CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS INVITED TO APPLY TO TAKE PART IN THE SMALL WORLD INITIATIVE

The Society for General Microbiology is looking for universities* and schools to join our exciting new venture into the world of drug discovery. The Small World Initiative will give the general public, students and educators in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to work with scientists as part of a global initiative to discover new antibiotics from soil bacteria.

We are looking for 10 universities and five school and university partnerships who are passionate about practical microbiology to join us in this Initiative, during which groups of students will undertake authentic research, hoping to find the next new antibiotic. What we want from the universities and schools is enthusiasm for the subject. The Society will provide the rest!

Institutions in the UK and Ireland are eligible to apply. The closing date for applications is 30 April 2015.

You can find further details and application forms for the undergraduate scheme and the school and university partnership scheme, on our website. If you have any questions, please contact the Education and Outreach Team at smallworld@sgm.ac.uk, or on 0207 685 2682.

* Research Institutions are also welcome to apply.

Find out more about the Small World Initiative.

Science competition for all UK Secondary education students and their schools:

Curious About Copper Poster Competition

Calling the UK’s young scientists! Design an A3 poster exploring the properties of copper to win a first prize of £100 (and £500 for your school) or a runner up prize of £50 (and £250 for your school).

The competition is open to all UK students (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

1. Choose a category to explore:

Buildings and Design
Copper and its alloys have been a material of choice for architects and designers for centuries. Why? What are the properties of copper that make it such a versatile and attractive material?

Electronics and CommunicationCopper has played a key role in the development of electrical applications and is used everywhere from smart phones to space exploration. What are the properties that make it so useful?

Health and MedicineWe need copper in our diets to stay healthy, and its inherent germ-killing ability makes it the ultimate hygienic material. Why is it essential to our health?  How can it contribute to safer hospitals?

2. Design a poster:

•  Make it appealing and educational for secondary school children. 
• Give examples of copper’s use in your chosen category and explore the properties that see it so widely used.
• Answer the questions, and make sure it's A3-sized!

3. Submit your poster:

• Write in an email, or on the back of your poster: Your name and email address.Your age category: 11–14 (Years 7–9) or 14–16 (Years 10–11).Your teacher’s name and email address.Your school’s address.

• Email your poster as a PDF to bryony.samuel@copperalliance.org.uk, or post a hard copy to:
  Copper Development Association, 5 Grovelands Business Centre, Boundary Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 7TE
• All entries must be received on or before May 29 2015!

Judges will be looking for factual accuracy and a clear demonstration that you understand the properties of copper. Creativity, attractiveness, originality and clarity of layout will also be assessed.

Judging will take place in June and winners will be notified by email. Prizes will be sent to the school. If a school has more than one student winner, it will receive the largest prize only.

Information and Inspiration

To get started, you can browse our Education Resources, Copper: Key to a Sustainable and Healthy World and theCurious About Copper brochure.

London event
Pop-Up Screens <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/> is a mobile cinema that
does a lot of open-air cinema screenings in Summer and other events in
indoor locations at less warm times of the year. They are doing a series
of five films in May which lend themselves to a bit of science
commentary. All take place at Chelsea Town Hall on Fri, Sat or Sun 15-17 May,
1pm or 6.30pm, details below.

  * Alien with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/alien-with-science-commentary/> -
    6.30pm, 15 May
  * Apollo 13 with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/apollo-13-science-commentary/>
    - 1pm, 16 May
  * Back to the Future 2 with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/back-to-the-future-2/> -
    6.30pm, 16 May
  * Shaun of the Dead with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/shaun-dead-science-commentary/> -
    1pm, 17 May
  * Good Will Hunting with science commentary
    <http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/movies/good-will-hunting-maths-commentary/>
    - 6.30pm, 17 May

Of interest to Primary & Secondary Schools:

16th March 2015, 17:07 Astro-Pi in the maths classroom by Steve Lyon

In partnership with the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada, Europe is sharing in the greatest international project of all time - the International Space Station. The ISS has enough room for its crew of six persons and a vast array of scientific experiments. It’s a lab and a home… in space!
Tim Peake is due to go to the International Space Station in November 2015 and spend six months there carrying out scientific experiments. He will be the first British ESA astronaut to visit the Space Station.
A team of leading UK Space companies, Raspberry Pi and the UK Space Agency have joined forces with Tim to offer young people the chance to devise their own app or experiment. The best of these will be taken to the ISS as part of Tim's mission and run on the Raspberry Pi computers he’s taking with him.
So – what would YOU do with a tiny computer on-board the space-station, equipped with lots of sensors, inputs and outputs? Your ideas can win great prizes for your school, no programming necessary! And to help you get started, we’ve provided lots of ideas and background learning materials.
Secondary school students can win more prizes by coding their solution in Python. Lots of help is available, so don’t worry if you’ve never written any code!
To find out more, go to astro-pi.org but hurry – Tim’s training is almost complete and your idea must be ready to fly too!

