School Science Club?
Just do it.
I love Science. I really do!
I love the challenges it poses, the
buzz of making sense of problems, the excitement of checking whether
an experimental approach has worked, the never ending questions and,
above all, the fact that we learn something every step of the way.
Having said that, it will come as no
surprise that I like to talk about Science, too. I like to discuss
thoughts and ideas; I like to hear other people’s views and
thoughts on anything from Maths problems, to antibiotics usage. More
recently, I have discovered the joy of talking about Science to
primary school kids. I have learnt so much from their bright, young,
unbiased minds and I have been challenged in a way that I never
imagined possible.
In October of last year, I (finally)
managed to set up a Science Club at my children’s school, St Louis
RC Primary School in Frome. It was not an easy thing to do, I have to
be honest. It took me almost 2 years to get a Science Club going and,
in hindsight, I must admit I was the one who slowed it down. Had I
been more confident in my ideas I could have set up this club long
time ago.
It all started back in 2014 when I
joined
ScienceGrrl and,
together with
Becky Smith,
formed the
Oxford Chapter. Our ambition for this Chapter was clear – we
wanted to act locally and share our passion for STEM with the next
generation. The Chapter allowed me to meet fantastic ScienceGrrls
with diverse science-based careers: from communicators to helicopter
engineers. The group we formed was inspiring in more ways than one
and planted the seed to go out to the community to talk about
Science. We did the usual festivals and fairs but I never managed to
develop the close relationship I had hoped for with any local schools. I was working full time at that point and about to move away
from Oxfordshire, so things were a bit chaotic.
In late 2014 my husband was offered his dream job and so we moved to the South West. It quickly became apparent
that moving kids away from friends, changing school,
football team etc. was going to be challenging. So, to give the
children the support they needed, I decided to take a career break of
sorts. I found myself a part time job at the University of Bath and
started to help out at their school with the usual tasks – reading,
taking kids on walks and days out. The idea of a Science Club was
still very much inside my head but I was not sure how to get it off
the ground. I contacted the
STEM Ambassadors, and enrolled to become one. The induction course was
great and I really enjoyed it. All of their courses are free and the
follow up sessions are always very informative.
I continued to help out with reading at
the school and mentioned my newly awarded ‘STEM Ambassador’
status to anyone who would listen. Teachers are busy people and the
road not taken is often a scary one. In fairness, I could have tried
harder. It wasn’t until this academic year that my words fell on
the right ears and together with Ms Hannah Jones, Science Coordinator
at St Louis RC Primary School, we established a weekly Science Club.
My pitch was simple:
This will cost
you no money
You will not
need to do anything. I will do everything from devising the sessions
to tidying up afterwards.
In return I asked
that they would promote the Science Club on the understanding that
both genders would have to be equally encouraged to attend.
What followed was a
series of fun filled lunch time sessions where we investigated why
belly flops hurt (water tension), how we can get marshmallows
to grow (air pressure) and how we can make raisins dance (densities
of matter). Unfortunately, we have not managed to
clone any dinosaurs as yet, but the request has been duly noted.
All activities are designed to ignite
passion amongst pupils for Science in general, whilst at the same
time challenge gender stereotypes associated with all science-related
jobs. The Science Club runs on Fridays at lunch time. There is no charge associated with the club and all (except
pre-school pupils) are welcome to attend. There are 2 sessions of 30
minutes each. Each session takes 10 pupils who attend on a rolling
basis. There is no budget for this Science Club (see point 1 of my
pitch above) so I’m always looking for free stuff (from CDs to
bottle tops). It is great to see the support from the whole school
with parents bringing in half of their recycling box to the office
with donations for the Science Club. This demonstrates how funds are not really an excuse to stop you from
having a Science Club in any given school. It also has the added
bonus that sessions are skewed towards experiments which can be done
at home with every day materials.
The Science Club has already grown and,
in addition to the Friday sessions, I organised a one-off whole day
session with Yr1 on ‘Why do green leaves go brown?’. With a view to introducing pupils to jobs in a Science related subject, the whole of KS2 went on a trip to the Somerset Earth Science Centre. Every Yr3 to Yr6 class had the opportunity to
spend a whole day at the Centre learning about rocks, their uses and
how to classify them. They also got to visit the Moonhill Quarry and
make their own volcanoes erupt. The School also arranged to be part
of
Bath Taps into Science
during Science week which was great to see.
Sometimes, I’m not sure who has more
fun, the kids, myself or Ms Jones, who has been absolutely amazing in
her support, and instrumental with ensuring that attendance is high.
Her support and real passion for Science is very valuable to me and I
really enjoy running new ideas by her. Her expertise on how to teach
kids is very important for the success of this club. The kids’
attitude towards science is definitely changing and I can honestly
say that there is nothing more rewarding than sharing knowledge with
young minds and watching them develop a positive attitude towards the
world around them. After Science Week the majority of Yr4 wanted to
be marine microbiologists. Before that, I’m not sure how many of
them knew that was even a career!
If you are
thinking about setting up a Science Club, my advice to you is, just
do it! There is plenty of material on the web which you can use, plus
organisations like The School Gate SET and STEMnet offer plenty of support.
I know it is daunting to come up with your own plan for the duration
of the session and that is why I have set up a
webpage where I will be documenting my ‘lesson plans’, together with
details of the experiments and the necessary risk assessments. You
can also find me on twitter @PipaVance so please get in touch if you
would like to discuss science clubs in more detail.
About the Author:
Filipa Vance is
originally from Portugal. She studied Microbiology at the University
of Glasgow from where she also graduated with a PhD in Cancer
Studies. She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Imperial College
before embarking on a career in Grant Management and development with
the Wellcome Trust. She now works at the Bath Institute for
Mathematical Innovation and lives in Wiltshire with her husband and
her 2 kids.
