Edinburgh Genomics

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Education Scotland is hosting an exciting event in collaboration with Edinburgh Genomics – giving practitioners a chance to converse with some of Scotland’s leading experts in modern genomics research. Edinburgh Genomics is embedded in the rich academic environment of the University of Edinburgh, offering genomic sequencing and bioinformatics services across the fields of medical, veterinary and biological sciences. This twilight session has been organised in accordance with the specifications of the DNA and the Genome unit of the CfE Higher (H4KD 76). The session will be hosted by Karim Gharbi, Head of Genomics, who will explain the concepts of sequencing and bioinformatics; describing the cutting-edge technologies used at Edinburgh Genomics in this highly powerful and ever-developing field of scientific research. This will be immediately followed by a second discussion hosted by Mark Blaxter, Director of the Genome Science Division, who will discuss the many applications for genomic sequencing, such as phylogenomics, comparative genomics and possible clinical applications.

Join us on Monday 16th November at 4pm in Glow TV to find out more. Sign up and regsiter now –Edinburgh Genomics

If you unable to join us for the live event you can always catch up with the recording at another time – Glow TV’s Watch Again.

Food security – Professional Learning for Practitioners

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Join us on Thursday 19th November at 4pm for this event which will offer practitioners teaching both Higher Environmental Science and Higher Biology the chance to converse with Professor Pete Smith from the University of Aberdeen on this critical sustainability issue.

Professor Smith is the theme leader of ‘Environment and Food Security’ at the University of Aberdeen, as well as the Director of Food Systems of the Scottish Food Security Alliance-Crops (www.sfsa-crops.org). He has contributed a great deal to environment and food security research and this event provides practitioners an excellent opportunity to discuss this critical issue with an academic leader in the field.

This event has been organised in accordance with the mandatory key areas of both the Higher Environmental Science and Higher Biology Sustainability units.

Register now to take part live – Food security – Professional Learning for Practitioners

If you unable to join us for the live event you can always catch up with the recording at another time – Glow TV’s Watch Again.

Reading for pleasure – what difference does it make?

This is one of a series of thought pieces from the Literacy and English team at Education Scotland.  In this one, Helen Fairlie discusses some well-known research about reading for pleasure from the National Literacy Trust.

The lead up to Book Week Scotland seems like a good time to consider how we motivate learners to read independently for their own enjoyment.  An equally important question for me, though, is why does the amount that we read for enjoyment make such a big difference to our learning?literacy trust reading for pleasure 2006

This paper was published by the National Literacy Trust in 2006, however the research that it refers to still tells us a lot about the difference that reading for pleasure makes to our progress in literacy, as well as revealing a lot about how motivation to read works.