Contributing to scientific knowledge

Thirty pairs of eyes are looking (more or less) at you. These are the young people you are going to turn into the scientists and scientifically literate citizens of the future.

You have three options:

1 2 3 Panic Get them to turn to Page 20 of a textbook, read the page and then answer the questions on Page 21. Give them a scientific experience they will remember for the rest of their lives

Life Beyond The Classroom Practical

In November 2005, NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) launched the Real Science report. The report said what many other organisations, science teachers, and students had also been saying and thinking: we need more real science in our school science lessons. So it seemed like a helpful thing to do to show examples of situations where students and their science teachers had actually contributed to the body of scientific knowledge, in other words, helped practising scientists with their research. What better way to show science in action, and encourage students to feel as if they are part of the bigger scientific picture? Weve searched high and low, and come up with a wide variety of schemes, organisations and individuals that schools can buddy up with to give students a taste of what real science is all about. There are mass participation events, brilliant school student inventions and even getting young scientists opinions heard by the Government. Students have so much fun doing real science, they often dont realise the benefits they can reap as a result: prizes (for themselves and the school), university placements, work experience, publications and something snazzy for their CV. So, whether youre a newly qualified teacher or practically part of the lab furniture here is how to get your hands on some real science. We hope that the examples of Real Science that weve collected together here inspire you to try some Real Science for yourself, using our examples. However, you could make up your own project - the very essence of being a Real Scientist of course. You might want to get in touch with your local university to see whether you can work together (and the Royal Societys Grants Scheme might help you do this). Alternatively you could look for local environmental or wildlife organisations to partner with, or ask your local SETpoint for suggestions, or ask your students whether any of them have science-flavoured parents. Whatever you do, good luck and Keep it Real.

Students publishing papers ... whilst still at school!

Getting creative with science and technology

14

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

19

Hey, I have an idea...

23

Have you found Nemo yet?

26

Mass participation

29

Seed conservation needs a helping hand

35

Going global

40

Real time, real science, real scientists

43

Working in partnership

47

Joining forces

55

Birmingham Think Tank, Democs, Nuffield Council on Bioethics

62

Maestro Aviation Flying high

69

Being part of the bigger picture.. with e-Science

73

International Real Science

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Whilst postgraduate students all over the UK are slaving at their word processors to get their research into journals and be credited with first author, sixth formers who have taken advantage of The Nuffield Bursary Scheme have already cleared that science hurdle and sped off into their science futures. They are a dedicated bunch, working on their projects throughout weekends and the summer holidays. They get a bursary to support them and their reward is being able to say they have genuinely contributed to science knowledge.

Sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation, The Nuffield Bursary Scheme supports post-16 students in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland by offering bursaries (600 offered each year) enabling them to spend 4-6 weeks in a science based company or institution, gaining real science skills during their summer holidays. This not only allows them to have something swish to put on their CV, but the research project is useful to those they work for. The most amazing thing about these students is just how determined they are; they get up to speed with past research in the field, new techniques and even make a few novel discoveries in the process. Its THE scheme for students to go for if they want to get behind-the-scenes of lab life, as youll see from the examples. These are all recent Nuffield Bursary recipients who have, or will have, added their names to science papers.

Jennifer Kennedy from Bearsden Academy, Dunbarton, worked with Dr Andy Parkin and Professor Chick Wilson from the Chemistry Department at Glasgow University. The work she did has formed part of a scientific paper published in Acta Crystallographica Section E62, 0987-0989 (2006); on 4-Ethoxycarbonyl-3-furoic acid. Dr Parkin said: Jen was a cracking student, as was our other Nuffield student last year, Peter Davidson, and they will both be getting at least one more paper out! We are also taking on a Nuffield student this year and weve identified a project that we fully expect them to get a publication out of. Another thing about Jen is that after her project, she changed her mind about what she wanted to study at university and is now at Glasgow to do chemistry. Working with the Nuffield students is a lot of fun, and the students we have had have all been very capable, and produced some excellent work. They have all been a pleasure to work with. They are generally very nervous the first day or two but rapidly settle in, and I think that the whole experience gives them a better feel for what a University is all about.

