Ambassador News December 2011 Welcome to the latest STEM newsletter Contents Welcome to the Newsletter! ...... 2 Adding an Activity to the Database ...... 2 Ambassador Events ...... 2 URGENT - School, – Technology activity day...... 2 STEM day at Ricard’s Lodge High School, Wimbledon ...... 3 Careers talks for groups in years 10 and 11, School ...... 3 Science and Engineering Careers event for years 10 and 11 ...... 3 St Johns Beaumont School – Career Talks ...... 3 Careers evening at Rosebery School, Epsom ...... 3 STEM Careers Fair, The Holt School, Wokingham ...... 3 Work Experience for teaching staff ...... 4 Reading College – Staff day: employability ...... 4 The Warwick School, Redhill – STEM Careers session ...... 4 Primary Engineer Challenge Regional Finals ...... 4 Highdown School, Reading – Year 8 Science and Engineering Fair ...... 4 Westgate School, Slough - After school Science lectures ...... 5 Slough Grammar School – Physics and Engineering activities/talks for girls ...... 5 News ...... 5 STEMNET Awards ...... 5 Lab in a Lorry ...... 5 Engineering Your Future ...... 6 Investigation Week – An Ambassador’s Viewpoint ...... 6 And finally…...... 7 Contact us ...... 7

Welcome to the Newsletter! Welcome to the Winter Edition of the STEM Ambassadors Newsletter for Surrey and Berkshire. We have lots of volunteering opportunities in the New Year; please see the table below for more details. We have also outlined how to add an activity to the database for those of you that are unsure about this. Please do keep in touch about any activities you are participating in.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Adding an Activity to the Database If you are participating in events and haven’t either told us about it or added it to the database, then please do so. Every activity is valued and it is important that we know about it, even if it hasn’t been organised through us. Any activity that involves participation with schools on STEM-related activities counts, so make sure you keep us up to date. Events that you are planning to take part in also can be added to the database up to six months in advance. As the STEMNET insurance is only valid for activities recorded on the database before the event, we recommend you add activities before they take place.

To log an activity on the database, you need to log in at https://db.stemnet.org.uk using the email and address and password you registered with (if you have forgotten your password, you can reset it via the ‘Forgotten Your Password’ link on the login page). After you’ve logged in, you should be able to see several links including options to add a single school or multi school activity. You can add your activity by clicking on one of these links and inputting the information requested. If you do have any problems with this, then please let us know. Also if you don’t have time to log activities yourself, then we are happy to do it for you. Send us an email at [email protected] stating the nature of the activity, the date it was held (or will be held), the names of any schools involved and an estimate as to the number of students.

Ambassador Events If you would like to participate in any of the following activities, please contact us at [email protected] or call Jan to discuss the opportunities on 0118 378 4603.

URGENT - , Surrey – Technology activity day When: Tuesday 31st January, 9.00-3.00 Where: Hinchley Wood School, , KT10 0AQ Details: The school is organising a Technology day for year 8 students and would like to have a rotation of activities, some of them ideally linked to textiles, food technology, resistant materials and graphics (the four subjects that are taught as part of Design Technology). If you work in Technology or Engineering and have any ideas for activities that you could deliver, please let us know. Alternatively, if you would like to help, but don’t have an activity at the moment, we can help you with ideas and structuring an activity.

Please contact Jan for more information at [email protected] or 0118 378 4603.

STEM day at Ricard’s Lodge High School, Wimbledon th When: Wednesday 7 March, 8:30-15:00 Where: Ricard’s Lodge High School, Wimbledon, SW19 7HB Details: Ricard’s Lodge High School in Wimbledon is holding a STEM Day for all Year 9 students on Wednesday 7 March and would like to invite as many STEM Ambassadors as possible to take part! The day will consist of a combination of talks, activities and careers speed- networking so there will be a role for Ambassadors with any STEM background who would like to take part.

Careers talks for groups in years 10 and 11, When: February or March (dates to be mutually agreed) Where: Reigate School, Reigate, RH2 7NT Details: Reigate School are looking for STEM Ambassadors to give career talks to their students in years 10 and 11. They are particularly looking for Ambassadors from Engineering and Medical/Biomedical companies.

Science and Engineering Careers event for years 10 and 11 When: During Science and Engineering week, 9-18 March Where: Howard of Effingham School, Effingham, KT24 5JR Details: Howard of Effingham School in Surrey are looking for Ambassadors to help with their careers event in Science and Engineering week in March.

