STEM Blog

Glasgow Science Festival returns to the city throughout September with Glasgow Connects, offering a hybrid programme of events with a distinctly green tinge, inspired by the COP26 climate conference. The festival will showcase themes such as sustainability, health & wellbeing, and the environment.

Online Content
The digital programme, Science on the Sofa, features dozens of activities suitable for the classroom.
Created with partners, including the University of Glasgow, Strathclyde, GCU, UWS, Edinburgh,
The Open University and Manchester.

All content is designed to be self-led and readily available for you to engage with at your leisure.

Science on the Sofa is divided into four strands:

1. Hands-Online: dozens of experiments, activities, demos and workshops, covering a range of
subject areas including a COP26 feature. The activities are supported by instructional videos,
how-to guides and activity packs. Designed for use at home, in the classroom or community
settings, using readily available and inexpensive materials.

2. Citizen Science: introducing Spot a Bee and the Gulls Eye Project. Two citizen science
projects created by University of Glasgow researchers, inviting you to take part and help
collect valuable data.

3. COVID: Glasgow Responds: informal talks and resources exploring the contribution local
research teams have made to the ongoing efforts to tackle the pandemic.

4. Talking Science: talks on two themes, COP26 and Health & Wellbeing

In Person Events
Unfortunately, there is no specific schools programme this year due to the ongoing challenges. There are
however some public facing events,  including the programme at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens from 4 – 12 Sept, 11-2pm where there will be socially distanced activities in outdoor gazebos.

Open to the public, and most suitable for primary school aged pupils, the organisers would be delighted to welcome a school per day to this event .

All events and content are FREE!

The programme of live events and digital content is available at:

www.glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk

email: sciencefestival@glasgow.ac.uk

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.

Learning for Sustainability Awards – nominations close 12 September

In November, the United Nations COP26 Climate Summit arrives in Scotland.  With 200 world leaders in attendance, it is hoped the event will result in an historic agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and steer us clear of a climate emergency.

COP26 provides us with a unique opportunity to recognise and celebrate innovation in Scottish education and our commitment to Learning for Sustainability (LfS). Within Scotland’s curriculum, LfS is recognised as an entitlement for all learners; a recent international study showed our learners are world-leading global citizens.

The Learning for Sustainability Awards have been launched to recognise the commitment, professionalism and leadership that underpins this success.  Help us recognise the amazing achievements of Scotland’s people and the settings, schools and communities which have demonstrated passion and commitment to building a socially-just, sustainable and equitable world.

Remember – Nominations close on Sunday 12 September for the Learning for Sustainability awards.

More information and nominate here .

Scottish Learning Festival

Registration is now open for this year’s Scottish Learning Festival Online; for the first time ever the festival will be an entirely virtual event, taking place from 21 – 23 September.

Join us in a fantastic digital arena and enjoy our popular conference programme through a range of live and recorded sessions. Visit the online exhibition area and connect with exhibitors and network with colleagues – all from your own device.

Conference programme and registration available here.

Daily Discovery wall chart calendar

For 2021 the Humanist Society Scotland have produced a Daily Discovery wall chart calendar with a different scientific fact for each day of the year. The calendar is still available as a free digital download from their website.

Further information about their education resources can be found here:

www.humanism.scot/what-we-do/education/education-resources/

Northern Alliance ELC STEM network

STEM is a key part of the economy across the Northern Alliance and equally STEM skills and knowledge help us all make sense of the world around us.

This series of webinars will focus on STEM in the North and explore the inspirational experiences, connections and opportunities for all our learners.

The webinars are aimed at practitioners from early years, primary and secondary and CLD and primarily those who work within the eight Northern Alliance local authorities.

Please click on the EventBrite link to book your place on each session.

This series will be facilitated by members of the Education Scotland North Team – STEM, IGBE, Numeracy & Maths and Creativity officers and partners.

Sustainability Exchange – Using COP26 to engage students with climate change and sustainability

COP26, taking place in Glasgow in November, is an amazing opportunity to engage students with both the international climate change treaty process and wider climate change and sustainability action.

This online event, held on the 17th August 2021, explored how universities and colleges can engage students with COP26, and how we can create a sustainability legacy from COP26 within our student bodies.

This recording is aimed at student leaders, staff who run student engagement events, and teaching staff who are interested in embedding information on COP26 or wider sustainability information within their teaching. However it may be of interest to anyone in the sector – staff and students.