Alexander Zawadski from Peebles High School worked with Dr Simon Parsons at the School of Chemistry, Edinburgh University and got his work published in Acta Crystallographica Section E60, Structure Reports Online 0225 -0227 (2004).also as a first author. Alex studied X-ray diffraction. This is the best available method for finding out more about molecular structures. It provides geometrically precise information about the distances between atoms and the way in which those atoms interact with each other in the solid state. It can be applied to any complex materials from sodium chloride to proteins to viruses, and it was famously the way that the structure of DNA was worked-out by Watson and Crick from Roslyn Franklins pictures. Diffraction experiments are normally carried out on crystals that have been grown - or can at least be handled - at room temperature. But this is a problem, since most simple molecular compounds are liquid at room temperature, for example, H2O. Alex worked in Dr Parsons lab on the crystallisation of two compounds that are liquid under normal conditions. One of these, 2-Chloroethyl ethyl sulfide is used in biomedical experiments as a mustard gas analogue (mustard gas is bis(2-Chloroethyl)sulphide). Until now, experiments have been interpreted based on an assumed structure of the molecule. Thanks to Alex, theres no need to assume anymore. This data is what he published. He didnt stop there though. Alex also worked on a second compound, Fluorocarbonyl Trifluoromethanesulfonate, FC(O)OSO2CF3. The structure of this compound has been studied in the gas phase, but Alexs research was on the molecule in its solid state, so comparisons between the solid and gas could be made. This work was also published in Inorganic Chemistry (2004), 43, 4064-4071. Not a bad publishing record for a summer holiday of research.

John Readman, from Devonport High School for Boys, was supervised by Professor Moore at the Ecotoxicity and Environmental Pathology Department of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, researching the toxicity of Buckminsterfullerene (carbon nanoparticles: Buckyballs). Even though he was researching a very in topic in science, nanotechnology, his paper wasnt accepted by the Nature journal. However, they are submitting to other journals. Anyway, at 18 he has plenty of time yet to get a Nature publication. John says, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience and found working alongside such eminent scientists inspiring. This project definitely influenced my decision to continue my scientific studies to degree level.

These students have done so much more than spend a couple of weeks in a lab learning how to use pipettes. Theyve actually contributed to the body of scientific knowledge. Some have presented their work at top class international conferences as far away as Honolulu. Many Nuffield students go on to present their work at a Regional BA CREST Event (usually run by the local SETPOINT) and if theyre really fabulous, they enter the National Fair at the Royal Society. Prizes on offer range from money for the school, to one of the most prestigious of all representing your country at Intel ISEF. The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the worlds largest science competition for secondary school students established in 1950. Talking to past attendees, its not just about the event. All young people with an interest in science get a chance to come together, share ideas, experiences and anecdotes and, of course, have plenty of fun. And its not just the BA CREST Awards that dishes out this impressive international treatenter Exscitec. Exscitec aims to provide Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths hands-on activities for all students. Two students who were awarded a Nuffield Science Bursary presented their projects at the Exscitec Project Display Day. Their work was judged and they won a trip to attend the Intel ISEF event.

One of these students, Natalie Zhang, not only worked on RNA (we all know DNA and students rarely get excited about ribonucleic acid) but she studied viral RNA, and the structure of pseudoknots within RNA! A pseudoknot is just what it says a false knot, since its RNA in its secondary structure, just held in a funny position (i.e. not a true knot). These little knots cause a change in ribosomal frameshifting (a process where the reading frame in the translation of mRNA shifts, so proteins can be produced from two or more overlapping genes. Ribosomal frameshifting is a mechanism used by viruses such as SARS, HIV and the virus Natalie studied IBV: infectious bronchitis virus. Since atomic structure is linked to function, it makes sense that structural studies of pseudoknots would give scientists more information on the molecular mechanism of frameshifting and this could lead to the development of novel anti-viral agents. Natalies project aims were to use x-ray crystallography to determine the structure and therefore add more data to the growing body of scientific knowledge in this area.

