e-Science for Schools

Getting behind the scenes in world of science

2009-01-19T17:05:00.003Z

A project that gives people a view on real life as a scientist in the UK - Test Tube project, with Nottingham's Universities amongst others.

UK Experts Search Results

2008-12-01T14:30:00.004Z

Custom Search for UK Experts for School Collaborations

2008-09-02T10:02:00.002+01:00

upd8 science resources

2008-07-10T15:21:00.002+01:00

Another web resource used by our secondary science teacher in Brighton & Hove - upd8.org.uk
includes a section called 'difficult and dull'.

Learning design storyboards

2008-06-25T10:06:00.002+01:00

Storyboard sheets used in workshops for a JISC learning design project. One science example on heat transfer.

Blogging to support e-Portfolios

2008-06-25T09:58:00.003+01:00

A tutor reflects on using blogging as an eportfolio tool. The project aims to support students in reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses in relation to transferable and subject specialist skills and to develop their personal and professional goals to enhance their practice. Details here.

Related project on Blogging to Support Peer-learning and Reflection

Wind with Miller

2008-06-13T12:17:00.001+01:00

Kids site by Danish wind power assn. with how-to's and other educational material.

Foldit

2008-05-25T08:20:00.001+01:00

Public solves puzzles for science, folding proteins. Find out here.

How to Use Comic Life in the Classroom

2008-05-24T09:06:00.001+01:00

Article by Charles Thacker includes lots of other links at the bottom.

Bees, wasps, figs

2008-04-29T10:33:00.003+01:00

The BBC and others have reported on the declining bee population; in America this is suspected to be linked to pollution. A similar situation in Turkey involves wasps who help pollinate fig trees. Hot weather has meant a low fig harvest and lethargic or dying wasps. This means fewer figs reaching the UK, and by extension fewer fig roles, a popular kind of biscuit. (Source: Guardian Weekly podcast no. 57)

Mobile scripts for integrated learning

2008-04-29T09:46:00.002+01:00

Research report describing computer-supported collaborative learning scripts for mobile contexts, with explanations of general script classes, and specific examples.

Google Earth for Teachers

2008-04-03T14:05:00.001+01:00

Resources / activity ideas for teachers based on google earth: Google Earth lessons

UK wind strength map

2007-12-13T10:42:00.000Z

A site to view what the wind speed is around the UK

Site for teaching resources

2007-10-02T15:38:00.000+01:00

Site suggestion from a science teacher in Brighton and Hove for teaching resources of science at KS3, 4, 5
Squashed frogs

Real World Movies

2007-08-23T14:31:00.001+01:00

A site with video films of real world examples for teaching resources. This example shows wind farms and the scientists talk about the skills required by the people who work in wind energy.

Survey on teens social software use (US)

2007-08-23T10:42:00.000+01:00

A survey has found that 96% of US teens use social networking tools and that one of the most common topics discussed through them is Education. However schools are not harnessing this yet as a way to motivate and engage, and many prohibit use of the tools in schools time.

Scientists on web

2007-07-25T16:56:00.000+01:00

recent team finds:

Scientists are transforming perceptions of science through YouTube videos on Nano 2 Hybrids project.

SciVee is about the free and widespread dissemination and comprehension of science. Made by and for scientists.

JoVE - Journal of Visualised Experiments, with Biological Science focus

GEOSET - Global education Outreach in Scince engineering and technology, teaching maaterials

The Science Network

Energy hungry gadgets

2007-07-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

News item about how energy saving is being compromised by love for gadgets. Graph comparing TV running costs at bottom of page.

Eagles and wind farms

2007-07-04T13:23:00.000+01:00

Golden eagles threatened by wind farm news story.

National Solar Week

2007-06-27T14:04:00.000+01:00

Information about solar power and national solar week (June 18th - 24th) sponsored by Maplins, did you know fact sheet. Advert for freeloader mobile solar charger £30 for e.g. PDAs, PSPs

El Niño or El No-no - Webquest incorporating access to sensor data

2007-06-12T13:27:00.000+01:00

El Niño or El No-no - an example of a webquest that incorporates the use of sensor data from sea surface temperature buoys in a scientific enquiry project (see teaching scientific enquiry from UK Dfes Standard Site).

T4 - Transforming Teaching Through Technology

2007-06-12T13:02:00.000+01:00

T4 - Jordan District Transforming Teaching Through Technology Website resources, planning and technical support, and training for teachers wishing to use technology to transform their teaching.