St Johns Beaumont School – Career Talks When: Any Wednesday in January, February or March, 4:15-5pm Where: St Johns Beaumont School, Windsor, SL4 2JN Details: St Johns Beaumont School in Windsor are looking for ambassadors to visit their school on a Wednesday afternoon to give a talk about careers in STEM subjects to their students in years 6, 7 and 8. If you are interested in enthusing young minds about studying STEM subjects and are available any Wednesday afternoon in January, February or March, please contact us and we will put you in touch with the school.

Careers evening at Rosebery School, Epsom When: Tuesday 21st February 2012 , 6.00pm – 8.00pm Where: Rosebery School, Epsom, KT18 7NQ Details: Rosebery School are holding a careers fair in February next year, aimed at students in years 9-13. The event will be run like a market place with tables where employers/organisations will be able to speak to students about their specialist area. Ambassadors are invited to set up a stand and discuss their career with the students.

STEM Careers Fair, The Holt School, Wokingham When: Thursday 8th March, 9:00-16:30 Where: The Holt School, Wokingham, RG41 1EE Details: The Holt School in Wokingham are holding a careers fair to promote careers in the STEM and would welcome support from Ambassadors to encourage students from schools across Wokingham, to explore the exciting opportunities available to them. This will be aimed at students in years 9-13. Please contact Sally Davey at [email protected] for more information.

Work Experience for teaching staff When: Two or three days in April, June or July (dates negotiable)

Details: A member of staff from Farnham Sixth Form College is interested in work experience in Physics or Engineering industries, particularly in companies that recruit graduates. This is

to help with careers advice at the college. Only a few days spent at the company either working or shadowing a member of staff is required.

Reading College – Staff day: employability When: Tuesday 3rd January Where: Waingels College, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4RF Details: The college is organising an employability training day for all staff and they are seeking potential workshops and people to lead them. The topic for the day is how to make students more employable and it would great to have a workshop focusing on STEM industries. Another possible topic could be women in STEM industries.

The Warwick School, Redhill – STEM Careers session th When: Wednesday 25 January, 8.30-1.30 (Healthcare and related careers only) Friday 27th January, 8.30-1.30 (all other STEM careers) Where: The Warwick School, Redhill, RH1 4AD Details: The school is inviting STEM professionals from a variety of careers to be available to provide information on their discipline and day to day work. Groups of 4-6 students will visit each ambassador for 10-15 minutes at a time. The students will be tasked with meeting a variety of visitors to help them appreciate the wide range of careers that there are. Small numbers of students from other local schools will also be taking part.

Primary Engineer Challenge Regional Finals th When: Friday 10 February Where: Reed’s School, Cobham, KT11 2ES Details: Primary Engineer has arranged a number of Regional Finals for our Primary Engineer th Challenge which will lead to the National Finals day to be held on Saturday 24 March at Manchester Communication Academy. One of the regional finals will be at Reeds School in February and ambassadors are asked to volunteer to be judges. These are always very enjoyable and fulfilling sessions with the young engineers. If you are interested and able to help please contact Susan Curtis on 0161 205 7507 or at [email protected] for further information and please keep us informed by copying [email protected]

Highdown School, Reading – Year 8 Science and Engineering Fair When: Tuesday 13th March, 8.30-4.40 (or part of day) Where: Highdown School, Reading, RG4 8LR Details: Highdown School is staging a mini Big Bang, which they hope to develop further in years to come. The students will be displaying the results of projects they have undertaken. Ambassadors are needed to have ‘stalls’ with ‘quick-fire’ activities or demonstrations so that students can go round having a go at simple experiments of view interesting examples. The organisers are also keen to have a large exhibit, such as a high tech car on display, possibly in the foyer or outside the school hall.

Westgate School, Slough - After school Science lectures When: After school, dates to be mutually agreed Where: Westgate School, Slough, SL1 5AH th Details: The school would like to host lectures for 6 formers from local schools on topics of interest to students studying Science at A level. If you could give a talk on an aspect of Biology, Chemistry or Physics, please let Jan know or call her to discuss further.

Slough Grammar School – Physics and Engineering activities/talks for girls When: Dates to be mutually agreed Where: Slough Grammar School, Slough, SL3 7PR Details: Ambassadors are asked to give short interactive talks (with or without activities) aimed at interesting girls (years 10 and 12) in Physics and Engineering.

News

STEMNET Awards The STEMNET Awards were held in London on December 13th 2011, with the aim of showing our appreciation in the work that employers and ambassadors do in inspiring young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

The event was held in the House of Lords, and awards were handed out by Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

We were delighted to hear that one of our Ambassadors, John S Clarke MBE, received an award with his company NIS Limited. The company won the award for ‘Most Dedicated Employer’ due to their support and encouragement to ambassadors in the business. As part of the prize, they were awarded the chance to visit the CERN facility in Geneva.

