Education Support Projects Archives - Page 2 of 2

Bristol Dinosaur Project Education Programme Evaluation

Posted on September 25, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

The Bristol Dinosaur Project is a research and education programme based round the fossilised remains of the dinosaur Thecondontosaurus which were found in a quarry in the Bristol area.

In 2009, the project received Heritage Lottery funding to develop public engagement and schools’ outreach activities. Under this funding, the project has been running schools’ workshops delivered by the project’s Learning Officer, Ed Drewitt with the assistance of postgraduate students from the University of Bristol School of Earth Sciences.

Our evaluation looked at the success of these workshops through focus groups, debrief sessions, direct observation and teacher feedback questionnaires and made recommendations for future roll-outs of the workshops.

Options Research for London 2012

Posted on September 25, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

The Wellcome Trust commissioned Graphic Science to conduct a small options research study to generate ideas for a potential partnership with the Steve Redgrave Fund, to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The proposed project should satisfy the aims of the Wellcome Trust, the Steve Redgrave Fund and Sport Relief and should use sport as a mechanism to motivate disadvantaged young people with biomedical science.

Desk research carried out by Graphic Science included: an analysis of documents provided by the Wellcome Trust (including evaluations of previous Steve Redgrave Fund projects); telephone and email conversations with stakeholders; and internet research to discover activity currently taking place during London 2012, and how PE departments and community sports networks are currently coordinated.

Informed by their research, Graphic Science submitted six ideas to the Wellcome Trust and the Steve Redgrave Fund.

Investigate-UK Evaluation

Posted on September 25, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

Investigate-UK was an outreach project developed by At-Bristol and the Science Learning Centre (SLC) South West.

An Investigate-UK exhibit into liquid friction. From the Forces set.

The project aimed to pilot an integrated approach to providing enriched learning opportunities for investigation at Key Stages 2 and 3. Together At-Bristol and SLC South West developed three sets of engaging and robust ‘table top’ interactive exhibits, designed specifically with Scientific Enquiry in mind. These were developed as a direct response to repeated teacher requests for additional help in delivering Sc1 skills to students. Between August 2007 and January 2008, Investigate-UK piloted a model of rolling out the three sets of eight interactive exhibits (Energy, Forces and Structures), to schools in Bristol, Winchester and Cornwall.

We provided an independent evaluation, which was on-going throughout the project. We attended consortium meetings throughout the process to feedback findings and inform development of the project and, in order to achieve consistency, we designed evaluation materials and observation protocols for use by all members of the evaluating team.

Data was gathered via observations, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, pupil questionnaires, and a telephone survey with teachers. We also authored a case study of best practice which could be used in marketing of the project.

After School Science and Engineering Clubs Evaluation

Posted on September 25, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

In 2007, the Centre for Science Education (CSE) at Sheffield Hallam University was engaged to evaluate the After School Science and Engineering Clubs, organised by STEMNET. CSE asked us to evaluate those schools with clubs in the South West.

A dome used as the focal point for one of the after school science and engineering clubs.

We selected three schools in Cornwall, Gloucester and The Cotswolds with whom to arrange visits. Research involved in-situ observations and interviews with both students and teachers, along with the collection of visual evidence. Our findings were used to inform case studies of best practice, which new after school clubs could then use as a model for development. We were asked to produce case studies of best practice for the After School Science and Engineering Clubs (ASSEC) programme.

The case studies produced continue to be used today by the STEM Clubs and STEM Ambassadors programmes.

ARKive Education Resources

Posted on September 24, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

ARKive is an initiative of the charity Wildscreen, an online project which aims to catalogue the world’s threatened species. ARKive asked Graphic Science to develop a series of downloadable educational resources for its new education pages.

The resources were designed to engage schools both at home and overseas (in the UK Overseas Territories) with biodiversity and the ARKive website. They were supported by OTEP, the Overseas Territories Environment Programme, which is a joint programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.

We worked closely with ARKive to produce three sets of activities, on different topics related to biodiversity, appropriate for ages 7-11, 11-14 and 14-16.

The resources included:

Dinner at the Reef: A fun and interactive game, which encourages 7-11 year olds to explore food chains in a marine environment, predator-prey relationships and the fine balance of an ecosystem.

http://www.arkive.org/education/teaching-resources-7-11

Biodiversity Hospital: A session for 11-14 year olds, whereby students work in ‘medical teams’ to balance competing priorities for the conservation of an endangered species and to devise a ‘treatment’ plan.

http://www.arkive.org/education/teaching-resources-11-14

Design a Conservation Programme: A project for 14-16 year olds. By designing a conservation programme, students learn about the importance of biodiversity as well as the economic benefits and services ecosystems provide.

http://www.arkive.org/education/teaching-resources-14-16

The resources developed are each complete with a quick start guide, classroom presentations on PowerPoint, student worksheets, activity-linked resources, such as ‘Dinner at the Reef’ playing cards, or ‘Biodiversity Hospital patient charts’; and extension activities, along with full guidance for teachers on how to run the activities in the classroom.

You can download the resources from the ARKive website: http://www.arkive.org/education/

Smarter (pilot)

Posted on September 24, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

If there were pills that could make you smarter, would you take them? Should parents give brain enhancement medication to their children? Would you want to remember everything forever?

These questions and more were explored during Smarter; a Wellcome Trust funded drama debate which was piloted in secondary schools in Scotland and the West of England during 2009. An introductory dramatic scenario and a series of interactive discussion activities were delivered by pairs of professional science presenters.

The aim of Smarter was to stimulate dialogue about the social and ethical issues surrounding the use of cognitive enhancing medication, amongst KS3-KS4 pupils in England and S1-S4 pupils in Scotland. It provided the opportunity for young people to explore their own values and opinions about the contentious issue of brain enhancement. The drama and specifically tailored curriculum resources were developed by Graphic Science, in association with partners at Glasgow Science Centre.

The project was subject to intensive formative evaluation, which informed the development of Smarter UK, a Wellcome Trust funded rollout of the project.

Download evaluation report (pdf)

Get Connected

Posted on September 23, 2019May 25, 2021 by adrian@webdesigncity.co.uk

Get Connected was a suite of exhibits within the Bristol-based science centre: Explore at-Bristol.

We used multi-media equipment, including Opinion Banks, Java Café, and Around the World, to get visitors to the attraction thinking.

The Opinion Banks enabled audiences to express and explore their views about contemporary science in the context of society. The themes focused on important scientific issues such as Cloning, New Genetics and Robots.

The work has now been extended to the development of a virtual opinion bank, which can be downloaded into schools and run on existing classroom networks.

A pilot version of the software was produced and tested in schools in Bristol. In all, a total of 324 children from years 7 – 11 in four different schools took part in the trials.