"Pay Attention" - A presentation promoting the use of technology for teaching & learning as seen on Teacher Tube

Provides a selection of Teacher Resources for Transforming Teaching Through Technology for example I found the El Niño or El No-no webquest through this page.

Understanding Climate Change

2007-06-09T22:11:00.000+01:00

Multimedia Gallery from US Natl Centre for Atmospheric Research

TeacherTube

2007-06-07T09:36:00.000+01:00

A new site for collecting videos for teachers' use. Of course, it had to be called TeacherTube!

Scientists compile massive encyclopedia

2007-05-15T10:18:00.000+01:00

A new project in the states that allows people to access and contribute to a Biology and species web resource collection:
article
and
encyclopedia for life

BEEP & PEEP :-) 21st Century Science on the web

2007-05-15T09:48:00.000+01:00

BEEP stands for BioEthics Education Project.
"It is an interactive website and virtual learning environment for secondary school science teachers and their students. It is a teaching resource developed to highlight the moral, ethical, social, economic, environmental and technological implications and applications of biology."

PEEP stands for Physics Ethics Education Project
"A new website covering physics and ethics in GCSE Science courses... going live spring 2007" They are currently recruiting schools to help evaluate the pilot version of the site.

Web-based Scientific Enquiry Environments

2007-05-14T14:16:00.000+01:00

"WISE is a simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine realworld evidence and analyze current scientific controversies." (US)

"Co-lab (Collaborative Laboratories for Europe) environment brings together, in an integrated way, facilities for experimentation (including remote laboratories), collaboration, and domain modelling. In each of these facilities, guidance for learners is available. The Co-Lab project develops demonstrators in the applied science areas of water management and climate control (in greenhouses)." (EU)

The Nation's Favourite Experiments (UK)

2007-05-14T12:43:00.000+01:00

Can technology help increase 'safe' access to science experiments?

The nation's favourite experiment is apparently Fizz Fizz Bang Bang (for more see the British Association for the Advancement of Science Experiment Vote).

See here for some 'science activity challenge packs' from the BA.

International Polar Year 2007-8

2007-05-14T12:20:00.000+01:00

The International Polar Year is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009. Learn more about IPY.

"Education and Outreach are integral to the International Polar Year 2007-8. Teachers and students have the opportunity to experience authentic science in real time. We encourage everyone to get involved in this huge, exciting scientific collaboration by visiting exhibitions, teaching and learning about the polar regions, watching films and documentaries, reading books, going on expeditions, and contacting scientists while in the field."

... which would relate well to our previous work with scientists in the Antarctic.

IPY RSS for educators

Digital Library for Earth System Education

2007-05-14T11:46:00.000+01:00

This is an educational resource associated with the US National Science Digital Library.

"The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is a distributed community effort involving educators, students, and scientists working together to improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth system at all levels.

DLESE supports Earth system science education by providing:

Access to high-quality collections of educational resources
Access to Earth data sets and imagery, including the tools and interfaces that enable their effective use in educational settings
Support services to help educators and learners effectively create, use, and share educational resources
Communication networks to facilitate interactions and collaborations across all dimensions of Earth system education"

For more visit the DLESE site

Mobile Devices for Biological Identification in the Field

2007-03-26T12:42:00.000+01:00

Big Garden Bird Watch

Keep an eye on "Biological Identification on Mobile Devices" at the OU (C. Blake, A. Jones & J. Roswell).

OU - Contemporary Issues in Science Teaching

2007-03-26T12:21:00.000+01:00

Investigating mobile devices for science teaching

OU - OU - Contemporary Issues in Science Teaching

9 easy web-based collaboration tools

2007-03-20T16:48:00.000Z

Pointer to a news item of tools, might be useful for us co-ordinating with each other.
9 tools

Try Science

2007-03-13T08:50:00.000Z

Try Science - Flash based Science Education Resources - including stuff on the Grid

"TryScience.org is your gateway to experience the excitement of contemporary science and technology through on and offline interactivity with science and technology centers worldwide. Science is exciting, and it's for everyone! That's why TryScience and over 400 science centers worldwide invite you to investigate, discover, and try science yourself."

Centre for Alternative Technology

2007-03-06T12:34:00.000Z

Thinking about David's power generation ideas : solar, wind and geothermal, the first 2 are covered at the CAT website for ideas. There's an education pack that gives opportunity to buy a wind and solar demonstrator kit.

