December 1, 2015
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ASE Scotland Annual Conference 2016, 5th March 2106, Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen

The ASE Scotland Annual Conference is a festival of best practice in science education for everyone with an interest- teachers, technicians, lecturers, trainees, advisors, CPD suppliers and more. Keynotes confirmed including Global Teaching Prize finalist, Richard Spencer.

Bookings now open.

Full programme and booking details will be circulated to all Scottish schools in the autumn.

There is a great discount for ASE members to attend this conference.

Date: Saturday 5th March, 9.00am – 5.00pm

Location : Robert Gordon’s College, Schoolhill, Aberdeen AB10 1FE

How to book : Please complete the booking form on page 8-9 of the conference programme and send to events@intel-events.co.uk or telephone 01786 611 030 with any further enquries.

Conference Rates	Early Bird (Ends Thursday 31 December)	Standard
Conference registration includes lunch and refreshments. There is a large discount for members.
ASE member	£50	£75
Non member	£100	£125

Conference themes, in addition to supporting teaching in biology, chemistry and physics will explore primary science, using mobile devices in practical science, careers in STEM and space science. There will also be a full exhibition of support and resources for science education at this conference.

December 1, 2015
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Promoting the Uptake of Girls into Physics and Engineering

If your school is interested in bringing a group of girls to this event at Vale of Leven Academy on Friday 12th February 2016 from 10 am to 2.30 pm then please contact Rhona McCaughey at Rhona.McCaughey@west-dunbarton.gov.uk

This is another of the successful events held to promote Physics to girls. At the event the girls get the opportunity to take part in hands on experiments and meet with female Physicists and engineers.

If you need help with transport costs then please contact Gail Millar at gailemillar@gmail.com

Don’t delay..if you are interested contact Rhona NOW!!!! as places tend to fill up quickly.

Please ask the girls you bring with you to bring their own packed lunch.

I hope you and the girls you take have a super day.

Any queries please email offline

Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2016

Gail

December 1, 2015
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Delve and Sway now available to Glow users

Two new services went live on 26th October 2015, Microsoft Sway and Microsoft Delve. These new services are available with your Glow username and password, accessed within Microsoft O365.

Sway allows Glow users to create highly visual presentations with ease, these can then be shared with other Glow users or with people outside of Glow. Sway can also be used to create and share interactive reports and personal stories. Sway helps users find relevant content such as images for your creation which you can drag and drop straight in to Sway.

Delve also lets you view your colleagues’ profiles, or edit your own.

Delve never changes any permissions, so you’ll only see documents that you already have access to. Other people will not see your private documents.

When you view, edit, and share documents, Delve learns from how you work and tailors the information to you on your personalised Home page. What you see in Delve is personal to you.

Visit Glow Connect to find out more.

November 30, 2015
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Scottish Space School

The Rationale

Science and technology play a large part in all our lives and in the economy of Scotland, and the Space School seeks to inspire the next generation to pursue science related courses of study, and consider careers in science and technology.

The Objectives

Provide inspiration, increase motivation and raise aspirations of young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM)
Encourage more students to study STEM subjects at National 4, National 5, Higher level and University
Promote the wide range of career opportunities in science and technology
Increase self-confidence through the development of high quality communication, team-building and problem solving skills

The History

Since its inception in 2002 1706 pupils from high schools across Scotland have taken part in the Scottish Space School, with approximately 900 now employed in well paid jobs with prospects in science and technology.

The Programme

The current programme comprises a week long residential summer school with an eclectic mix of lectures, labs and workshops all on a space theme, delivered by leading academics and researchers, and supported by NASA astronauts and engineers.

The top 10 students will be selected for a 7-day Learning Journey to Johnson Space Center in Houston in October.

The Scottish Space School at Strathclyde is open to S5 pupils in all Scottish schools.

More information can be found here.

November 30, 2015
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Physik im Advent (Physics in Advent)

You call it playing, we call it doing experiments.

With “PiA – Physics in advent”, we’ve created a special and unique kind of advent calendar: a physical advent calendar. We introduce young scientists, and everyone who has fun with it, to 24 simple and yet ingenious experiments and physics puzzles. They will arouse interest in doing experiments for yourself and ignite excitement within any observer.

