Welcome to our fortnightly STEM blog post. Keep reading to find out more about exciting STEM developments across Scotland. Please feel free to share this post with colleagues and school partners.
National eLearning offer: Resource spreadsheets for physics, chemistry, biology and human biology are available from our National e-Learning site: National eLearning Offer secondary resources – more details available here.
IOP Scotland CLPL: Mars 2020 – Perseverance and Ingenuity – a NASA in Aberdeen workshop
The NASA Perseverance rover is due to land on Mars on 18 February. Its mission is to look for signs of ancient life and to collect samples of rock and soil. Perseverance carries with it the Ingenuity helicopter drone, the first powered vehicle sent to fly in the atmosphere of another planet. Find out about suitable classroom activities associated with this major mission. This event is suitable for primary and secondary teachers across all of the sciences. The fifth in a series of space science online CLPL events is produced and delivered as part of the NASA in Aberdeen project #inspiringthenextgeneration
19:30-20:15, Thursday, 14 January 2021
Skills Development Scotland – Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan: responding to
Scotland’s declaration of a Climate Emergency and targets to meet net zero emissions by 2045,
The Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan sets out a clear direction for the reorientation of our skills system, and signals the role that businesses, communities and individuals across Scotland will play in achieving this.
Food, STEM & Sustainability Online Teacher Training: The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET), The Rowett Institute, Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) are offering teachers and educators online training opportunities highlighting the importance of food. The online training (endorsed by Education Scotland) covers four main subject areas –
Technology & Engineering, Health & Wellbeing, Math, Big Data and food and Food & Climate.
Webinars for each subject area will start with Technology & Engineering webinar focusing on the production of haggis, neeps and tatties on 20th January at 3.30pm. The online training site will go live in February with webinars running in January, February and March. Register for online sessions and webinars here.
Creative Thinking Level 5 & 6 – The Pilot Programme : Working alongside Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College, Daydream Believers have created a level 5 and level 6 award in Creative Thinking, useful for STEM learning and Learning for Sustainability. The workshop on 29 January is open to anyone interested in piloting the award in the 2020/2021 academic session.
IOP Resource for learning at home
Throughout 2020, the Institute of Physics has been creating resources to support home learning – Do Try This At Home. Before the Christmas break, they developed a winter-themed activity pack for upper primary ages that contains experiments, activities and literacy-building features to help enrich the science curriculum and build science capital within the family.
To view the activity pack and the range of materials developed for Do Try This At Home, please visit: www.iop.org/AtHome
The Do Try This At Home pack and videos are based on some of the always popular Marvin and Milo activities. All 155 can be downloaded from IOP Spark at https://spark.iop.org/collections/marvin-and-milo
Dates for your diary
2021 – The United Nations has declared 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust, the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, and the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables.
The World Health Organisation has designated 2021 as the International Year of Health and Care Workers
International Women’s Day 8 March 2021
British Science Week 5-14 March 2021
