May 13, 2015
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Have you seen hen harriers?

The hen harrier is one of our most alluring raptors – with the male’s skydancing courtship display one of nature’s great sights.

The Heads Up for Harriers project aims to better understand the threats facing Scotland’s hen harriers –and ultimately promote recovery of the species – by working in partnership with land managers.
Found mainly across moorland throughout Scotland, hen harrier numbers were around 500 pairs in 2010. In many areas they are now struggling to breed, or absent. Elsewhere in the UK they are faring even worse. Factors accounting for these changes in distribution and numbers across Britain include illegal persecution, land use changes resulting in losses of moorland nesting habitat and feeding range, and predation of eggs and young by foxes, crows and other predators.

Have you seen hen harriers?
We want a clearer picture of where hen harriers are being seen in early spring and then evidently disappearing later on. There may be several reasons for this: They may simply have moved on for natural reasons, or been harassed and forced to move (which is illegal); or
Birds may have been killed naturally by large predators such as golden eagles and foxes, or illegally by people; or
Harriers may have settled to nest and then been overlooked (they can be inconspicuous).

How can you help?
We are looking to members of the public to report any sightings of hen harriers.

What would we like you to do?
We would like your records sent to us as follows:
Hen harriers seen? Male / female / pair together?
Behaviour? Was the bird flying low when hunting (they quarter just a couple of metres above the ground, dropping quickly on a vole, young rabbit or small bird), or higher up moving from one area to another. Was it calling by ‘chittering’, or skydancing?
Place, date and time of sighting? Six figure grid reference ideally (or details of location e.g. name from OS map of the nearest hill or burn, footpath, road or other details so that we could revisit the area to make follow-up observations where needed), with date and time.
You can report sightings by phone to 07767 671973, email to: HenHarrier@snh.gov.uk (it’s not case sensitive), or post to: Heads up for Harriers, Scottish Natural Heritage, Great Glen House, Leachkin Road, Inverness IV3 8NW
If e-mailing sightings please make sure you provide your name, contact email and phone number so we can get in touch to follow up your sighting.

find more information at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats/paw-scotland/what-you-can-do/hen-harriers

May 12, 2015
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PhD Studentship

Polli:Nation: Citizen Science and Environmental Education in the School Grounds

Applications are now invited for a full-time 3 year PhD studentship
The School of Education, University of Stirling is now seeking applicants for a funded, full-time, three year PhD studentship. The studentship will involve the researcher in evaluating and researching some key aspects of an innovative school-based citizen science and environmental education project: Polli:Nation.

The Polli:Nation project is designed to directly involve schools in recording, conserving habitat for, and restoring the abundance and diversity of pollinating insect species in the UK. The project will be led by Learning Through Landscapes (LTL), the UK charity dedicated to enhancing outdoor learning and play for children, who have recently been awarded £1.4 M from the Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver the project across all four of the UK countries. Partners include Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, and the OPAL (citizen science) network and working to help deliver the project with The Conservations Volunteers and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

For further information please contact Alison Motion (amotion@ltl.org.uk ) at Grounds for Learning, Janet McCurdie (Administration at School of Education, University of Stirling j.h.f.mccurdie@stir.ac.uk or Dr Greg Mannion (greg.mannion@stir.ac.uk

May 11, 2015
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A Rough Guide to Types of Scientific Evidence – Compound Interest

This infographic looks at science in general, rather than just chemistry. It’s in a similar vein to the Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science posted last year, but this time looking at the hierarchy of different types of scientific evidence. You might think science is science, but some evidence is ranked higher in the scientific community than others, and having an awareness of this can help you sort the science from the pseudoscience when it comes to various internet claims.

This graphic was inspired by a Twitter exchange regarding the artificial sweetener aspartame, during which one user who with repeatedly linked to poor quality ‘evidence’ in order to try and prove their point.

May 11, 2015
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Sciences Open Day – 28th May 2015

Moffatt Academy, Dumfries and Galloway
10am to 3pm, Sciences Open Day – 28th May 2015.