From 1st to 24th December 2015, we present a little experiment as video clip every day. You can do the experiment yourself at home and answer the question on our web page throughout the day before seeing the solution video the next day. Hints to help teams will be posted on the PiA homepage at 5am CET ( 4am UTC) each day and entries have to be submitted by 11pm CET (10pm UTC).

Students in S1-S6 are eligible to compete and entrants can be individuals, classes or entire schools. In addition to fun experiments you can also win prizes. We draw prizes among the best participants in the individual categories and among the best school classes and schools.

Every participating individual or team receives a certificate with their achievements for download and print-out.

Participation in “PiA – Physics in Advent” is free.

Further details are found here.

Registration is located here.

November 27, 2015
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Opening Doors: Improving gender balance in the school environment

Opening Doors is co-funded by the IOP and Government Equalities Office, running from 2014 to 2015. The project is not specific to physics, or even science, but focuses on developing a whole-school approach to addressing gender imbalance.

The project has involved two regional networks, each made up of five schools. Network schools offered each other mutual support as they work to improve gender balance.

The evidence from the site visits was used to compile a guide to good practice for schools on addressing gender imbalance.

For more information on the Opening Doors project, please email education@iop.org.

The full guide was launched at a conference on 20 October 2015 and is available here.

November 26, 2015
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Topical Science – Oxygen discovered on a comet.

Last month, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the Rosetta mission had discovered molecular oxygen on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Tigtag and Twig can support the teaching of this event and help bring topical science into your classroom.

Further information on this discovery and suggested resources are accessible via Tigtag and Twig, both of which are available to all educators and learners in Scotland via the Glow Launch Pad.. The resources can be accessed here (Tigtag) and here (Twig). Note you will need to be logged into Glow to access these resources.

You can also register to receive e-bulletins from Tigtag and Twig.

You can also keep up to date and follow the Rosetta Mission on Twitter @ESA_Rosetta.

November 26, 2015
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Science for Scotland’s Future

This is a free event for all those interested in education, learning and teaching. Registration to the event is accessible from here.

Teachers at any stage of their career or training, education advisors, support staff, local authority staff, and all those working in Scottish Education are welcome at the event, the more the merrier!

Date: Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Venue: McCance Building (Room 301) University of Strathclyde

Address: 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow

Time: 5.00pm for 5.30pm start with the event concluding at 8.00pm

Follow the on screen instructions to create an account, which will then enable you to enter your details to the register.

November 25, 2015
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Einstein 100: Happy Birthday General Relativity

Award-winning animator Eoin Duffy has teamed up with filmmaker Jamie Lochhead and science communicator / astrophysicist Anais Rassat to create a striking 3 minute animation narrated by David Tennant that celebrates 100 years of Einstein’s greatest work – general relativity.

Einstein first presented the theory on the 25^th of November 1915, 100 years ago today. The theory – which describes gravity, space and time – is regarded as the greatest feat of thinking about nature to come from a single mind. It explains everything from how planets in the solar system orbit our sun, to black holes and how the Universe evolved after the Big Bang.

Astrophysicist Anais Rassat explains: “Einstein’s theory of general relativity is not just about understanding gravity, it is central to our understanding of the entire Universe”. Jamie Lochhead adds “Einstein’s big idea was the concept of warped space and time. It’s mind-bending stuff!”

With modern telescopes, scientists have determined that Einstein’s theory requires nearly 70% of the universe to be made of a mysterious energy called dark energy, and 25% of dark matter, an exotic matter that has never been observed on earth. Together, this mysterious 95% is called the “dark universe” by scientists, meaning that normal matter we have on earth is only 5% of the Universe. “Understanding the nature of the dark universe is one of the major challenges of modern astrophysics ,” says Rassat.

The animation is funded by the STFC. It is hoped that on the centennial of the great theory, the film will reach a wide online audience and inspire viewers with the wonder of Einstein’s masterpiece.

Youtube: : https://youtu.be/6HQW3Wyv16I

Website: www.einstein100.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EinsteinOneHundred/

Social media hashtag: #Einstein100

November 20, 2015
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Enthuse Awards

The ENTHUSE Awards help teachers and technicians to attend world class continuing professional development courses offered by the National Science Learning Centre.

All teachers, tutors, lecturers, teaching assistants and technicians involved in science education at state funded schools and colleges in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can apply for an ENTHUSE Award to help them cover the cost of attending certain courses offered by the National Science Learning Centre.