LEAPS – A new workshop and new challenges

Last Friday’s session was with two groups (15 and 16) of S2 pupils from Castlebrae, Westerhailes and Craigroyston Secondary schools. We tried a new workshop “Mindburst” based on lego mindstoms and building bridges from newspapers.  Some positive points:

• The hi-tech/low-tech contrast appears to work well with groups of mixed abilities allowing pupils to choose which area to work in.
• The groups were from mixed schools so the concept of team building worked well, the first step being that they had to introduce themselves to the others in their team.
• With a little help all teams were able to meet the bridge challenge (of building a bridge to hold 5kg).
• The majority of pupils were engaged with the projects and had some excellent questions.

Some things to work on:

• Not many of the teams completed the programming part of the challenge.  Perhaps a more structured approach to teaching them the concepts is needed to lead them through to success.
• It was challenging to keep all of the group engaged all of the time, although most did engage at some point.

Our HW coordinator said:

A huge thank you to all of you for helping out with today’s visit from Castlebrae, Westerhailes and Craigroyston S2s. The pupils, teachers and Leaps staff all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I think the pupils will have left with a very positive impression of Heirot-Watt as a warm, welcoming and interesting/fun place. The work that Leaps and ourselves will continue to do with the pupils over the next few years will hopefully have a positive impact on increasing the numbers progressing from school to HE from what are still, very depived communities, and today was a great starting point! 

 

April/May – Scouts, Whitburn, More Sciennes and Oxgangs

Despite the lack of postings the Imagineers have been busy, mostly with out me.

They received three cheers from the fifty scouts in the 82nd Inverleith Scouts troop.  Their leader writes:

It went down a storm with our Scouts. They had a fabulous time, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves…and hopefully learnt something too!

The guys and girls from Heriot Watt were fantastic, and their enthusiasm seemed to spark with the Scouts. A brilliant night!

The twenty-six S1 students at Whitburn Acadamy also “really enjoyed the event”, and thirty more Sciennes P7’s were entertained.

At Oxgangs we again managed to work with two classes of 25 children in under two hours.  Dr Bunhead dropped by to see how we were getting on and was immeadiately impressed with how quite and focussed the children were when he arrived mid session.  He commented on how much we had improved since seeing us in January at Clovenstone Primary.  With the activities and demos all working everytime, the imagineers structuring their questioning so well and working at the childrens eye level we have basically cracked it (but we knew that any way ).  We have devloped a good set of resources which can be delivered again and again.  And now the Imagineers have time to develop their teaching and communications skills, and some have already started along this path.

There are two more bookings for the end of May.  And then our thought must turn to how we can manage to dothis again next year!

Corstorphine – 8:1 ratio manageable!

I approached Corstorphine Primary School with trepidation. This was home ground (both my children have attended this school), but here were 60 pupils awaiting us, and there were only six of us. Thankfully we had one more Imagineer than expected, thanks to someone finishing their exam early we had Ghazi. Then we noticed that we had left the essential Stirling Engine behind. So as the others went into the school, I was dispatched to retrieve the engine, which was languishing in the lab. It only took 20 mins to make the return trip, thanks to my rat run knowledge. The first class of 30 children had yet to arrive when I entered the gym hall.

A short introduction, and then the class separated into mostly single sex groups. The Imagineers were at a table each, on their own. But the children were attentive and well behaved, and everyone enjoyed the first round of experiments. After just over an hour the second class was waiting at the door. Another introduction, with more children having engineers in the family, and more single sex groups. The next hour passed quickly. When the last bell rang everyone was still engrossed in their activities. There was no time for a formal wind up. The kids were herded out (almost reluctantly) to go home. Then, because of the dreich weather, we had all of 10 minutes to sweep up potato pellets and pack up before the net ball team took over the gym.