Muons and Mountains

Ingrid Burt, another Nuffield Bursary Student (and BA CREST Gold finalist), wanted to test Einsteins theory of relativity in Einstein Year. From Beeslack High School, Penicuik she went to the University of Edinburgh to learn more about particle physics. Ingrid first did a feasibility study, guided by Peter Reid from the Scottish Science and Technology Road Show and Alan Walker of the Particle Physics Experiments Group at the University of Edinburgh. The experiment took place at Cairn Gorm (Scotlands sixth highest mountain) during OctoberNovember 2005, and everyone, even tourists could watch the experiment in action. Ingrid used the actual experimental results for her Advanced Highers project, now there are tentative plans to submit a paper. So whats a muon? First of all, muons are nothing to do with cows. Unfortunately its hard to get that image out of your head once youve thought about it. Actually they are fast-moving particles created when high energy air cosmic ray protons bump into the molecules in the Earths atmosphere, and they travel at close to the speed of light. The journey of these whizzy particles should take 50 millionths of a second travelling 15km through the atmosphere, but since they survive a mere 2.2 millionths of a second when stationary, the physics world without Einstein would have assumed that we wouldnt see any arrive on the ground. But this isnt the case. Lots have been detected! Why? Because of something known as the time dilation effect. Even though the muons only exist for a short time, when they travel very fast towards us, we Earthlings see them around for longer. Ingrids experiment was to compare the number of muons detected at the top of CairnGorm (Ptarmigan Top Station) with the number at sea-level (well, close enough: at the university 76m above sea level). This height difference of 1021m (which helps to set the scale) was enough to test Einsteins theory: predicting how muons behave as they travel downwards. If youre thinking students like Ingrid just walk into labs and sit at a computer inputting data, or mundanely pipette ridiculously small volumes of unidentified liquid into the tiniest of test tubes, youd be wrong. These days students get to think for themselves, and their powers of persuasion and people skills are tested to the limit. Ingrid managed to convince CairnGorm Mountain Ltd for their help in transporting all the equipment, plus tonnes of steel, used to detect muons via their CairnGorm Funicular Railway.

The experiment might only be a lump of steel and a computer but its still a pretty impressive method to test Einstein. The amount of time dilation depends on how fast the muons are travelling. So it was important that muons detected at sea-level were travelling at the same speed as they pass the mountain, as those actually detected on the mountain. Using complex calculations, the thickness of steel was calculated for both sites to make sure it was equivalent to the depth of atmosphere. About half a metre of steel on the top of CairnGorm was used to slow down fast muons. Less steel was needed at the university. Muons slowed down enough (and eventually decayed) at both sites. So, muons detected at both sites had the same energies and speeds. As muons travel downwards, they change speed and they reduce in number. Ingrid found that if there was no such thing as time dilation, the reduction of muons would be by a factor of 4.2, but if it does exist, the reduction factor is 1.3. Muons stopped at the top of the Cairn Gorm at a rate of 1.3 a minute. At the university, 1 a minute was detected. Einstein was right.

If you want to know more, see: The CERN Courier http://www.cerncourier.com/main/article/46/4/18

The Institute of Physics in Scotland newsletter http://scotland.iop.org/Upload/BNJanScotlandWEB.pdf

And the following newspapers and other publications: http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/051014einstein.html http://www.midlothiantoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1779&ArticleID=12480 50 http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/051014einstein.html http://tinyurl.com/748a4 http://www.nuffieldcurriculumcentre.org/go/News/Item_833.html

Royal Conservation
Graeme Smith, a 2005 Nuffield Bursary awardee from Lingfield Notre Dame School, Surrey, worked on dye analysis with the Conservation and Collections Care (CCC) section of Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). To use synthetic dyes to produce colour-matched support fabrics so allows future conservators to easily determine what is conservation work and what is historical His work was showcased in the May edition of ICON news, the magazine of the Institute of Conservation.

