Podcaster: Pam Griffin
Title: Creating a Science Society – a response to Astronomy Cast ep309
Description: Episode 309 of Astronomy Cast looked at ways to spread the love of science through education, outreach and media, primarily in the US. In this podcast we take a look at what schools in the UK are doing to achieve this goal.
Bio: Pam Griffin has no qualifications in astronomy aside from having studied a few short courses at the Open University, but has enjoyed looking up at the stars since 1986, when Halley’s Comet last visit the solar system and caught the then-seven-year-old girl’s imagination.
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Transcript:
Hello, welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast for the14th of July 2013. My name is Pam Griffin and I’ll be your host for this episode.
In episode 309 of Astronomy Cast, recorded on 18th June, Pamela and Fraser were talking about how to make a sciency society. Specifically, they looked at ways to spread the love of science through education, outreach and media, primarily in the US and Canada. In this podcast I’m going to share some of what schools in the UK are doing to achieve the same goal.
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How many chocolate bars can a bridge hold? Can you make your own ice cream in 20 minutes without a freezer? And where do the stars go in the daytime? These were just some of the questions 160 primary school children were faced with when they took part in a junior science challenge last month at Moreton Hall School in Shropshire, England.
The event was organised to try to raise the profile of science among children to get them thinking more about how science is used in every day life and the sorts of careers they could go into if they chose to study science further on in their academic lives. During the science challenge day, the pupils got a taste of engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and psychology through the different activities.
Polly Greenhaulgh, physics teacher at Moreton Hall and one of the event organisers, said the activities had been designed to get the Year 5 pupils, all aged nine and 10 years old, thinking more about how science is used in every day life.
“It raises the profile of science,” she said. “It’s amazing how little they consider these sort of careers. They think if they’re a scientist it’s just about research and that’s it, so it’s great to open their minds at an early age to see what they can do to get involved in science. If it’s what they’re interested in, who knows where it could take them.”
The event was part of a week-long science festival at the school which saw them take on different challenges throughout the week, including trying to blow the biggest bubble possible, using science to solve a murder mystery, a concert based on the science of sound, and a night of sci-fi films.
Hannah Peel, head of science at the school, said: “Our science festivals aim to take science beyond the classroom, and remind us all how fun and fascinating science really is. Following on from that, the junior challenge is really great because it’s a good chance to get primary schools in and get them interested in science. I think they always really enjoy the day and they always learn something from the sessions so at the end of the day they usually go home full of enthusiasm for science.”
Among the schools which took part in the event was St Winifred’s Convent School from Shrewsbury. Tom Moffitt, head of science at the school, said the science festival is something the pupils look forward to every year. “They thoroughly enjoy it. Most wish they could come regularly instead of just as a one off event,” he said. “They see that science can be fun instead of just from textbooks, and it dispels some of the myths of science. It definitely pushes them to do more science.”
Two of the favourite activities among the children who took part were a giant planetarium show in a portable inflatable dome, showing the youngsters a glimpse of how many stars are in the sky and what scientists can learn from them, and the ice cream making session. One pupil from Moreton Hall, Lucy Smith, said: “I liked making ice cream. I didn’t realise that it was scientific before I tried the activity, so I’m learning things, but it’s fun.”
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While primary school children were trying out all aspects of science, older pupils took a closer look at chemistry during a day of workshops led by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
More than 350 students aged 12-14 were given the chance to try some hands-on chemistry during the day, from x-raying £1 coins to see if they were forgeries to coating iron nails with copper extracted from rocks. The Year 8 and 9 students were invited to the sessions as part of a drive by the RSC to make chemistry more relevant to children and encourage them to consider a career in science.
The day was held in the exciting setting of the RAF Museum at Cosford, meaning the students were surrounded by aircraft – and the practical applications of science – while they carried out their experiments.
Dr Mark Read from the School of Chemistry at Birmingham University started the event with an explosive demonstration of how much energy is contained in methanol gas. “The idea of the event is to get the relevance of chemistry to children to show them it’s a central science that impacts their everyday lives,” he said. “It makes materials for aircraft, fuel for cars, and can even address the challenge of creating clean energy. “The great thing about doing sessions like this for children of this age is that they haven’t chosen their options yet. (Choosing which subjects they will study at GSCE level.) Chemistry does have a bit of a bad reputation for being bad for you with all the chemicals, so we’re trying to show that it’s actually something good that impacts everyday life, from touchscreens in smartphones to nanotechnology in RAF aircraft.”
Dr Madeline Bell, head of chemistry at the Blessed Robert Johnson School in Telford, said events like these help to inspire young people. “We’re looking to show them the options available to them and what they can do beyond the test tube in the school lab,” she said. “Often it’s difficult to see subjects like chemistry in context, so this shows them what they can do with chemistry out in the real world.”
Following the success of the day, Heidi Dobbs, RSC regional coordinator for the Midlands, said it could become a regular event. She said: “The feedback from the teachers has been fantastic, but the really important thing for me is that the students know that chemistry is relevant to what goes on in the world outside the classroom, and having the industry professionals here brings that to life. Having the universities here as well brings another dimension to the day as well and shows the students what options are available to them.
“The museum is an ideal venue for the event as well. There’s chemistry everywhere here; the fuels, paints, metals, materials, and the transition through from cloth canvas wings to metal. Even rationing involves food science in trying to grow crops in times of strife.”
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If anyone is interested in making ice cream in 20 minutes, you will need two ziplock bags – one large and one small, ice cubes, salt, semi skimmed or full fat milk, vanilla essence or flavouring, and a towel.
Pour the milk into the smaller ziplock bag and add the vanilla essence. Seal up the bag making sure it is firmly closed.
Put lots of ice cubes into the larger ziplock bag and add salt, then put the smaller bag inside as well and seal the larger bag up. Keep the larger bag upright from now on, just in case of accidents!
Wrap the towel around the bag and start shaking the ice around. After a fair amount of shaking and squishing of the ice, the milk should start to freeze, making ice cream.
The science behind the process is simple: the salt lowers the freezing point of the ice to as low as -17C (1.4F) – which is why you should make sure you use the towel to hold the bag – and so freezes the milk, while all the shaking and squishing of the bag gives it the creamy consistency.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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