Another Two Weeks Gone By

Gosh, the last two weeks have flown by. We're another tech down and still doing AS/A2 resit practical exams at lunchtime and after school but the technician team have mangaged admirably. Just one more week and we SHOULD have time to reflect, organise and even experiment. Having said that, we will be running the Stepping Stones 'So You Want to Be a School Science Technician' course immediately after Whitsun. In the weeks leading up to the course, each of the attendees are invited to a morning 'work-shadowing' with us. It's a chance for them to see what it is like working in a secondary school as well as get a flavour of what the job entails. We also learn something of their background which helps us to run the three evening sessions of the course effectively. Of course the work-shadowing takes up quite a bit of time as well as the preparation for the all the practical activities that are part of the course. And, also of course, it is why we do it this time of the year - same as all the other science dept annual events, many of which require our contribution. For example, the science college will be hosting quite a lot of special science practical lessons for local primary school pupils as well as shared events for the higher key stages.

So this week, we had our first work-shadower who enjoyed her visit and is very enthusiastic about the course, which is great. Also, our science tech who attended the NSCL Experienced Technician course with Dani, gave us an interesting presentation at our weekly tech training hour on what he's learnt (using some of Dani's blog resources for which we are most grateful). We had a fun activity making micro motors.

and had some useful discussions on our approach to supplying lesson resources linked to learning outcomes and feedback from teaching colleagues as well as some new ideas for demos and other practical activities.

At science club this week we did 'bubbles' outside. I'm not sure how much science was involved but the kids just loved it. We made up buckets of soap solution with water, Fairy liquid and glycerol. They dipped pre-formed shapes in it or rolled up paper cones and experimented with bubbles within bubbles, sizes and quantity. We also had a paddling pool of solution with a string wrapped hula hoop and a science museum kit of an inflatable circle 'trough' and a plastic ridged hoop, both for the purpose of making pupils inside a bubble. It was a challenge for them to get a good full height 'bubble'. I'm not too sure that we got the ratio of glycerol : Fairy liquid : water right - there are three different recipes in our instructions - or whether the heat of the bright sunshine and light intermittent breeze made it tricky. The science musuem kit needs to be on a perfectly level surface as the immersion trough is pretty minimal. I would say their hoop is superior to the string-wrapped hula hoop though. Anyway, it was wonderful sitting in the sun on a nearby bench ( I AM getting on you know) and snapping pics of the fun, so I thought. The trouble with digital cameras is you can't see the display clearly on a sunny day and it was in movie mode for some time. Blow! So, later that day, when I came to record my aforementioned soda snake demo, which DID work, the camera had run out of memory. And when I sorted that our, and tried again at the end of Friday, that soda snake demo did NOT work. Back to the Kolb's learning cycle. Humph!

Finally, here's something, maybe even a health hazard, that you probably would not have predicted.

23 Students in a practical exam diligently following instructions to dissolve a quantity of amino acid in a copper salt solution to form complex crystals by vigorously stirring the mixture with a glass rod in a 100cm3 beaker. It was painful. The teacher in charge had to have ear plugs.