Open Science Grid

2007-03-02T08:40:00.000Z

"The Open Science Grid is a distributed computing infrastructure for large-scale scientific research, built and operated by a consortium of universities, national laboratories, scientific collaborations and software developers...

..to facilitate the use of cyberinfrastructure in secondary science education, OSG is collaborating with the NSF pilot project “Interactions in Understanding The Universe” (I2U2), as well with the TeraGrid in its Education and Training activities. The Mariachi experiment to detect extreme energy cosmic rays (EECRs) is also a member of OSG and participates in education and outreach activities."

Interactions in Understanding The Universe

2007-03-02T08:32:00.000Z

Worth keeping an eye on...

"I2U2 will develop and maintain a portfolio of laboratories for a diverse range of audiences and will provide tools and support services to assist developers in creating these educational resources. These laboratories break new ground by using the Grid for education in the same way that science uses the Grid.

The labs will take two similar but distinct shapes. e-Labs, delivered as Web-based portals accessible in the classroom and at home, will be implemented with the ever-expanding capabilities of Web-based media. i-Labs, delivered as interactive interfaces typically located within science museums and similar public venues, will leverage the latest advances in display technology and human-computer interaction, and will bring the experiences and appreciation of scientific investigation and inquiry to the wide audience of informal education."

International Workshop on Virtual Research Environments and Collaborative Work Environments

2007-02-26T08:46:00.000Z

International Workshop on Virtual Research Environments and Collaborative Work Environments
In Association with eSI Thematic Programme: Adoption of e-Research Technologies
23 May, 07 09:30 AM - 24 May, 07 05:00 PM
at the e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh

What is the Access Grid?

2007-02-12T13:17:00.000Z

"This is a tutorial resource to explain Access Grid to Social Scientists and others who may wish to use this collaborative technology in their research or to further other goals. " From the NCeSS.

What is the Grid?

2007-02-12T13:01:00.000Z

"What is the Grid? is a basic introduction to Grid computing, its origins, how it works, and current-day Grid services and applications that are enhancing social-science research." From the UK National Centre for e-Social Science.

GPS Visualizer - Data Visualisation Tool

2006-12-01T10:29:00.000Z

GPS Vizualiser is a really useful (free - donations) service for generating visualisations of GPS data. Can be used to map data to locations, for example the Hawaii earthquake and aftershock map, to see more examples click here...

"Do-It-Yourself Mapping - GPS Visualizer is a free, easy-to-use online utility that creates maps and profiles from GPS data (tracks and waypoints), street addresses, or simple coordinates. Use it to see where you've been, plan where you're going, or visualize geographic data (business locations, scientific observations, events, customers, real estate, geotagging, etc.)."

eScience in and beyond the classroom

2006-11-08T12:19:00.000Z

Have at look at the pre-workshop blog for the e-Science 2006 "eScience in and beyond the classroom" workshop.

Fire up the young Einsteins - e-Science Projects in the News

2006-11-02T20:50:00.000Z

Interact & IDEAs educational e-Science projects feature in Times Higher ICT supplement (20/10/2006). Olga Wojtas reports on how successful uses of e-Science can benefit both pupils and researchers and bring the "wow" factor back to school science.

Our public understanding project involved school children in live chat with scientists in the Antarctic and the SENSE project had young learners collecting and reflecting on local pollution data using sophisticated handheld sensors and advanced software tools.

Work is now needed to make GRID technology more usable and e-Science more accessible to schools (see e-Science in and Beyond the Classroom: Usability, Practicability and Sensability at e-Science '06). Keep an eye on our 2007 "Towards making GRID-enabled schools' eScience usable and useful" project here.

Digital Science: exploring new technologies in science education

2006-10-26T11:05:00.000+01:00

Went to the Digital Science Event at the London Science Learning Centre on 17th Oct. Picked up some links to stuff that might be interesting:

Science Across the World "Exploring science locally - sharing science globally".

Science Supremo "is an ‘edu-game’ that offers young people studying GCSE Science an opportunity to get a feel for what it means to be a scientist and to understand the interplay between science and society. It is mapped to the new GCSE curricula". More... Made by desq "e-learning and learning games that blend the best of new media with education, entertainment, learning and play."

beep Nicely designed site leading to resources and fairly open-ended activities "to support the teaching and learning of bioethics."

