be lab work to extend scientific English skills and three weeks with us certainly was not going to be that! h
However Carolin has been brilliant. She was a little surprised to be at a Discovery centre helping in family activities all about sweets and chocolate but we are having a fantastic time. Her English is stunning and my German is dire but we are getting on really well and she loves the shows. Two of the senior managers from the placement organisation came for a visit today. Matthias and Ulrich were amazed at quite what we were getting up to and even complemented me on my easy to understand English ( without an accent!! in their opinion) but I have to say I found it very hard not to think of Basil at Fawlty Towers when one of them bowed and clicked his heels when we shook hands.
I hope that the next two weeks are as much fun for Carolin as this one has been.

science fun

tasty toothpaste!

Hmmmmm I wonder if I should be creative impulsively more often!
We got a phone call at Catalyst from a school desperate to get in a trip linked to their topic on Healthy Teeth and Bones. This was to be a finale to their topic but the question was - where did an activity that would fit.
"Can you create something in a hurry Sue?" I was asked - if you know me then the answer is usually "no problem!" and off I go and have a mini meltdown trying to be creative.
Well for once not only was I creative but everything worked - it worked really well!

I created a simple workshop where we looked at why we brush our teeth; how much hidden sugar there is in fizzy drink (Try the floating coke can experiment - it is very revealing - you can see it working here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR0b4QRhfU0)
Then we played with some huge teeth models I have got and brushed a giant mouth full of teeth with a giant toothbrush - of course!

Finally we made our own simple bicarbonate of soda based toothpaste which we coloured totally wacky colours to see if toothpaste really had to be minty type colours!!
We tested the toothpaste on ceramic tiles which we had drawn on with marker. The home made paste did really well compared to commercial brands. Should we set up in business I wonder!!!
I am beginning to put together the new education programme for 2011/12 and I think this has earned a place!

new folk to inspire

Catalyst is taking part in Halton's people into jobs programme which means we offer work placements to local people but they get paid by the council. So we have two new guys working with us for 6 months. Nathan is helping out Paul on the technical and handyman side and Alex is working with us in education. Alex is thinking about training to be a teacher - well he will certainly know whether he wants to teach or not by the time he has finished with us.
Yesterday was a baptism of fire - we had 250 year 7s from Cardinal Heenan school in Liverpool. I did three flash gang whoosh shows - huge fun! The boys were super and really enjoyed their day - they were very enthusiastic about the shows!
I think Alex and Nathan were a little overawed at so many kids all in one place but we had a good day and both of them came back today for more!
Today Alex put on a lab coat and certainly began to enjoy being a scientist - I hope he continues to enjoy this!

reviewing NSEW

Last week was very busy. National Science and Engineering week which lasts over 10 days here at Catalyst because we get so busy!
We started with Flash Bang Whoosh shows for secondary schools with a guest presenter thrown in on the Friday from King's school Macclesfield - thanks to the guys who came over - all three are as mad as they come but passionate about science and they certainly do a mean show!
Saturday was the world première for Alicia Cutler studying chemistry at Manchester Met. She presented her first ever science show - the magic of the movies. Saturday science club were the lab rats and I think they had a good time!Well done Alicia - I loved the sugar glass!!
The Ed team did another Flash Bang show for the public in the afternoon and lots of the morning gang stayed so a good time was had by all.
Monday was more secondary shows and then we changed gear for the primary shows - lots of liquid nitrogen and dry ice, burning iron filings and generally causing lots of oohs and aahs. Great fun and some really big audiences on some of the days. I think Wednesday and Friday broke the record for how many kids can you squash into a science show!!
So three very tired but happy science presenters finished the week with not quite a bang but certainly a whoosh!

Students visit

We had a group of student teachers visit us from Liverpool John Moores University. All the Education team were involved in leading sessions with them. Soap, fantastic plastic and a hands on in your classroom session.
I shared snippets from the RSC DVD we have been involved in making and we had a go at some experiments suitable and easy to do in primary classroom
Hopefully as they go out into schools on placement this week we will have inspired some of the students to have a go!

Are you really a scientist?

Why do people ask in surprise "Are you really a scientist?" when I have just delivered a show or workshop about some scientific topic.
Sometimes I feel like answering No I am an actor just pretending....!