Pilot of SCIBERQUEST, the 3 lesson challenge

On Friday 27th June, Hannah Baker and myself set out to trial the 3 lesson challenge on stem cells with a class of high achieving 13-14 year olds from Ringmer Community College in East Sussex.

Our aims for the day were to trial several activities and resources to find out which were the best for getting the information across to this age group. The information we gathered during the day will inform the further development of the materials that will be available for other such events as well as being hosted online for schools to DIY their own events.

The pupils were engaged with activities looking firstly at the at the science and later the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. The activities included presentations, video, a web quest, group discussions, cartoon drawing, card sorting and finally a debate. Some of the resources were completely home-made, others incorporated freely available materials from other providers. The event successfully pulled together all these great resources into a neat easy-to-access package.

The day's programme was extremely well received by the pupils and they all worked really hard at the challenges presented.
I attribute the success of the day to a number of factors that were in our favour, namely:

• Helen Watson, post grad biochemist (Southampton), member of the Society's education committee (and secret ex-head girl of Ringmer School) for coordinating the liaison between the society and the school, supporting the pupils during the activities and also for being our most attentive hostess throughout the day.
  
• Dr Elaine Allison, vice principal and science teacher at the school for her enthusiasm towards the project and for setting up the infrastructure within the school to make the day possible.
  
• Hannah Baker, the Society's education project manager for her checklists, enthusiasm and support on the day not to mention her truly amazing reprographical feat in the face of adversity
  
• Support of the school science department, IT staff and of the other staff members who allowed their students to be hijacked for the afternoon.
• Great timing (the final half term for year 9 is an excellent window of opportunity for extra curricular events)
• A good topic
• Plenty of good quality activities
  
• A superb bunch of pupils who were a credit to themselves and their school
  

A big THANK YOU to all involved!

Encouraging teachers to facilitate debates

To support the pupil activities, we are doing some teacher guidance sessions that will hopefully slot into the existing teacher CPD programme at the science learning centres.

These sessions will consist of:

• Eminent scientist working in a controversial area of science speaking about the science, their work and the ethical issues.
• Showcasing freely available, relevant and helpful resources for use with pupils
• Demonstrations of debating strategies: techniques and technicalities

To this end, I am looking for a bunch of engaging and willing scientists to cover the first part, preferably working (or with an interest) in stem cells initially (more topics will be covered as the supporting materials are produced).

I will eventually be looking to recruit a crack team of about 10 teachers/facilitators to be trained up to deliver the debating strategy element. The education team at the @Bristol science museum have expertise in this and are looking into running a 'train the trainers' event for us.

Pupils' event evolves

As part of this project I am preparing some resources for ~14 year olds to encourage them (and their teachers) to debate controversial science topics starting with the ethics of embryonic stem cell research.

This may be delivered as a morning event in school or over 3 lessons (probably at the end of year 9 when the curriculum pressures ease off).

The intended schedule will run as follows:

• Introduction
• Stem cells "the science" slide show
• Guided web quest of "the science"
• Web quest debrief
• Stem cells "the ethics" slide show
• Roleplay of perspectives
• Group based writing frame activity
• Class discussion/feedback session
• Video of "eminent" perspectives
• Warm-up activity
• Preparation for debate
• Debate
• X factor style Feedback

The BS education committee have been a great source of expertise to consult in the preparation of resources for this event

Helen Watson has found a suitable pilot school to trial the activities with on 27th June, Ed Wood, John Lackie and Robert Rowney have all been very generous in reviewing my draft materials and Ian Harvey has kindly shared his experiences and contacts for the debating element. Chris Willmott is helping with the film aspect and has some good contacts for me to explore.

Thanks to everyone for your help!