 

 

Dr Bunhead’s Tutorial 2 – Involving Kids

Part one - using questions

Use structured questions more often to draw kids through the workshop. Think about good leading questions to keep them thinking and engaged.
For example,
PG:     If we heat the air up inside this balloon what will happen to it?
Pupils: Catch fire / fly in the air
PG:     Let’s find out -> -> it goes up
PG:     So, which way does hot air go, up or down?
Pupil:  Up     
PG:     That’s right. Hot air rises, it goes up. (When hot air goes upwards we call it convection. <- you can add this for brighter/older kids)Find the right level of question, not too easy to patronize them, not so hard they don’t know where to start. If they struggle to answer a question, wait a short while for their answers then offer a little more information, wait again for them to try again. If they succeed good, if not then give them a little more of a hint.  But
MAKE SURE THEY GET THE REWARD OF ANSWERING THE QUESTION CORRECTLY

Part two - types of questions

Be sure of why you are using a question and what you want it to achieve. If it does not elicit the response you are looking for then modify your question or change the type of question.There are 3 types of question:
CLOSED QUESTION
        Yes or no answer. Generally, of limited use.
OPEN QUESTION
        Many possible answers.
        Can be used to:
                break the ice
                establish if kids understand what they’ve learnt;
                to establish what they already know;
                get them thinking about the topic 

RHETORICAL QUESTION
        You already know the answer and are raising the question to  connect to the next part of your explanation.

The structure of a question is extremely important in ensuring you get the answer you want from the kids. Even changing one word can have a dramatic shift in their responses.
For example, after a demonstration of chemiluminescence kids were asked
“Can anyone tell me the name of any animals that glow in the dark?”
Kid 1: A dog
Me: Which part of a dog?
Kid 1: It’s eyes
Me: That only works if you shine light into the dog’s eyes. These animals make their own light without shining anything on them. Can anyone tell me the name of an animals that makes its own light?
Kid 2: Cats
Me: Which part of a cat?
Kid 2: It’s eyes
Me: That’s the same as dogs. Cat’s eyes bounce back some of the light that’s shone into them. It’s called reflection and you have to shine some light on them to see there eyes light up. Can anyone tell me the name of an animals that makes its own light. NOT AN ANIMALS EYES. It’s an animal that glows without shining any light on it.
Kid 3: Rabbit
Me: Which part of a rabbit?
Kid 3: It’s eyes
This cycle would go on ad nauseum every time I got to this part of the show! I could not break the kids out of this process of trying to identify the right animals eyes. They weren’t hearing my explanations because they were already too busy trying to work out which animal eyes it must be.

One day I changed the question to
“Can anyone tell me the name of an INSECT that glows in the dark?”
That usually elicited the fireflies and glow worms I wanted.
If I got no appropraite reply I used the hint
“They’ve got a green glow”
If no appropraite reply from that then
“They fly around and have bright green backsides”
That last suggestion was always enough to get the ‘firefly’ answer I was looking for.

Sciennes part 1 – coming back up to speed

We visited Sciennes Primary 7C today, a little less organised then we thought we were.  A couple of quick dashes to the shops for spuds and juice, a quick set up once we finally arrived through some increadible Edinburgh traffic, a hike to the top floor through Hogwartesk stair cases and some improvisation showed how professional the imagineers are becoming as they hardly missed a beat.

The children ohh and ahhed over the stirling engine, delighted in the solar powered cars and grasshoppers and gasped at the extreme spud gun.

Sciennes is a EISF hotspot with Chris, the classroom assistant being a EISF science communicator, and Dr Bunhead meeting Wendy, the teacher who asked us to visit, just after we left. 

Which reminds me that it about time to post the second Dr Bunhead tutorial.

 

 

Imagineering at the Edinburgh International Science Festival

Another project I run is to create and deliver engineering exhibits and activities at the 2008 Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF).  These exhibits and activities run under the banner of Cyberneering and take place at the Wonderama venue at the Assembly Rooms on George St.  Wonderama was open from 25 March to 5 April this year, and Cyberneering with Heriot-Watt occupied the entire East Drawing Room.  It was tightly packed with our stuff but there still was a corner to set up a table for the Imagineers to show off their skills with the Imagineering workshop kits as well as try out some new ideas. The hot air balloon, solar cars and Stirling engine delighted many children and parents alike.  A number of teachers visiting the stand too. Unfortunately I hadn’t prepared any leaflets to hand out, but a some left me their email adresses, so we can expect a few more bookings in April and May.

It has also proven to be a good means of recruiting new Imagnineers with a number of Cyberneers (there were 50 of them) expressing an interest in helping out on our school visits.

Another bonus is that the photographer who visited during the set up has taken a few exquisite shots of the Imagineering equipment.  See below.

