Forth Replacement Crossing – education centre now available for bookings

The Forth Replacement Crossing Contact and Education Centre is now open and taking bookings for school groups to find out about the construction of the new bridge across the Firth of Forth – recently named ‘The Queensferry Crossing’.

Visit the Centre to find out more about the project, view the works and get involved in engineering and construction related activities.

The Centre can provide customised sessions related to school topic areas including maths, geography, science and technology and the visits can be linked to Curriculum for Excellence.

Did you know?

■     Multiple bookings can be made by each school for groups of 12 or more

■     Visits are tailored to your needs

■     School groups of all ages are welcomed

■     The centre provides amazing views of the bridges

The Centre provides a fantastic opportunity for people of all ages to view the works and find out more about the largest engineering project in Scotland in a generation.

To find out more and make a school booking:

–          visit website : www.forthreplacementcrossing.info

–          email : frcenquiries@transportscotland.gsi.gov.uk

–          phone: 0800 078 6910

BP online science resources

The BP Educational Service provides over 200 free science teaching ideas, videos, online activities and challenges. All the resources are searchable by age and topic.

The free primary resources cover topics from electricity and energy to forces, materials and life processes.

Stepping into Science is targeted at learners aged 4 – 7 years whilst the InvestiGATE section helps prepare learners aged 9-12 years for the transition to secondary school science.

At secondary level the free teaching resources feature topics from Chemical and Material Behaviour, Energy Electricity and Forces, and the Environment, Earth and the Universe.

There are films on the properties of hydrocarbons, an interactive challenge on wind power and a Carbon Footprint Toolkit for schools.

Secondary teachers can also order the free Periodic Table poster – and test themselves and their students in the Periodic Table Challenge .

 Visit www.bp.com/bpes to view the resources 

A Design Competition for a New Maggie’s Centre

The Maggie’s Centres design competition for Standard Grade and Higher pupils challenges students to design a new Maggie’s Cancer Centre. This competition provides an opportunity to develop research and presentation skills, to introduce architecture in the classroom and to inspire pupils who have an interest in design.

To help carryout the competition in your classroom there is a design competition brief, a resource pack and some additional literature from Maggie’s Centres to give background on the uniqueness of the buildings and charity. All of which is available on the Maggie’s Website. You may also be interested in viewing a recent Glow TV event outlining this in more detail – Maggie’s Design Competition

All competition entries are due 1 March 2014 and Kirsty Wark and architect Richard Murphy will judge the competition entries. The winner will be awarded a week long work experience at Richard Murphy’s architecture practice.

If you have any questions, please contact Kathryn Lamont at Kathryn.Lamont@maggiescentres.org or 075572 65462.

New learning resource to remember Piper Alpha disaster

Education Scotland creates online community for teachers to mark 25th anniversary.

An online community to support teachers in educating pupils on the Piper Alpha has been launched to mark the disaster’s 25th anniversary, First Minister Alex Salmond confirmed on 4 July.

Education Scotland has created a collaborative community on their Glow intranet, designed specifically for teachers. The online community provides a digital space for teachers to explore ideas and share approaches about learning and teaching in the context of the world’s worst offshore platform disaster.

The Glow online community, which is now live, complements existing resources on the website about the Piper Alpha disaster. The site includes links to interviews with survivors, news items, and will include footage from the documentary ‘Fire in the Night’ which recently premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival (note: footage will go live after BBC2 broadcast documentary on Tuesday).

For more information read Scottish Government News Release: New learning resource to remember Piper Alpha disaster.

http://bit.ly/piperalphahome (Glow log-in and password required).