Using COP26 to engage students with climate change and sustainability

Dates for your diary

Climate Week Scotland   13th September

Scottish Learning Festival   21 – 23 September

COP26  Glasgow   31 October – 12 November

STEM is a key part of the economy across the Northern Alliance and equally STEM skills and knowledge help us all make sense of the world around us.

This series of webinars will focus on STEM in the North and explore the inspirational experiences, connections and opportunities for all our learners.

The webinars are aimed at practitioners from early years, primary and secondary and CLD and primarily those who work within the eight Northern Alliance local authorities.

Please click on the EventBrite link to book your place on each session.

This series will be facilitated by members of the Education Scotland North Team – STEM, IGBE, Numeracy & Maths and Creativity officers and partners.

Welcome back to the new term! We wanted to pass on the good news that Paul Downie, Science Faculty Head at Hyndland Secondary School in Glasgow and currently the WestOS Coordinator, has been awarded the Royal Society of Biology Teacher of the Year Award at UK Level: School teacher of the year award for “the very best of biology teaching” (rsb.org.uk).

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Paul has created and produced the #HigherBiologyPodcast series which has been supported through Education Scotland STEM Grants. Throughout last year, Paul was involved in coordinating the lesson development (over 1200 lessons) for the West OS (Online School) to support remote learning and also was involved in developing the Sustainable Scotland Programme with e-Sgoil (over 12,000 learners participated in this).

In receiving the award Paul paid tribute to the hard work and team-effort of his whole department and also to the many excellent practitioners that he has worked with and learned from.

The award is very well deserved and is the first time a Scottish teacher has won this award. Congratulations Paul from the EdScot Team – really delighted your contribution has been recognised in this way. Paul is still on secondment with WestOS so we’re looking forward to further collaborations this coming year.

The Communities Stories Fund has opened for applications, as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022 (YS22).

The fund is directed at providing an opportunity for communities across Scotland to put on events that tell the stories that are unique or important to them.

With £300,000 available for awards of between £500 and £5,000, the fund will provide an opportunity for new, creative events, activities and programming. Applicants are invited to respond to any of the five, cross cutting Year of Stories 2022 programme strands:

1. Iconic Stories & Storytellers
2. New Stories
3. Scotland’s People and Places
4. Local Tales and Legends
5. Inspired by Nature.

The deadline for applications for this round of funding is 1st October 2021. A further round of funding will open on 24 January 2022.

Full details of the criteria and how to apply can be found here: https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/funding/year-of-stories-2022-community-stories-fund/

Applications must be made through the Museums Galleries Scotland website, and applicants must first register online to create an account before making an application. If applicants have any questions in relation to their application they should get in touch with the MGS team by contacting grants@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk

The STEM Ambassadors in Scotland Hub have been working in partnership with Maths Week Scotland to create a selection of resources, opportunities and events to help teachers and learners engage with STEM Ambassadors to learn more about careers and to bring to life maths and numeracy. There are various ways schools can engage with activities from early/first level through to Higher Maths,

with an information session taking place on Wednesday 1 September

and free professional learning events that can be applied for – 2 SSERC Meet sessions on September 13^th and 16^th.

Find out all you need to know on the website: bit.ly/SAIS_MWS

Craft Scotland announce a brand new and FREE CLPL programme specifically aimed at supporting educators at secondary level. This is a mentoring initiative to help teachers develop creative ways of delivering craft and design in relation to STEM subjects. Successful schools will be awarded £100 towards materials and equipment.

Dates for you diary:

• Introductory online talk by designer Jeni Allison: Tuesday 7th September 2021, 5-7pm (bookings by Wednesday 1^st September at 5pm)
• Mentoring Applications Open: Wednesday 8th September 2021
• Deadline for Applications: Wednesday 29th September 2021

More information via the link below:

CLPL Teaching Contemporary Knitwear in relation to STEM

This challenge is a collaboration between Orkney International Science Festival and Orkney Renewable Energy Forum, to design, make from recycled materials and test a device that will capture wind energy for some defined purpose.

Entry is open to all ages as individuals or teams. Each entry should be accompanied by video footage, no longer than 2 minutes, showing your device in operation and including an audio description which includes the details listed in the Challenge Rules.

To submit your entry and access other resources, check the following link:
2021 Blyth Challenge

Closing date 18 October 2021