Went to the annual Association of Science Educators (ASE) conference last week. This is an opportunity for anyone involved in science education to get together. This year it was held in Liverpool University which was great for me because it is just a hop on a train away.
Lots going on including a marquee of exhibitors, seminars and workshops plus a really good programme of evening entertainment.
I had been asked to speak at a session by the Wellcome Trust so off I trotted yesterday, presentation in hand (having of course sent it in earlier but you never know and I always have a plan B!!)
It was a bit weird really because I was asked to talk about Catalyst and obviously I am not there anymore but as the expert on the subject it was logical for me to speak.
The session title was "Proving the unique value of informal learning"  a sharing of research findings so far into what the project is calling "informal learning". They mean anything that is not actually a taught classroom session - so it could be the sort of thing that science centres and museums do but equally it could be a TV programme, a science club, a STEM event..... 
The company organising  the actual research, GHK, explained what they were doing and then Iain Morley from MOSI and I gave case studies of how we approach informal learning.
Fascinating difference between us - Iain said that about 85% of their group visits do not engage with the education team - they come for free and do a self guided tour, picking up gallery guide explanations on the way.
Catalyst in contrast has about 98% of groups doing something with the education team and it is a rare thing for a school to not book anything.
In the audience were lots of other informal learning providers - National History Museum, Science Museum London, BP, numerous STEM contract holders from around the country and everyone said how hard it was to attract secondary schools - but of course Catalyst gets about 50% of school visits from secondary schools. So I was quizzed about how!
One obvious thing is that Catalyst offers chemistry linked activities and has built up a reputation of excellent teaching at secondary level - it is much easier for a non-specialist to teach a primary session. Plus the wonderful Discovery lab setting is very inspirational.
So a fascinating session which was very well received and hopefully the start of a link between the Wellcome Trust for both Catalyst and for me.

end of an era

So there it was... Dec 16th...my last day at Catalyst. Six years ago a perfect stranger bumped into my husband at his work place.
Being the gentleman that he is, he opened the door for this heavily laden lady and also being the polite guy he is, he spoke a few words....and that was it.
The woman was Sue Andrews, a teacher and a trustee at Catalyst and she contacted me to do some freelance work with her over the summer. Early September I got a phone call inviting me to meet the then Director of Catalyst, Julie Burgess Wilson and within days I was the education manager at Catalyst discovery centre in Widnes. I had never done anything like it before and really was not sure if it was something I could do so I offered to give it 6 months trial which became 6 years!

I discovered that I am a terrible show off and unrepentant player to the gallery but I have had the most amazing time both doing workshops and classes but most exciting of all shows.
I have taught over 60,000 children over the years and shared science with probably the same number of families. Now I am about to take all that experience and energy out on the road to schools.

One of the most annoying things for me has been the cost of transport for schools going on a trip. It didn't matter how we kept the cost down of our entry and activities - a limited budget meant that a school had to limit the number of children they brought. If our team went out to a school we could do the whole school for the same price as a class visit.
So I have decided to get out there and take the science to the schools. I have done quite a bit of this over the years and absolutely love the excitement as little children arrive in the hall to see the "scientists".  
"Are you going to blow us all up?"

I also love the expectation in a hall full of 350 teenage boys as we start to show demonstrations that fizz and bubble and change colour.

I even love making litres and litres of slime with families at college open days

So at the risk of jumping off yet another cliff ( I really should stop doing this!) I have left the safety of the science centre for the open road.
Over the next few weeks as the web site, bank account, transport issues not to mention insurance and everything else involved in setting up a small business is sorted, I will be creating a whole set of shows ready to take out and SCIENCE2U will be born.
Crazy? Probably! Exciting? Definitely!

Last night I was at a reunion of teachers I used to work with.  I wondered what their reaction would be...everyone of them got it! They so understood my motivation and caught the enthusiasm. Hopefully I will soon be able to offer some of them a show!

It was strange leaving Catalyst but I know I am doing the right thing.
So watch this space because this is where you will see me thrashing out my ideas, sharing the highs and hopefully not too many lows, leave some comments and let me know what you think!

Today is the start of the rest of my adventure.......

Strange day- possibly the last science club I will do at Catalyst.
Some of you know that I am leaving the science centre at Christmas to start up my own business.

When I  left teaching to come to Catalyst the one thing I thought I would really miss was that special relationship a teacher has with the class - whether it is a primary teacher who has 30 or so kids for a whole year or the secondary teacher who might teach 100s but also gets to see them every week for months on end. You build up a special bond - sometimes you are relieved to see them go...let's be honest but mostly you get a special joy watching them mature and grasp whatever you have been trying to pass on.

My Mike 

As education manager at Catalyst I teach about 11,000 kids every year and usually see them only once so no chance of getting to know them at all. 

Science club has given me the chance to really get to know a whole group of great kids - some I have known for 6 years! I have watched them grow up - written references for some, written college and university letters for some, chatted over the nerves about going to secondary school with the young ones, chatted over the nerves about going to uni with the older ones!
It has been a joy to watch as youngsters choose to study science, to help out with tricky homework and for just a few to watch as they succeed in science at A level and go to university.

