November 7, 2012
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Comments Off on STEM Central Bioengineering: Concerned about super humans?
An interesting article from the BBC “Concern over ‘souped up’ human race” could add an interesting moral and ethical dimension to work around the STEM Central Bioengineering context.
October 26, 2012
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This professional learning resource provides both an overview and further detail on children and young people’s strengths and areas for improvement in numeracy within measurement, and fractions, decimal fractions and percentages (including ratio and proportion). 
It also provides guidance and advice to help inform leaning and teaching practice in line with the SSLN survey’s main objectives.
You can download the PDF entitled SSLN 2011 for all the following information from the Education Scotland website – Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy resource
The findings set out within this resource are based on an in-depth analysis of children and young people’s responses to tasks in the SSLN survey Section 1.
For each area of numeracy covered, survey-type questions are provided for illustrative purposes. This analysis provides all practitioners with an opportunity to reflect on, and explore planning for effective learning and teaching as set out in Section 2.
Explore aspects of performance at the following levels:
First level P4 – Measurement – Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages
Second level P7 – Measurement – Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages
Third level S2 – Measurement – Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages
Section 3 includes guidance and advice to support the delivery of ideas of chance and uncertainty.
Links to sections in the resource
Overview of strengths and areas for improvement in:
* Measurement and
* Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages (including ratio and proportion).
Online learning and teaching resources
Additional resources are available for fractions, decimal fractions and percentages, measurement, and ideas of chance and uncertainty are available at:
* First Level P4
* Second Level P7
* Third Level S2
You can find out more about SSLN on the Education Scotland website.
October 18, 2012
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There has not yet been a month this year when The James Hutton Institute’s Waterworks competition and the STEM Central water context hasn’t been relevant, and this month is no different! 
However, 15-year-old Julian Scott from Dundee managed to find a lovely sunny afternoon to take this photograph, September winner of the monthly schools’ competition, entitled “Expect the Unexpected”. Julian said: “We were having a walk along the seaside, on a lovely Saturday afternoon, when my sister got rather wet! And I’d say when at the seaside, expect the unexpected!”
All the September entries can be seen on The James Hutton Institute’s Facebook gallery page.
There are now just three months left of the Water Works competition and Scottish school children are invited to enter their photographs depicting water in Scotland to be in with a chance of winning. Full details of the competition and how to enter can be found here. A winner will be chosen each month as well as an overall winner for the year who will receive vouchers and a canvas print of their photograph.
The Water Works competition is being run by CREW, the Centre of Expertise for Waters.
October 18, 2012
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Last year I used some of the resources from PBS Design Squad with my primary 6 science and engineering club. On the website there is a whole section of resources aimed at parents and educators. The resource I used was a unit called, ‘On the moon’ and we worked on a number of challenges which included creating a ‘lander’ in which the learners, working in groups, had to try out different ideas for shock absorption. These resources are obviously not tied directly to our curriculum but are very useful for science and engineering clubs and would give some ideas for interdisciplinary challenges that could be the culmination of design technology and science departments working on curriculum knowledge and skills and could create opportunities for application. The ideas could also easily be adapted to other contexts. One of the things that I like about them is, that they have a prompt sheet to introduce the challenge, that gives a question or hint to help the learners think about a possible way in.
October 17, 2012
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If you’re planning learning and teaching associated with our new Sound context on STEM Central you might be interested in this BBC Focus podcast on sound BBC Focus podcast on sound, exploring the work at the University of Salford and including a visit to the quietest place on earth.
October 15, 2012
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We’re currently developing our new context for STEM Central, “Rescue Vehicles”, with a focus on sciences at second level. The planned Ready for Winter? glowmeet on 25 October, 11.00 am could provide a perfect lead in to this sciences work. 
With the first autumn storms sweeping across the country, widespread flooding and gale force winds already affecting communities up and down the country this is your chance to reflect on what you can do to prepare for the winter ahead. We will mark this year’s ‘Ready for Winter?’ campaign with a Glow Meet when top tips on how to prepare for severe weather will be explored by the Red Cross and others involved in preparing Scotland for emergencies.
Along with the opportunity to interact and ask questions, you can find out about the winning entries of the 2012/13 ‘Ready for the Year Ahead’ calendar competition. The event will also feature pupils and staff from Crookfur Primary School who will share their experiences and work on resilience education and emergency planning.
For full details of these and other events, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule (Glow log-in and password required).
October 11, 2012
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Comments Off on bit.ly/stemhome a community for professional learning
Development is well underway of our new STEM professional learning community bit.ly/stemhome – a place to connect and share. It is live now, and we’ll update you as it develops further…meantime take a look!
October 10, 2012
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Before the summer we published advice, guidance and exemplification of the use of Food Security as a context for learning associated with the new National 4 Science, and National 5 Biology.
Food Security presents a relevant and topical context – the BBC news this morning carried a report on concerns that food prices will rise significantly as a result of the poor harvest this year. You can read about it on the BBC website Poor harvest ‘set to hit food prices’, which focuses particuarly on the Scottish dimension.
You can find our support for the national qualifications in sciences, technologies, engineering science and mathematics on our National Qualifications website. Look out as well for our Food Security context on STEM Central, exemplifying progression from early to fourth level, publishing in 2013.
October 9, 2012
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The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is delighted to announce the opening of our film competition Box Office Bioethics, inviting budding filmmakers to explore ethical issues in biology and medicine – and get creative!
The competition is open to students in the UK and Republic of Ireland in the following categories:
Last year’s competitors tackled topics including public health, GM crops, abortion and organ donation. This year we hope to see even more aspiring producers getting behind the camera. Films should be 3 to 5 minutes long and can be about any bioethics topic providing it falls within the biological and medical sciences and the ethical issues are clearly presented and explored in the film.
There are some great prizes up for grabs – winners will receive £200 in gift vouchers and their film will be shown at the Council’s annual public lecture in London in spring 2013.
The competition is now open and the deadline for entries is 28 February 2013.
For more details please see http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/boxoffice or contact Ranveig at rsberg@nuffieldbioethics.org.
October 8, 2012
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This week we’ve launched our Sound context which includes learning journeys from early to fourth level. The context builds the storyline through our ability to make sound, sound as a tool of communication, for example through talk or by using music to convey a message. It progresses on to sound as a tool of communication at a distance and our ability to manipulate sound.
The progression begins with What’s that sound? for early level, an exploration of sound sciences and technologies through constructive play. Make the Sound provides further opportunity for enquiry-based learning, and hands-on sciences and technologies in the context of sound.
How animals use sound, sound applications and communicating through sound are three learning journeys for second level, to illustrate breadth and application, and the basis for progression to Engineering Sound at fourth level, developed in conjunction with SSERC.
