Jul 16, 2016 | Partnerships, Updates
As she arrived in Downing Street yesterday as a brand new Prime Minister Theresa May used her inaugural speech to set an agenda of social justice and equal opportunity for all. She didn’t elaborate about how or why, but the rhetoric seems to have gone down well. Certainly her new cabinet represents a better mix of social and educational background than her predecessor’s, as well as a better gender balance. This bodes well for her mission to serve everybody, not just the privileged few. So, just in case she’s wondering where to start,...
May 6, 2016 | Communication, Primary, Secondary, Updates, Young Scientists Journal
I have a postcard glued onto my notebook with a quote from Maria Mitchell: “We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic but is somewhat beauty and poetry.” I like to think that Harry Kroto would have approved. He was driven by imagination and creativity, and spent his life inspiring these qualities in others. I knew Harry was very ill but the news of his death still came as a shock last weekend. I was at a science show, witnessing a dynamic science communicator...
May 4, 2016 | Communication, Secondary, Updates, Young Scientists Journal
Sometimes, a series of fortunate events in the course of a week make you smile. Together, they can bring into focus something you’ve been thinking about in your subconscious. Three things intersected this week to make me reflect on how important it is to ignite sparks in science, to illuminate people’s imaginations – and there are so many ways of doing that. Last Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to the UK final of Famelab, a wonderful competition where young scientists stand up in...
Mar 29, 2016 | Secondary, Updates
If you’re teaching science at A level, you’ll already have faced the new system for assessing practicals. This blog post has a few links that might be of help. What’s it all about? From September 2015 the A level exam boards have introduced a series of core/endorsed/required practicals. Students are expected to be familiar with these practicals since they will be examined on them in their written papers. If they want to gain the practical endorsement (a pass/fail as a separate addition to their A level grade – likely...
Nov 7, 2015 | Primary, Secondary
Cross-sector partnerships have featured widely in the press recently, and there’s a bit of a myth that independent-state school partnerships (ISSPs) are something new. In fact, most fee-paying schools have a long history of linking with the community around them for the sharing of resources and ideas. Collaborations with other schools and universities, businesses, churches and community groups have been essential for sustaining and developing our schools. The ‘island mentality’ is not only alien to independent schools but also somewhat...
Oct 21, 2015 | Secondary, Young Scientists Journal
This post first appeared on the Lunar Mission One website on 12th October 2015. Where would astronomy be without the breakthroughs of early career researchers? Consider the following scientists, who made their names whilst still young: Johannes Kepler was only 25 when he defended the Copernican solar system model, which places the Sun and not Earth at the centre of the solar system. William K Hartmann proposed the now widely-accepted Giant Impact Hypothesis about the origin of the Moon while he was still in his 30s. It was the...
Sep 14, 2015 | Business, Secondary, Young Scientists Journal
Coco-pops, beanbags and motivational posters: my first impressions on entering the Outbox Incubator house last Friday. The collective brainpower concentrated in that one house was almost palpable, getting its breakfast fuelling. I was invited to give a two-hour seminar on communication skills – writing in particular – and by the time I left the Outbox inmates already had a number of blogs and other written assignments in gestation, now since published. I thought I’d better practice what I preach and end my summer blog...
Mar 8, 2015 | Communication, Primary, Secondary, Updates, Young Scientists Journal
This blog post is taken from a talk I gave at the Royal Society on 6th March 2015 at an event celebrating 350 years of scientific journals, starting in 1665 with the publication of Philosophical Transactions, which is still published today. As part of Publishing 350, the Royal Society has partnered with Young Scientists Journal to publish articles produced by schools in receipt of its Partnership Grants. This special collaborative issue is due in early July. It was a fantastic opportunity, if somewhat daunting, to be speaking at the...
Feb 17, 2015 | Secondary, Updates
Planning and running practical assessments in pre-university science courses can be a real challenge. We all know that some schools play games with the rules, with all students miraculously gaining top marks, or allowed to re-draft repeatedly until they do. Can we do well for our students without resorting to such practices, nor increasing our teaching and marking workload? The internal assessment of practical work in science at A level in the UK is changing; so too is the IB’s mode of assessing...
Jan 18, 2015 | Primary, Secondary, Updates
I’ve been researching images for a chapter in an A level physics textbook I’m writing and have come across some stunning pictures. It happens that at the same time I’ve been talking with schools about raising literacy levels through science. It’s a great starter to a lesson – show the class a picture and invite them to suggest questions that the image raises. You can choose whether to answer the questions yourself or bounce them around the class. You could pick the best 3 questions and set them...