National Academy for Gifted and Talented

Sodarace - design and race animated robots online. "Sodarace is the online olympics pitting human creativity against machine learning in a competition to design robots that race over 2D terrains using the Sodaconstructor virtual construction kit. AI researchers in London and Austria are racing the first machine-optimised models, and winning! The race above shows the London team's artificially evolved amoeba beating similar models made by humans. Follow their progress... see if human model makers make a comeback!"

Public Engagement with Science

2006-10-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

Some possible funding opportunities for public engagement work:

Welcome Trust - Society Awards
These awards (above £50 000) are available to support larger scale activities that aim to make a significant impact - ideally of nationwide importance - on public engagement with science and its related issues.
We have picked out a number of new themes that we would particularly like to see explored ...
What is science? How is it carried out? What do scientists do? What can science do and what are its limits? How is scientific knowledge used?
How can we get scientists, the community and groups such as policy makers together, so they can share thoughts and ideas, and learn from one another? How can we enable lay people to feed into decision making or influence what research is carried out?
And how can we actually get people directly involved in research projects?
For more...

EPSRC Partnerships for Public Engagement
Are you worried that the public ignore research? Or concerned that not enough young people pursue research careers paths? Aims: to communicate the excitement of fundamental and applied research in science and engineering to the public. This includes issues such as sustainable energy, nanotechnologies, information and communications technologies, and engineering that relates to today’s society.
See the Good Practice Guide

Learning about the Grid

2006-10-25T09:33:00.000+01:00

Grid Cafe
The place for everyone to learn about the Grid.

The Grid for Kids
Animated introduction to Grid Computing for children.

World Community Grid
A place to join community grid projects, download software to use spare cpu time to solve problems;e.g. FightAIDS@Home, Help Defeat Cancer, etc...

Open Grid Forum
The Open Grid Forum (OGF) is a community of users, developers, and vendors leading the global standardization effort for grid computing.

UK National Grid Service
Mission: To provide coherent electronic access for UK researchers to all computational and data based resources and facilities required to carry out their research, independent of resource or researcher location...

UK e-Science Training and Outreach Calendar

Science Grid This Week

2006-10-24T11:53:00.000+01:00

"Science Grid This Week works to inform the grid community and interested public about the people and projects involved in U.S. grid computing and the science that relies on it through articles, graphics, links, statistics, and calendar items. SGTW is produced at Fermilab, edited by Katie Yurkewicz and jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science."

It's had some interesting articles, Grids in Class and at the Museum.

UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2006

2006-10-24T09:23:00.000+01:00

Links to some papers I thought looked interesting from AHM2006

Types of grid users and the Customer-Service Provider relationship: a future picture of grid use, Mark Norman
Abstract: Who will be the grid users of tomorrow? We propose a categorisation of ‘future grid’ users... This paper outlines the possible characteristics of these ‘types’ of users.

The RealityGrid PDA and Smartphone Clients: Developing effective handheld user interfaces for e-Science , Ian R. Holmes and Roy S. Kalawsky
Abstract: In this paper the authors present the RealityGrid PDA and Smartphone Clients: two novel and highly effective handheld user interface applications, which have been created purposefully to deliver (as a convenience tool) flexible and readily available ‘around the clock’ user access to scientific applications running on the Grid...

The National Centre for e-Social Science, Rob Procter et al.
Abstract: This paper outlines the work of the UK National Centre for e-Social Science and its plans for facilitating the take-up of Grid infrastructure and tools within the social science research community. It describes the kinds of social science research challenges to which Grid technologies and tools have been applied, the contribution that NCeSS can make to support the wider take-up of e-Science and, finally, its plans for future work.

PPARC Science and Society Programme

2006-10-23T07:07:00.000+01:00

The Science and Society programme forms part of PPARC's overall communications strategy, involving public engagement and public accountability.

The programme's role is to inform and inspire audiences by capitalising on the excitement of new developments and discoveries in current astronomy, space and particle physics. We also aim to demonstrate the resulting benefits to the nation of the work arising, for example, from our partnerships with the high-tech UK industry. We also account to Parliament, Government and taxpayers on the important and exciting work carried out through Government funding.

PPARC Science and Society Programme

Resource Aware Visualization Environment - RAVE

2006-10-16T15:59:00.000+01:00

A potentially useful piece of software?

"The Resource Aware Visualization Environment (RAVE). A distributed collaborative visualization environment that utilises Grid technology enable distirbuted users to simultaneoulsy act with a shared dataset, supports handhelds to PCs, enables teachers to ‘fly’ around a dataset, followed by students, who attach to the teacher’s avatar to form a guided tour for distributed learning."

See the RAVE website