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STEM News

STEM Newsletter

Every month Lancashire Education Business Partnership brings you an up to the minute summary of Science Technology Engineering and Maths opportunities that are available to Lancashire schools.

The STEM Newsletter for June/July 2010 is located here, and contains a multitude of information; from teacher CPD, competitions, FREE resources, STEM outreach activity and funding opportunities.

Please get in touch if you need any additional information on any of these opportunities or even if you want to discuss further how your school, business or you personally can get involved with the exciting STEM enhancement activity being undertaken in Lancashire.

LATEST NEWS!

It's Our Planet Awards

This year Groundwork Pennine Lancashire will be hosting the It's Our Planet Awards for schools. These Awards are to recognise schools' amazing achievements in improving environmental performance and all of the hard work that they do. Award categories are: Global Citizenship Award, Sustainable Travel Award, Waste Savers Award, Bright Sparks Energy Efficiency Award, and Green Fingers Award for School Grounds. We are also looking to recognise the hard work that teachers, heads, governors, teaching assistants, volunteers or parents have done in your school towards making it more environmental and sustainable with the Eco-supporter Award. The deadline for applications is the end of term (23rd of July)

For more information and an application form contact Suzi McPherson on 01254 669 057 or suzi.mcpherson@groundwork.org.uk

Cool Climate Champions crowned

STAFF and pupils at Middleforth C of E Primary School have won £1,000 for their school in a competition encouraging Lancashire schools to "go green".

The Cool Climate Challenge was open to all schools, which had participated in Lancashire County Council's Cool Climate Project, and encouraged them to come up with ideas to make practical changes to reduce their environmental impact.

Pupils at the school held a successful "switch off fortnight" to reduce the amount of energy wasted through lights and appliances being left on with children and staff pledging to switch lights and equipment off when they were not being used.

Mrs Bird, the schools eco-coordinator, said: "At the end of the two weeks the number of appliances on standby had halved, and more than 3 times as many lights were switched off.

"This project means we have learnt that even the little things we each do can have a big effect. Reducing our environmental impact is a real team effort with every child in the school having the opportunity to contribute."

The school plan to use their prize money by developing and expanding their existing vegetable gardens and grow salad and crops to be used in school lunches.

To read the full press release click here.

Egg Descent Challenge Final

On Wednesday 31st March, teams of pupils representing three Blackpool Primary Schools (Devonshire Primary School, Norbreck Primary School and St. John Vianney’s Catholic Primary School) and three Blackpool High Schools (Collegiate High School, Montgomery High School and Palatine Community Sports College) attended the final of the Egg Descent Challenge to take part in activities involving eggs, spaghetti and marshmallows!!

The teams competed against each other in a challenge to protect an egg dropped from a certain height. The teams had been working on the challenge for several weeks supported by STEM Ambassadors from business and industry.

Congratulations to the team from Montgomery High School for becoming overall winners of the Egg Descent Challenge after impressing the judges with their ingenious solution which involved allowing the egg to roll, under gravity, down a runway into a pot of flour to cushion the impact, and their justification for using the design.

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Every few weeks we are going to SPOTLIGHT a school who has been undertaking a fantastic STEM Project.

This months Super STEM School is

Ashton Community Science College, Preston

Ashton have been up to some fantastic STEM activity which includes:

Educational visits to places such as the Big Bang Fair , Thwaites Brewery , Alston Observatory and Preston Crown court.

A Space day during National Science and Engineering week where their feeder Primary Schools made mission patches and rockets.

A whole school Earth hour, where students wore something bright for a non-uniform day, they turned out the lights for half an hour and calculate energy saved in school and scaled up to all of UK.

A variety of competitions, including Endangered rangers, the World Maths day online interactive mental maths competition, diagnose it competitions run by British Science Association and the UCLAN Preston Schools rocket competition.

They have even undertaken STEM Charity work by making bath bombs and soaps in their STEM CLUB to sell for sports relief, and within the community their Year 11 Technology Outreach group have been working with a local care home to make sensory aids for dementia patients.

The weekly KS3 STEM club has been busy making hovercrafts, jewellery, bathbombs and soap and the KS4 girls Smelly science club have been making and testing natural beauty products.

Finally there have been a variety of STEM Speakers, including a Rock guitar scientist, Student associates from University, STEM Ambassadors and even an Ecologist who gave talks on his treks and adventures in the rainforest.