Encouraging Small People to Think Big

 At primary level, there has been a huge focus on academic learning and it has become increasingly obvious over recent years that more independent, hands on/ investigative experiences that develop transferable skills are fewer and further between for our KS2 pupils in many cases. A lack of time and emphasis on ‘making’ skills/ fine motor skills/ Design and Technology have added to this issue. In addition, future challenges for our workforce due to advancing IT/AI and stereotypical misconceptions mean that it is more important than ever for our kids to be thinking and learning about STEM in order to ready them with skills and knowledge required for their adult lives and potential careers. At Burlington Juniors, we have been so lucky to be involved in ‘Developing to be an Engineer’ with the ‘Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub’ (SEERIH), University of Manchester, Dr Lynne Bianchi and Julie Wiskow. It has been a brilliant experience and our pupils, right ac...

This week has been an extra-special half term for me. I have had the opportunity to visit CERN in Geneva, virtually. Thanks to STEM Learning, I have attended a lecture each morning with experts including the amazing Dr Claire Lee and Dr Piotr Traczyk; all under the watchful eye of Adam Little and the amazing Jeff Wiener. I cannot praise CERN enough.  I was so pleased because I had the opportunity to go a couple of years ago but it clashed with my daughters 21st birthday so could not attend. I was raised and still live in rural East Yorkshire so have grown up surrounded by nature. I love it and enjoy being amongst it with our dog Blue whenever possible. I love to travel to different places and experience different cultures and surroundings. I spent my childhood picking wild flowers and studying leaves, grasses and petals. However, I had a tricky time at secondary school with science, having requested to study biology but being told to study physics and chemistry. I had a very bad te...

I would really like to congratulate CIEC as the organisation celebrates its 25 th  year! This is a fantastic achievement for Joy Parvin and the CIEC team where ‘ children, teachers and STEM professionals from industry collaborate, under…expert supervision and guidance’ . (CIEC website, 2021) Joy Parvin (Director) and Jane Winter (Professional Development Lead) have an amazing team including Mackayla Millar (advisory teacher) ; they are based at the Chemistry Department at the University of York.  They combine training of industry partners and school staff with resourced problem-solving school activities and interactive site visits to industry .   I met Joy about 18 months ago through Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) and although at that point there was not an opportunity for our school to get involved in their Careers Learning, which I had been researching for my Masters in Education (MEd) Research project, she was very helpful and supportive with my research.  Ha...

  The Great Science Share for Schools This year was the third year of involvement for myself and our school and have found our Great Science Share for Schools (GSSfS) journey to be incredibly valuable: so I thought it was a good idea to share some details with you including the GSSfS Special Edition, ‘Primary Science Journal’ and the recent Association of Science Education (ASE) Conference session. GSSfS is such a great annual event to engage children in science and to develop science knowledge and understanding as well as other key transferable skills. I was so happy that Dr Lynne Bianchi, GSSfS creator, asked me to take part in her GSSfS session at the recent online ASE Conference. It was brilliant to hear what had been happening across the country, plans going forward and to see GSS Champions online including Angharad Pass and Dr Jo Montgomery. I was proud to share our GSSfS journey as our school gathers science momentum and confidence.   In previous years--- 2018 W...

Brenda Keogh Lecture, Association of Science Education (ASE) Conference 2021 I was completely delighted to be a speaker during the Brenda Keogh Lecture at the ASE Conference last week. Feeling incredibly honoured and so pleased to take part along with David Allen @CreativePrisci, Helen Spring @SpringLearns and Tom Martin @Farmer_Tom_UK, I wanted to add a blog about it.   During the lecture, we discussed the huge benefits of outdoor learning. Helen Spring is such an expert in this field and Tom Martin’s FarmerTime is a brilliant way to engage pupils in the outdoors and careers education. As a full-time teacher @burlingtonjnr I spoke about our schools outdoor learning journey. Indeed, I introduced Tom and Farmertime at last years Teach Meet during the Conference in Reading. We have been undertaking Farmer Time at our school with Farmer Colin @sw_farmer for 18 months.   I would like to add links here that were referred to in the lecture and also some detail to what was discussed ...

  In recent days, I have been reflecting on becoming part of the Association of Science Education (ASE) community over the last few years and also the amazing positives of 2020- which have come in sharp contrast to the unprecedented year in which we have all been living through a pandemic. Thank you to Hannah Russell and all at the ASE for being such a wonderfully supportive and encouraging organisation which is just awesome!   I was introduced to the ASE by Bryony Turford @priscigeeks in 2017 when undertaking PQSM with my school- as PSQM participants, we were issued with a free Conference pass in the PSQM package.   ASE Conference 2018- Liverpool This was my first ASE conference. I was inspired during sessions such as those from Alex Sinclair and Amy Strachan. There was an international delegation and it was a fascinating and extremely motivational environment. I also attended sessions by Dr Lynne Bianchi- about her book Smart Pickings- and Bryony Turford, Sarah Earle an...