SABIC host successful Children Challenging Industry visits for 12 years!

Kirklevington Primary School at SABIC

Kirklevington Primary School visited SABIC on 5^th March and met Janet Jones who was hosting the visit. Janet loves inspiring young people. As a female worker in Industry, she feels it is important to empower girls to realise that working in industry is as accessible to them as it is to boys.

Janet Jones said, “The CCI programme offers primary children the opportunity to see our industry first hand.  The children ask fantastic questions and I am amazed at how quickly the time goes when they are with us.  I like to think that during their visit we inspire them to consider working in our industry, even though that decision is a long way off.”

The programme is so well developed now that it is literally ‘off the shelf’. Take a box out, check the equipment and use it - simplicity with minimum preparation. Janet recruited Joanna Bartlett, a Process Engineer, to assist with this visit - she is young, enthusiastic, female and has a Chemical Engineering Masters to her name! Janet has worked for the company for 31 years and she always presents to the children in a fun, relaxed ‘I really enjoy this job’ kind of way. This is exactly what we need to encourage the children to take more interest in Science. The local paper turned up and Janet took it in her stride, smiling through her ‘child friendly’ introduction to the company and sparking up interest without boring them with too much detail. The children quickly became engaged with the activities and had a tour around the site allowing them to see for themselves what it is like.

Enjoying one of the activities

The teachers, Mrs Johnstone and Mr Morgan said “The Children Challenging Industry sessions and the visit to SABIC were extremely enjoyable for both the children and the staff. The trip to SABIC opened the eyes of the children to science in the real world and inspired them by showing them how to be more investigative in their thought processes.

We would like to say a big thank you to SABIC for their continuous support and contributions to the project.”

By Jenny Harvey, CIEC Advisory Teacher in the North East

Industry visits improve children’s perceptions of industry

A Greneway pupil inspecting substrate during the Johnson Matthey site visit

In February 2015 pupils from Greneway Middle school, Royston, visited the Johnson Matthey site at Royston as the culmination of their Children Challenging Industry (CCI) experience. During their visit the children visited the Technology Centre to find out what catalysts are and what they do and made their own wash coats (the active part of the catalyst). This was followed by a tour of the site where they saw robots applying wash coat to the substrate.

The visit demonstrated how their school activities (the process of developing a good bubble mixture had much in common with the development and testing of wash coats) were directly related to work on the site.

A recent report on the impact of the CCI project in Royston schools demonstrated that children who are shown how science works in the ‘real world’ (in this case in industry) show a greater understanding of science and the possibility that they could have a future career using science.

Teachers taking part in CCI reported the greatest impact as being:

·         Improvement of children’s investigative skills and group work

·         Range of teaching ideas and the practical activities

·         The CIEC Advisory Teacher’s expert knowledge of science and the industrial content of the activities.

The majority of teachers felt their knowledge of teaching science had improved, the class sessions linked well to industry, the site visit was an important component of the experience and that they would use the written resources again. The CCI project also fulfilled their expectations.

At the end of the CCI intervention the teachers showed greater understanding of the interesting jobs available in industry and the economic benefits of industry.

Of the children who participated:

·         Over 80% enjoyed the investigations, learned something new and enjoyed the challenges

·         Over 70% liked learning about industry and now like science more.

The activities the Greneway children worked on in school were:

http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/runny-liquids.html

http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/kitchen-concoctions.html

http://www.ciec.org.uk/resources/a-pinch-of-salt.html

Below are some observations the children made following their visit to the JM site (positive comments far outweigh any negative comments).

What the children said:

 “I liked it all because I was learning new things.”

 “I enjoyed the ketchup bit because it was really fun and they explained it clearly.”

“I liked watching the robots.”

“The robots move like humans.”

In response to what did you enjoy the most:

“seeing the robots and learning what they do and sorting out the catalyst.”

“making the experiment with all of the liquids.”

“seeing the robots sorting out the catalysts.”

“looking at the cars.”

In response to what did you enjoy the least:

“Walking and walking upstairs and apart from that nothing.”

Deb McGarrity, Royston Site and Community Coordinator commented, "The difficulties of attracting young people into careers in science have been well documented in recent years.  From this perspective, I think it is important that schools in our area understand what Johnson Matthey actually does, and how exciting and varied a career in science can be”.

Lotte Chemical UK Ltd host a great site visit for pupils from Errington Primary School, Marske

Year 5 pupils from  Errington Primary School, Marske by the Sea, recently visited Lotte Chemical as the culmination of their Children Challenging Industry sessions led by Jenny Harvey, CIEC Advisory Teacher in the north east.

The class were doing activities from Plastics Playtime and after their visit to Lotte to see the science concepts they had studied in school in action in industry they wrote a very enthusiastic letter of thanks:

The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration introduce using industry as a primary science context to even more teachers at the annual Association of Science Education Conference, Reading

Teachers enjoying Nicky Waller's workshop (and the following pictures)



The response to the CIEC talks at the ASE conference this year was overwhelmingly positive with over 70 teachers attending Jenny Harvey’s workshop Embedding ‘Working Scientifically’ Skill within Real-life Contexts.