Photographs by J R Peterson

 

St Margarets – part 2

The Imagineers led the way on their return visit to St Margaret’s School. Everything ran like a well oiled machine as the Imagineers’ confindence shone through now that they are comfortable in their roles.  The teacher who had made the booking was anxious to find out if we will be able to come back next year as the feedback from the pupils had been extremely positive.  This is something that we will need to explore once the RAEng funding is finished but I am confident that we will find som model that will work.

St Margaret’s School part 1- Inspiring Girls’ with Science and Engineering

The Imagineers were fortunate to be invited to St Margaret’s School for girls yesterday. There they engaged about 17 girls in S1 so much that the girls were willing to stay late after school in order to complete the Imagineering workshops.  It was the first time that I wasn’t in attendance, and I felt left out!  But the Imagineers have shown that they are more then capable to handle these events.  Time was short, and so we haven’t recieved our feedback forms yet.  Watch this space for the results.

Here are some pictures that the teacher took:

     

Dr Bunhead’s Tutorial 1 – Paying Attention to the Kids

Over the weekend I received an email from Dr Bunhead with feedback from what he saw at our first schools outing.  It is long and full of alot of useful stuff, and has arrived at the perfect time.  The last two sessions have shown that we are ontop of the technical issues with the workshops, and that the imagineers are comfortable with the material.  Its now time to start refining our communications techniques. 

I do not want to overwhelm the imagineers with all of the tips all at once.  Good habits are developed one step at a time.  As we are fortunate enough to have pleanty of opportunities to practice I am going to provide staged tutorials, so that the imagineers will have one new thing to practice at their next outing. 

So Tutorial 1 – Paying Attention to the Kids

1) Paying Attention to the Kids – speech
***************************************************
Avoid long periods where you are not talking with the kids. Keep talking with the kids, even general chit-chat, in order to build rapport with them. That way they will be more likely to engage and contribute positively to your workshop. Remember kids love attention (most of us do). They enjoy the attention of adults so just sitting with them whilst they make something can provide them tremendous silent encouragement and enhance their confidence to try things they are unsure of.

2) Paying Attention to the Kids – eye contact
*****************************************************
Avoid turning your back on kids. If you’re getting things sorted out try to do it whilst still facing them and engaging them by telling them what you’re doing and why. Otherwise the message you give them is that you are not interested in them anymore, so they have no need to show any interest in you. That makes it OK to chat / muck around. You will then have to reel them back into the workshop again.

3) Paying Attention to the Kids – eye level
*****************************************************
Get down to eye-level of kids if standing beside them, try to avoid to big a gap in eye-level.

At your next event, concentrate on improving this one aspect of your interaction with the children. 

Success with the Scouts!

Friday evening’s escapade to Morningside proved highly successful.  The Imagineers enthralled 17 scouts and their 4 leaders with their engineering magic!  I recieved an appreciative email from the scout leader:

Thank you so much for the 3 tables of experiments / demonstrations that you put on for the scouts on Friday night they were absolutely brilliant. I have never seen that bunch of scouts that quiet for the best part of an hour and a half before! Please pass on my thanks again to all of the students involved, it can’t be easy for them especially the ones who come from outside the UK when English might not be their first language. If you want to come back at a future date you would be most welcome. I will be passing on my recommendation to anyone who asks about this for their scout or guide group.

Responses from the scouts themselves “amazing”, “fun”,  “interesting”.  About half of the scouts indicated that they are now more interested in science and engineering.  We also  changed how they felt about engineers:

• “Yes, because I thought it was all machinery”;
• “Yes, they are more fun then I thought”.

And, of course they leant something:

• “Pumps make things hot” /”Air heats up when compressed”
• “There is such a thing as a potato gun!”
• “Heat rises”
• “How hot air balloons fly”

Good things the imagineers did/said:

• There were a couple of good double acts on the go:  “I thought you brought the cups!”/ “Do you think I can do that?”;
• Good responses to the kids answers “Do you recon that’s right?”;
• A nice turn of phrase: “This is our engineering magic we call science.”

A learning point:

• A couple suggested that the language we used was too easy, and this may because our last event was at a primary school. So I need to inform the imagineers exactly what age group they are dealing with before hand.