Over the course of the 2009 / 2010 school year the ISSP has provided all partnership schools the opportunity to take part in three activities to enrich and extended the science curriculum. Over one thousand students have benefited from these opportunities.
A Pollutant’s Tale
'A Pollutant's Tale' is a lecture-demonstration given by Tim Harrison and/or Dudley Shallcross of the Bristol ChemLabs, University of Bristol. The lecture covered:
· The composition of the Earth’s atmosphere in comparison to other planets
· A brief description of the structure of the atmosphere
· Investigation of some of the chemistry and properties of nitrogen and oxygen
· A few of the tropospheric pollutants including carbon dioxide
Throughout the lecture there were demonstrations including those involving liquid nitrogen, oxygen foam, dry ice and a few explosions.
Broadoak, Wyvern, Worle, Priory, Gordano, Churchill and Sidcot Schools have taken advantage of the opportunity. Louise Parkinson, Head of Science at Priory Community School was impressed with the demonstration: “It was absolutely brilliant – fantastic presentation – great choice of demonstrations – completely engaging. I’d definitely like to get Tim back in again sometime in the future”
Another teacher commented on how much the students got from the show: “Students loved the talk, they found it entertaining and engaging. Even months later I am still having students remembering and talking about the demonstrations that they saw on the day. Many students have asked whether ‘Tim Harrison would be coming back in?’”
Explore At-Bristol
Explore-At-Bristol is the first of its kind, a true 21st century science centre combining the best hands-on activities with the latest multi-media techniques. In Explore-At-Bristol science is brought alive through stunning visuals and over 300 interactive experiences.
90 students from Worle, Wyvern and Priory Schools visited the science centre taking part in a workshop, as well as exploring the exhibits and planetarium. One year 7 student from Wyvern Community School talked about what she had learnt: “I learnt lots of science words and what they mean. We learnt about how different experiments work.” When asked how it could be improved she thought it was already excellent: “It is already really good and I’m going to tell my whole family about it!”
A teacher from Priory Community School had this to say about their visit: “I thought it was an excellent day which really encouraged the students’ enthusiasm for science. The kinaesthetic hands on activities meant that all students of all abilities were able to access the learning.”
The workshop was also well received: “The code breakers workshop was well organised and run the leader of the session had a good rapport with the students and it was valuable for the students to complete a practical we would not have the equipment to run in school.”
Asked to sum up the visit she said: “A fantastic day!”
Dark Sky Wales
The Dark Sky Wales state-of-the-art digital planetarium has been taken to eight partnership schools. Complete with stunning visual shows designed by professional astronomers the planetarium extended students understanding of the solar system and space.
After the planetarium visited his school a teacher had this to say: “Excellent! Students were buzzing when each session ended; they were thoroughly engrossed in the presentation. The presenter was an astronomer of many years experience and as such was able to provide detailed and engaging presentation that was easily adapted to suit the varying audience during the day. Having had Dark Skies visit once we would be very keen to have them back in future years to provide sessions that would greatly enhance our teaching of the relevant parts of the GCSE Science and Astronomy curriculum.”
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