The astro-pi competition is a great opportunity to bring the excitement of space travel to your subject. Teachers of science, maths, computing and more will find resources and ideas for the classroom, helping you enrich learning for all students and prepare teams for the competition.

For info to schools for British Science Week :

Dear all,

Just a reminder - Please feel free to promote this to schools and teachers – with the opportunity for teachers to win prizes! You may also like to have a look at the wide range of resources on the site including the new Demo Insightsdownload, Demo: The Movie and a whole range of great online video resources at ww.getsetdemo.org Thanks to the various science communicators that have contributed hints, tips and ideas!

Pledge to take part in this year’s Demo Day on Thursday 19 March 2015 for British Science Week and potentially win prizes!

We are asking teachers and technicians across the UK to pledge to take part in Demo Day and to put their school on the map. By pledging to take part, you will be entered into a free prize draw with prizes kindly donated by Timstar, including a wifi microscope!

Demo Day is an annual campaign supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to inspire secondary school teachers and technicians to explore new concepts, provoke discussions and generate excitement through running science demonstrations. The campaign also provides inspiration, with a variety of resources, including the new Demo Insights resource – ‘Demo: The Movie’and a whole range of great online video resources at www.getsetdemo.org

Please pledge today and help the British Science Week team make this year’s Demo Day even bigger and better than ever! www.getsetdemo.org

From Adrian

Adrian Fenton

Head of Education
British Science Association
Wellcome Wolfson Building
165 Queen's Gate
London
SW7 5HD
T: +44 (0)20 7019 4942 
E: adrian.fenton@britishscienceassociation.org

Twitter: twitter.com/CREST Awards

Facebook: CREST facebook
Website: www.britishscienceassociation.org

British Science Association is the operating name and registered trademark of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

Registered charity: 212479 and SC039236 

Hubble 25th Anniversary

Just sharing this as it may be of interest:

Dear All,

As part of Hubble's 25th anniversary celebrations we have two initiatives

that might interest list members.

1) We are offering high-quality large-format (around 3x3m) prints of

Hubble’s anniversary image for display at European-based science centres,

museums, planetariums, nature centres and other informal education venues

interested in doing an event or unveiling on the 23 April 2015 in

celebration of the anniversary.

More information and application form here:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/Hubble25/imageunveilings/

2) If you are interested in making short films and in winning a piece of

Hubble's actual solar array - which spent 3 years in Space - then we also

have a short film competition "Ode to Hubble".

The competition is for videos of three minutes or less and as long as they

are Hubble-inspired in some way can take any form you like.

More information and application details here:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/Hubble25/odetohubble/

Let me know if you would like any further details and please share and send

to anyone you think might be interested.

Many thanks,

Georgia

--

Georgia Bladon

+44 (0)7816291261

gr.bladon@gmail.com

Public Outreach Officer - ESA/Hubble (

georgia@partner.eso.org)

Editor-in-Chief - International Astronomy Union CAPjournal

(georgia@partner.eso.org)

This may be of interest to schools looking to enrich their STEM activities:

 

The Royal Institution would be really grateful if you could spread the word about the below Grant Scheme to organisations and individuals who have contact with schools, or those who might be interested in registering on the STEM Directories as a provider of STEM enrichment activities.

For those of you who don't know, the STEM Directories are a free resource for teachers to search for external providers to help supplement their classroom activities. The Directories are managed by the Royal Institution.

If you are a provider of a STEM activity then we encourage you to register on the Directories<http://www.stemdirectories.org.uk/providers/> so that schools can search for you.

Grant scheme for enriching STEM teaching in schools now open The Ri and the Causeway Foundation are offering UK schools grants of up to £500 to host a show, talk, workshop, debate, challenge or other STEM activity to supplement their students' classroom activities.

Grants of up to £500 are being offered to eligible state-funded schools, academies and FE colleges in the UK to take part in an Enrichment and Enhancement (E&E) STEM activity from the STEM Directories before July 2015. This is an exciting opportunity for students to take part in a mathematics activity and help integrate mathematics enrichment in school practice.

The Scheme is now open and the deadline for applications is 9th February 2015 at 5pm. For more information and to apply, visit the STEM Directories website. Priority will be given to schools meeting certain criteria; please see the grant terms for more details.

If you have any questions relating to the grant scheme or the STEM Directories, please contact info@stemdirectories.org.uk>