We are pleased to announce that Moffatt Academy has kindly agreed to host our next sciences open day event. This professional learning event presents a valuable opportunity to learn about the approaches to sciences developed by the 3-18 all-through school at Moffatt Academy which have been identified through the inspection process as having ‘very good’ provision for its learners.

The event is aimed at Quality Improvement Officers, Science Development Officers, science coordinators, school leaders and primary and secondary practitioners responsibility for sciences as well as national agencies and partner organisations.

The event will provide delegates with an opportunity to hear about various aspects of work taking place across the sciences including:
• innovative practice in relation to primary/secondary transitions both in the all-through setting and also across the cluster
• cluster working groups to develop progressive programmes of study from 3-18
• use of engaging contexts for learning
• development of literacy skills within sciences.

There will be a further session delivered by the school to share their experiences of operating as an all-through school.

In addition, optional professional learning sessions will be run in the afternoon by Education Scotland staff on the following themes:

• Assessment in the sciences within primary and early learning and childcare settings (Louise Morton, Primary Science Development Officer)
• NQ support for sciences through GLOW (Grant McAllister, Secondary Science Development Officer)

To register for this event please use the following survey monkey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZJXJVCM

There is no cost to this event. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

For further information about the event please contact Joanne Walker:
joanne.walker@educationscotland.gov.uk

May 11, 2015
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How studying science can lead to winning a BAFTA

By Karen Hornby, Science Specialist, National STEM Centre.

“I don’t like science. My favourite subject is English.”

“I don’t need science. I want a job in journalism or creative media.”

We’ve all heard comments like this, but how do we motivate these students and also help them to realise that a good understanding of science would greatly enhance their career opportunities in areas such as journalism, communications and creative media.

Why not introduce a topic based around cutting edge science or ethical issues with a quote from David Reay, Science Journalist for the Times?

“Every piece of research is based on the scientist saying, ‘I want to discover something new that makes an impact on the world’. We’re the people who have to turn that into copy and get the message across.”

Challenge your students to use their creative skills to present a complex scientific topic to the general public.

Science EXTRA! provides a case study (Students in Print) which shows how working with a local community newspaper can provide students with the opportunity to write up a science-based news story for publication. Rather than asking all students write their own article, you could encourage the class to work as a team to produce the news story. In addition, you could ask one of the journalists from the paper to visit the class to explain how to approach the task and provide guidance on research, writing, headline composition and graphic design.

You could also use elements of this resource from the Young Journalists Academy to prepare them for the task – the activities and film clips are taken directly from the highly prestigious and successful YJA Summer School, which focused on biomedical issues in the media in 2012.

Every year, the YJA has run an annual summer school for London state-school students who have the potential, but lack the ‘right contacts’, to break into journalism. Working with many of the leading journalists in the UK, over 90 per cent of graduates of the summer school, all from state schools, go on to do further work in the media. This should certainly grab the attention of students wanting a career in this field!

Along with activities, there are plenty of top tips and concrete pieces of advice from leading science journalists for writing and broadcasting about scientific issues.

Introduce the activities above with this film, in which freelance science writer Helen Carmichael talks about writing on a range of topics and for different audiences. She describes how she combines her knowledge of science with skills in researching and presenting information to produce an engaging science-based story.

“It’s your job as a journalist to find the interesting angle within any topic. So, for example, this is an article I wrote for a teenage magazine called Flipside that you might be familiar with. This was all about special effects in the movies. I talked to a couple of people who were making up special effects on movie sets for this article and what I realised as I spoke to them was you have to know a lot about science to actually be a good technician on a movie.”

After watching the film, you could provide plenty of different science articles for students to look at and work in groups to identify the key features of each style of publication – the English Department will be able to help you with teaching strategies for doing this!

A display illustrating the variety of careers in science communication can also capture students’ interest. They will be surprised to learn that qualifications in science lead to some great career opportunities in journalism and creative media.

This poster introduces producer/director Alex Tate who studied zoology at university and then took a Masters in Science Communication, with a focus on science media production. He now travels the world, combining his love of science with his skills in creative media. His varied job involves script writing, working with graphic designers, animation companies and music composers, not to mention winning a BAFTA!

May 11, 2015
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Fuselab – Go

FuseLab Go is Dragons Den for young people aged 15- 18 years. This is your chance to bring your ideas for new products to life through a free two day workshop.

