Happy 30th birthday, British Science Week!
This celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths first started in 1994. Organised each year by the British Science Association, this year’s theme is time.
When I was a science teacher we had great fun (and quite a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ stress) organising a variety of events for each year group across the ten days (yes, at weekends, too!).
In this blog I am going to share a few of the ideas that I hope can be adapted by readers.
On the Friday of the week we held our annual Science Fair for Year 8 (12-13 year-olds). Each year we challenged the students to create a model or display based on the British Science Week theme. This became a colourful, noisy and messy event that the students anticipated as they had seen their elder peers take part. Local companies were invited to sponsor the category prizes and governors, lab technicians and sixth-form science students were invited to judge. Do get in touch if you would like to know more about the logistics of having 200 students and their handicrafts in the school hall on a Friday afternoon whilst still staying friends with the caretaking staff!
We were fortunate to have local science-based visitor attractions within coach-driving distance, so trips to Alton Towers, Jodrell Bank, Catalyst Science Museum and Chester Zoo were often arranged. If you plan early and get in touch with local attractions you may be able to coordinate a bespoke event for your group. If an activity with the organisation couldn’t be arranged, we created our own to keep the students focused. Now that I have learnt more about careers education, I wish I could go back in time and include career discussions with the staff at these locations. The chance for the young people to hear career pathway stories was a missed opportunity.
Most of us love a quiz, and at school, we really enjoyed playing with idea. Over the years we had science quizzes during form time and, with the support of the catering team, a daily science quiz on the canteen tables (in little menu stands). We had aspirations to hold an evening science ‘pub’ quiz… but there just aren’t enough hours in the day and even teachers need to go home and sleep!
The opportunity to meet people from the world of work is really important for young people. Ahead of their time, a small group of local business people and scientists also supported our schools in Cheshire by volunteering speakers to give talks to small groups. This was a great way for the students to find out about a particular area of science, current research and the variety of jobs available in this area. If I were to plan this now, I would make contact with the local university and find out if they have a business/technology innovation support group, as this could also be a great source of speakers.
For information about how to run activities in your school, youth group or home, visit the British Science Week website for great ideas and resources.
© Liz Painter
- British Science Week (8 – 17 March 2024) - 13th March 2024