When I arrived there were 6 in the club and it was a bit intense - which for those of you who know me just is not my style. We now have over 60 on the books who come pretty regularly - there were 35 there today either in SSC for the younger ones or in OATs the older group. New ones arrive almost every month.

Mike Pitts one of our helpers in a show

The idea is to make science exciting and accessible by doing so lots of hands on experiments. They love being lab rats for new shows the education team is developing and they certainly know how to give feedback!! We invite local scientists to come in a share their work or their favourite experiments - it is a great place for potential STEM ambassadors to cut their teeth.
And so to Scientific Santa - a tradition we stared 5 years ago where we make presents with a science feel. It actually gets quite hard to think up new ideas but as the members move on we can bring back old favourites.
Of course it wouldn't be us if we didn't make soap and this year we made bath bombs too.

soap fruits

thermoplastic keyrings and Christmas decorations

We made keyrings coloured with glitter from our fantastic thermoplastic and I managed to get hold of some candle kits that only need the heat of your hand to melt and mold the wax. But I think the runaway success this year was the BOING BOING balls - little crystals poured into moulds that are submerged in water for a minute and then set into amazing bouncy balls. Huge fun

So thanks to all the volunteers and helpers over the last 6 years that have made science club possible - special thanks to my husband Mike, who only came to carry the heavy stuff but ended up as one of the main leaders - you know I couldn't have done all this without you x

blowing up icing sugar testing it for the Big Bang show

testing candyfloss for the suagr and spice show

slime 

blowing up Charlie

sugar glass - science of the movies

Advent Calendars at the ready

The web is full of ideas for Christmas and I  love some of the scientific advent calendars around but thought I would just share some ideas for pressies. Sadly many are from the States - why do they always have the best gifts!!

for the girl who either needs to cheat in her exams or just loves her elements nearby 

a periodic table bangle!

clean up your chemistry with  a periodic table bar of soap

keep science close to your heart

or maybe create a lurve potion!!

I will share more if I come across them

Climate Change project

A few months ago I was totally blown over by a phone call from a member of the Science Museum London's outreach team asking if Catalyst would think about being part of a project with them......after I had picked myself up from the floor....
The project is a three year exploration of climate change inspired by the Museum's atmosphere gallery http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/AtmosphereGallery.aspx 

Last year a couple of centres took part working with schools to share ideas about climate change through art. This year the sharing is through print - journalism actually.
Each school has to produce a double page spread of articles and interviews about local climate issues which will then be worked on by a graphics team to create an actual magazine. This will be published and the schools  and pupils will all get copies and a travelling exhibition will be produced and go to all the participating museums and science centres.
So early Tuesday morning the science museum team arrived at Catalyst to set up for the day.
The school kids arrived - 60 year 9s from local schools in Cheshire and Wirral and even one from North wales and the day began!
A fun session with Punk Science followed by an interview on journalism. then a tour around the museum and lunch. The afternoon session was a hands on have a go at being your own journalistic team to get the ideas flowing.
Over the three days 7 different schools have been challenged and they have until Spring 2012 to produce their ideas. 
A really exciting project which I will keep my readers up to date with. Watch this space.....

Saving the Planet

We have just finished a week of Enterprise where we challenge large teams for 12 - 16 year olds to create a gizmo to save the planet by using alternative energy methods or recycling or similar.They then have to pitch their idea, models and all to a small team of Dragons from industry!
Helen and I have done this event since 2007 and we have pretty well seen it all but this year we had some new ideas.
One which was totally unique wanted to harness the energy produced by all those small earthquakes that happen every day. Another wanted every factory to have its own CO2 scrubber made from a small plantation of trees - they called it the Tree factory.
It is great to see young people thinking so imaginatively without boundaries. Their science may not be up to the task but because they have no pre-conceptions they think very radically. Perhaps this is the way for companies to go - have brainstorming sessions with youngsters then bring in the scientists to filter out those possible for development.

The Story tent

I have just finished creating a dedicated space for story telling at Catalyst. We have been telling stories for a few years - Herby the hedgehog goes recycling, Freddie the Frog - a life story and Bertie the Bear explores light and dark. Stories for the very young with a science feel. We made our own stories and big books and used props to make it come alive.
Now however we have moved on to myths and legends about science facts - story telling for an older age group.
The first story - hot off the press - explores world myths about rainbows, from the Greek Goddess Iris through the Aborigine Rainbow serpent to the Hawaiian rainbow maiden. then we link in how a rainbow is formed and the spectrum and finish with our wonderful rainbow glasses that split white light up into a myriad of rainbows - quite a trip really!

The idea of the story tent is to create a space removed from the science centre that is peaceful and quiet and creates an atmosphere of wonder. Our room certainly does that!

Arnold School from Blackpool were the first ones to try it out yesterday. The year 4 group said it was awesome - quite a compliment I think.

It does look a bit like a tarts boudoir with all the swathes of material and coloured lights but it is a super place to tell legends and I think year 4 might be making some of their own up back at school.
Now I am off to research the myths about the sun, stars, moon and planets.........