Lab in a Lorry The Lab in the Lorry visited Berkshire this term. Lab in a Lorry is an interactive mobile science laboratory staffed by practising scientists and engineers. Demonstrations and hands-on activities were run by STEM Ambassadors, who seemed to enjoy the event as much as the students did!

Ambassador Graham Simms commented, “Our task was not necessarily to ‘teach’ the science, it's more about getting the children interested and excited in science by them having a 'hands-on' experience using the equipment and skills available that the schools may not have.

“When I heard comments from the children like ‘wow’, ‘this is amazing’, ‘this is cool’ and ‘this is sick’ (apparently, the last comment is good!) it was very rewarding. I got home each day quite exhausted, but on a ‘high’ from the exhilarating experience.”

Engineering Your Future Engineering Your Future, a careers event aimed at year 12 students interested in Engineering, was held at Reading University in September. The day involved a variety of activities including:

building a model oil rig from straws and marshmallows designing a flood defence system "speed dating", where students get to speak one-to-one with engineers from different disciplines

Feedback from Ambassadors about the event:

“The enthusiasm of some students on learning more about the discipline can be very rewarding. Good networking with the engineers too!”

“It was interesting talking to the delegates within our group and it felt good trying to guide the students.”

“Met lots of people from the industry and talked to students, bringing back memories of some of the reasons I chose Chemical Engineering.”

Investigation Week – An Ambassador’s Viewpoint “As part of Investigation Week, I visited Ashley C of E Primary School in Walton-on-Thames to speak with the Year 3 children there, discuss what they knew about scientific research, and get involved in a practical science session. On arrival, it was clear that the children were involved in a range of engaging activities that were encouraging them to explore their surroundings, with a strong emphasis on STEM.

“As a STEM Ambassador, I had been invited to conduct a short session that related to my own research work (analytical chemistry, separation science, spectroscopy), and in which the children could do their own practical investigations. I took inspiration from “Classroom Gems – Games, ideas and activities for Primary Science” (John Dabell), and the activity named “Messy Mixtures” – this involved separating five different components from a mixture (big beans, small beans, paperclips, sand, and salt). Each of the five groups of six children was provided with a tray containing these items, and encouraged to discuss/plan how they could best separate them using the equipment provided.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see that the groups worked well together to solve the task, and were keen to try out various options that they had proposed. The task included a range of techniques from basic (separation by size using a sieve) to more advanced concepts (separation of salt and sand based on solubility in water using filter paper), and provided a good environment for the children to ask questions about the processes involved.

“Throughout the activity, the class teacher, assistants and I stressed the importance of each group writing down observations on what approaches they had tried, and which had worked. This led to some class discussion at the close of the session, and an opportunity for me to give a demonstration of one suitable way of separating the mixed materials. I talked through the rationale for each stage (sieving, filtering, etc), and tried to relate this to real research situation in (bio)chemical analysis. The session was repeated for another class in Year 3, and it was interesting to see which elements of their approach differed.

“It is great to see schools supporting STEM activities in this way, and I look forward to participating in future Ambassador activities. Thanks to Charlotte Merriman for helping organise the session, and most of all Badger Class and Fox Class in Year 3 for being so enthusiastic!” Ambassador Toby Athersuch

And finally…. Remember this chair from Jim’ll Fix It? It turns out it was designed by two of our Ambassadors! Kevin Warwick was famously responsible for inventing the chair, and Ian Smith worked on the arm that gave out the medals. Ian says "In the late 1980's, I joined a robotics company, which produced an educational robot called the RTX. I was part of the team that produced an industrialised version (more rugged, faster and more precise) called the RT100. The RTX featured in part of an advert for an American merchant bank, it was on Tomorrow's World, and was responsible for handing out the "Jim'll Fix It" medals - with the assistance of Jimmy Saville.

“I still look back with fondness on my work with that robot, so that I now have an RTX, which I am working on an interesting demonstration of, so that I may help provide some of the fascination for technology to others that I have had, and still retain."

Do you have a claim to fame? Please let us know and we will feature you in our next Newsletter!

Contact us We can support you to develop your role. If you want any help or information, please contact the STEMNET Projects Office at [email protected]

Jan Kershaw or Caroline Crowther STEMNET Projects Office Room 105, JJ Thomson Building, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AF [email protected] [email protected] www.stemnet.org.uk http://www.reading.ac.uk/stemnet/