Jenny was delighted with the response, “Really positive comments with people saying 'Oh, I'm going to tweet about that now' and 'that was just what I needed' or 'that was great, thank you'. People loved the CIEC materials and think they're really useful and different with lots of ideas and examples. They particularly liked the hands on 'real life industrial' scenarios. I still had teachers approaching me the next day to say how much they'd enjoyed my session and that they couldn't wait to start using our resources.”

 

Joy Parvin’s session on Outstanding Science in Context demonstrated how, by making the children into ‘scientists’ for the industry based CIEC activities helps them to achieve more in both science understanding and an understanding of how science underpins so much of industry.

 

Nicky Waller’s workshop entitled Exciting Science Clubs for Key Stage One. “People commented how it was great to have a session focusing on the younger primary aged children as there were not many of these exclusively in the ASE programme. I was pleased to have 30 attend and participate in the first session of the day and my intention was to run a practical workshop, where they got to try out a range of carefully planned, tried and tested science activities either created for or adapted to suit children in Key Stage One. They also explored how they can organise and manage a science club in their own school, access reasonably priced resources and inspire even the youngest of our future scientists.”

 

 

 

Meet some of the CIEC (Centre for Industry Education Collaboration) team in Reading at ASE 2015

The complete Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC) team: (from left) Gayle Pook, Nicky Waller, Jane Winter, Clare Warren, Jenny Harvey and Joy Parvin



If you are attending this year's annual ASE conference at Reading do take the opportunity to meet and chat to Joy Parvin, Nicky Waller and Jenny Harvey.

Jenny is the first CIEC team member to hold a workshop - Friday 9th January at 12.30pm in the Palmer Building, Room 107. Using CIEC practical activities Jenny will be looking at links to the new curriculum, age appropriate standards of expectation in 'Working Scientifically' and how to use these for planning progression through Years One to Six.

Joy Parvin is talking at 3.30pm the same day (also Room 107 in the Palmer Building). Joy will be demonstrating how using freely available CIEC activities can help children develop their science skills by active participation in science activities.
Do come to the talk to meet Joy and get to know more about CIEC.

Nicky Waller's workshop is on Saturday 10th at 9.30am in Room G9 of the AMS Building. Nicky will be demonstrating how there are plenty of suitable science activities for 5-7 year olds who would enjoy a science club.

CIEC resources suggested in NSLC chat

The following question was posted on 18 October on the STEM centre chat board.

Generating Electricity



Water for Industry

 



What will people be using to enrich science topics for children who have mastered all the topic objectives while the teacher is supporting those who need more input? I am thinking it will be applying knowledge in design and problem solving tasks such as CIEC activities, is that what everyone else thinks?

Jenny Harvey, CIEC Advisory Teacher for the North East replies here:

'Of course I think that is a brilliant idea, but then I use them all the time, being the Advisory Science Teacher for Children Challenging Industry across Teesside. I also know that our online resources cover many aspects to the new primary science curriculum as can be noted here: http://ciec.org.uk/news/CIEC%20Links%20to%20NEW%20CURRIC.pdf

More and more teachers are using the CIEC resources to address context and purpose. Our investigations tackle real problems that are encountered within science-based industries, reflecting more closely the way science is carried out in 'real life'. This approach improves children's motivation and understanding. So why not check them out!

Plastics Playtime

All of our topics are available as fully downloadable pdf files with lesson plans, equipment lists, work sheets and cards and the latest ones have interactive web sites too. They are real life science activities with purpose, relevant to the new primary curriculum and what's more they are all free!'

Primary Science resources link:

http://ciec.org.uk/primary.htm




 

 



The 2014 NEPIC Golf Day is a great success – especially for the winners, Lucite, and Children Challenging Industry who benefitted from the money raised!



The 20^th NEPIC Golf Day, organised by Paul Butler, was held on September 4^th at De Vere Slaley Hall, Northumberland and was voted a great success by all 168 golfers who took part.

The Lucite International team (David Heaviside, Jason Wing, John Furnell and Alistair Briggs) were the winners – with individuals taking other prizes (see below).

Sembcorp continued with their main sponsorship of the event with George Ritchie presenting the prizes, the registration gift was presented by ABB and score cards covered by Siemens. Utilitywise supported the Hole in One competition and the trophies provided by Lucite International were made from their own acrylic resins.

Chemoxy were responsible for the pre-dinner entertainment (Tricky Bob), Oranmore presented the Golf Simulator and Lockton’s Insurance  the golfer’s on course Video Analysis. The putting competition prize was given by Crane-Tomlinson Hall partnership.

The raffle raised an amazing £1350 for Children Challenging Industry, CIEC’s flagship primary project to introduce primary children to exciting science set in an industrial context. The money raised will be used for much needed PPE and practical equipment. Gayle Pook and Nicky Waller were delighted to accept the cheque on behalf of CIEC from Dr Stan Higgins, CEO of NEPIC.

Winners Table
Overall Winner: Lucite International (90)
Hunting Course:
1^st Place: Px Limited (84)
2^nd Place: ABB (77)
3^rd Place: Quantum Controls (76)
Nearest to Pin: Phil Tunstill, Oranmore
Longest Drive: M Hassell, Sembcorp

Priestman Course:
1^st Place: Lucite International (90)
2^nd Place: RTC North (85)
3^rd Place: Utilitywise (84)
Nearest to Pin: Arthur Chapman
Longest Drive: Howard Young, Western Union