Setting+up+a+project


 * Setting up a project - case study.**

Getting students involved in debate can seem like an artificial exercise. Sometimes students can think "it's just a lesson, what's it got to do with real life?" This is where getting external help can be invaluable. Students will immediately be affected by talking to people whose everyday lives hinge around these issues. A project on contemporary science doesn't have to be a huge, time consuming affair. It could be as simple as working with a STEM ambassador for a specific lesson, or entail a small group of experts in a field presenting alternative views or it could be a larger-scale, cross-curricular effort.

At Redlands School in Bristol, gifted students from year 10 were taken off timetable for a morning to take part in a debate around the question "Should we generate energy from the River Severn" The event was organised in partnership with the Science Learning Centre South West with kind support from RCUK, the RSA, the local branch of the BSA and the Clifton Scientific Trust. Through those and other partnerships, the Science Learning Centre were able to obtain assistance from some experts in the field to come in and work with those students. Eric Albone has been heavily involved in organising public consultations into the Severn Estuary proposals through the RSA and the Wales and West branch of the BSA (it is through Eric that much of the work on this resource has been funded, too) and works a great deal with the Clifton Scientific Trust to find new ways of allowing young people to engage with science in the area. Eric was able to provide an invaluable overview of the proposals and the degree of public understanding and involvement. Peter Kydd is Director of Strategic Consulting at Parsons Brinkerhoff and led a consortium of engineering consultants appointed by the government to conduct feasibility studies into the various proposals for generating energy from the Severn. Dr David Bird is a lecturer in environmental biology at the University of the West of England who has studied ecology in the Severn for several years and been involved in representing environmental and conservation groups in the consultation. Professor Colin Taylor is head of civil engineering at Bristol University and was able to give an account of how tidal power works in theory and practice and explain the construction of the schemes.

The event was structured so that each of the experts gave a presentation to the students, explaining who they are and what insights they could give into the proposals for the River Severn. Students were encouraged to ask questions after each presentation and to start thinking about and recording their own ideas. Then the group was divided into three. Each group was given twenty minutes to learn as much as they could from one of the experts through discussion with the aim of coming to an informed conclusion about whether or not energy should be generated from the Severn. After twenty minutes, the experts moved to another group so that the students could gain a full perspective. Each group recorded their thoughts in poster form and then nominated two members of the group to present their conclusions. media type="custom" key="9152484"**Discussion work during the morning.**

This was a short-term project. Several things were notable during the day. The level of engagement and concentration from the students was remarkable. They listened attentively to some quite high-level presentations, asked perceptive questions and discussed the issues in depth with the experts. Many of them were surprisingly passionate about some of the issues once they knew about them and there was a healthy debate on the tables. Our panel of experts were genuinely impressed at the students' ability to take on new ideas, to analyse and to construct and to articulate their own ideas. The project was judged to be a great success. The students were motivated and interested in a real contemporary science issue and several of them expressed a desire to become involved in future public consultations. The level of debate amongst the students was very high; they had clearly taken on board a great deal from the experts and were able to relate some of those issues to their previous scientific learning.

Obviously, it is not possible for every school to have such comprehensive access to expertise like that so, to facilitate similar activities, video presentations from the experts on a range of topics have been included on the 'video resources' pages. Videos were filmed and edited by Science.TV, with thanks.

<>