The workshop takes as its starting point the problems involved in inhabiting a new planet. Over the two days you will work in small teams with inspirational mentors and experts from the areas of design, technology and business to solve a problem, to innovate and invent, giving you the opportunity to share your ideas with real innovators. At the end of the two days you and your team will pitch your idea for a new product.

This is a great crash course in how to make and test new products and services – it’s a lot of fun too!

To apply go to http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/fuselab

May 11, 2015
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National Women in Engineering Day 23rd June 2015

National Women in Engineering Day was set up by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and is dedicated to raising the profile and celebrating the achievements of women in engineering

Encouraging girls into engineering careers will not only increase diversity and inclusion but help to fill the substantial future job opportunities that have been predicted in this sector.

The idea behind National Women in Engineering Day is to encourage all groups (Governmental, educational, corporate, Professional Engineering Institutions, individuals and other organisations) to organise their own events in support of the day, and link them together for maximum impact through the use of the NWED logo, corresponding website, and supporting resources.

Organisers should aim to get as much publicity for their events as possible, to get ‘engineering’ and ‘girls’ (or women!) into the same sentence as often as possible, and to start to raise the profile of an engineering career as a great choice, with an exciting future, and amazing opportunities.

NWED Resource Packs are now available to request free of charge from nwed@wes.org.uk or to download from the site www.nwed.org.uk.

April 30, 2015
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Superhero Science: First Class

Superhero Science: First Class is an exciting new science communication show for P5-7 which takes students on an interactive learning experience, delivering scientific concepts in a fun and engaging way.
The show is presented by an Agent of the fictional ‘A.W.E.S.O.M.E’ agency and features interactive demonstrations, a multimedia presentation and ‘choose your own adventure’ style audience participation while investigating the science of how superpowers might theoretically work.

The show is 60 minutes long and is followed by an optional Q&A session.

For further information :

Tweets by SuperScienceAoA

www.facebook.com/superheroscienceaoa

April 28, 2015
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Institute of Physics: Project Officers Improving Gender Balance

Project Officers, IGB Scotland
Department: Education
Location: Scotland – Central Belt and Fife
Salary:£38,570 p/a (pro-rata)

We are looking for two full time equivalent Project Officers to implement the successful delivery of a new pilot programme working in partnership with Skills development Scotland and Education Scotland; ‘Improving Gender Balance’.

The Project Officers will work closely with schools to find ways of reducing the gender imbalance of students progressing to STEM subject Higher level, particularly in physics. The Project Officers will develop and facilitate a programme which includes three interventions which each trial a different, evidence-based approach to tackling the issue.

Responsibilities

The two Project Officers will support six Partner Schools and their cluster primary schools during the course of the project. The nature of the support will be different for each strand, but may include providing focused support for teachers in the science departments, arranging activities for students in the schools and partner primary schools, and developing and implementing whole school approaches to combatting gender stereotyping.

About You

The successful post-holders will be extremely proactive with a can-do attitude. They will have excellent project management skills and a high level of interpersonal and communication skills, including a proven ability to influence others and gain trust and commitment.
•A degree or equivalent in a science or social science subject is essential.
•A familiarity with the Scottish secondary school system and with the issues surrounding gender imbalance in schools is also required.

The posts can be home based or based in Education Scotland’s offices, although the post-holders will spend the majority of their working hours in the Partner Schools, which will be in the Central Belt and Fife. Regular travel to the schools will therefore be an essential part of the role.

About Us

There are a variety of full time, part time and flexible positions available. The posts are offered on a fixed term contract of one year, with a probable extension for a further two years.

In addition to a competitive salary, we also offer employees a comprehensive benefits package including an excellent pension scheme, private medical insurance and generous annual leave. We also offer a range of other benefits including childcare vouchers, gym membership and travel insurance.

For further information on this role please see the job description below

The Insitute kindly requests no contact from recruitment agencies regarding this role.

Closing date for applications: Monday 4 May 2015

Interviews to be held: Friday 22 May 2015 at The Royal Society of Edinburgh
Further Information
Job Description

Apply now