Tag Archives: SSERC

Interdisciplinary learning, Literacy, Self-Reflection, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

SSERC Chemistry Residential

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At a recent SSERC course I was able to take part in a range of innovative practical activities that I hope to be able to integrate into our science and chemistry courses at St Margaret’s.

Practical activities included:

  • a novel method for carrying out chromatography that can be used in biology (separating compounds found in plants) in chemistry (chemical analysis in the new National 5 course)
  • etching zinc plates as a new way to demonstrate displacement reactions  – this allows a possibility of creating cross-curricular links with art (using the plates for printing) or CDT (shaping the plate to make a product).
  • ethanol rockets as a way of comparing energy from different fuels (this can be run in conjunction with physics to allow calculation of acceleration, velocity and average speed.)
  • making and analysing a shampoo from herbs and natural oils
  • extracting limonene and pectin from oranges and using the pith as an absorbent
  • looking at the properties of hydrogels
  • making ceramics
  • making liquid crystal displays

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Skills, Uncategorized

Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2

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Laura Watson, Collette MacAllister, Scott Wood, Louise McAdam, Catherine Kerr and Keith Varty – Science Department

On Friday 20th September members of the St Margaret’s Academy Science department ran a workshop which provided our primary colleagues with a variety of practical experiments which they could take back and introduce into some of their science work. There were three different practical stations set up during the workshop one for Chemistry, Biology and Physics. These stations lasted for approximately 20 minutes and provided ideas for work that could be used to cover 3 of the 2nd level science E’s and O’s. These stations also showed how the pupils develop in this area when they carry out their 3rd level work at St Margaret’s Academy. Continue reading Science Cluster CPD – Working Together to Better Science Learning Part 2 →

Self-Reflection, Teaching Pedagogy, Vision and Leadership

Stirling, SQA and SSERC CPD Supporting Science Improvements

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Catherine Kerr Faculty Leader Science

My recent CPD activities have included starting an MSc in Leadership at Stirling University, attending SQA workshops for national qualifications, attending the Secondary Science Education Research Centre and becoming a writer for a Biology eTextbook. In addition to this I am completing a course in Coaching & Mentoring and trialling the online Edmodo resource with my Higher classes. This invaluable professional learning journey has had a positive impact not only on my own practice but also on colleagues and pupils within my faculty.

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Teaching Pedagogy

SSERC Physics Residential

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Gillian Lucas Physics/Science Department

I attended the SSERC physics residential in September where I was given a wide range of FREE materials including a flip cam, race car sets with ramps and cars, a DIY radio and a wide variety of optics equipment. I was also taught how to use a variety of software including Tracker and Windows Movie Maker. I am going back to SSERC soon to give a presentation on how I have used my freebies as well as the knowledge I gained to enhance the learning experience of my physics classes.

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Teaching Pedagogy

Wizard Gene

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Laura Watson Biology/Science Department

Variation is one of the topics which has been introduced into our S2 Science course. This unit of work involves the pupils learning about cells, DNA, genes and PGD. One of the activities that is carried out is the Wizard Gene experiment which I was introduced to on a SSERC CPD event.

This activity gives the pupils the opportunity to carry out work using gel electrophoresis which simulates DNA profiling.  The pupils thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the experiement which is shown in these pictures.

Interdisciplinary learning, Skills, Teaching Pedagogy

SSERC Novel Materials

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Catherine Kerr Faculty Leader Science

We have introduced SSERC novel materials into our S1 Materials unit. The resources are simple to use and the pupils enjoyed discovering their unusual properties. The photographs and video illustrate pupils working. Pupils said that they found the materials ‘interesting’ the thermochromic sheet ‘awesome’ and ‘loved’ the spring! Let us know what you think!

Interdisciplinary learning, Teaching Pedagogy

Use of USB Microscopes (NOT just a Science resource)!

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Catherine Kerr Faculty Leader Science

A ‘USB microscope’ can be an interesting and fun tool for pupils in school. It can be used in a variety of ways including; children working in groups or individually, or simply something being demonstrated by a teacher on a large screen in front of the class. Equally as effective, the scope could be taken out doors with the use of a laptop. I have used this with my class to view very small seeds, fabric and materials and they loved guessing the object.