What Kat Did

Kathryn Ferris from Glenlola Collegiate School, County Down, is someone who works very hard, and enjoys it. Only fifty bursaries are offered to students in Northern Ireland and Kat was shocked but extremely happy to be one of the lucky few! Not only was it an amazing four weeks, it was challenging. Having to learn everything very quickly and recall it so that she could carry out her own research. Kat says, but that was the amazing part, carrying out my OWN research. Thats an awesome feeling when youre only 17! Kats research project focused on diabetic eye disease. Using a newly developed Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) she found that patients with diabetic retinopathy (an eye disease that can cause decreased vision and blindness) have higher levels of advanced lipoxidation end-products (ALEs) in their blood than healthy people. ALEs are thought to play a role in the degeneration of the diabetic retina. Lipoxidation refers to lipid peroxidation i.e. where free radicals (any atom with an unpaired electron), grabs an electron from the lipids in the cell membrane, leading to cell damage and the production of more free radicals. Diabetes is a common health condition, and although more than two million in Britain have it, one million are probably living with it and dont even know it. With one of the symptoms of diabetes being blurred vision, sorting out what actually happens in the eyes of diabetic patients requires pretty neat researchlike Kats.

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During her project she gained medical research skills, becoming an old-hand at basic lab techniques and becoming confident with more specialised scientific equipment. She also developed her communication skills. Kat tells us that before she carried out the project she wouldnt have been able to make a formal presentation in front of people, one of the things she has to become accomplished at for her future field of work. The experience has done wonders for her confidence. I never thought that before university I would be involved with medical research at such a high level, nor did I ever imagine that I would be carrying out my own research project. Or that I would be presenting my research to judges and guests at the science fair in London. It is still really overwhelming when I think about what I have achieved. I think it is amazing that students are offered these kind of experiences from Nuffield as it is a lifechanging experience and a real eye-opener to the exciting world of Science. It was Kats biology teacher who told her all about the Nuffield Bursary Scheme and it was at the schemes induction day she found out about the BA CREST awards. Shes now looking forward to attending the London International Science Youth Forum, the prize she won at the BA CREST Science Fair. Here she will attend lectures and visits at the Royal Institution and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Shes planning to study medicine at university in September and is so excited to be working professionally in medicine and medical research. This Nuffield experience has confirmed she does Really REALLY want to be involved in such an exciting and challenging field of work.

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If you have any students who are interested in this scheme, they are more than welcome to apply. Contact your local regional co-ordinator for further details and get your students names on the list so they can be sent information. You can find the regional coordinator list online - URL at the end of this section. The Nuffield Bursary Scheme plans to expand far and wide, with the hope of getting up to 2000 students to take part in a bursary by 2010. In other sections of the Real Science feature youll read about some other Nuffield awardeeswhich just goes to prove what a great scheme it is. Students can also get a taste for science via other schemes of course.

Over ten years ago, Mimi Tanimoto was awarded a John Innes Foundation Scholarship to work at the John Innes Centre (JIC) on Arabidopsis, and got her name in a paper published in The Plant Journal she was the first author! JIC only gave out three of those scholarships every summer to A-level students. What an achievement for someone so young, and it doesnt stop there. She now works for Joseph Colasanti at the University of Guelph, Ontario (Canada) and prior to that she did a short postdoctoral placement at the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD was with Ottoline Leyser at York. That makes her Dr Mimi Tanimoto now. Mimi said that shes sure she was able to get a position in a good lab to do her PhD because of her previous lab experience. In a small community such as the UK plant science community everyone knows each other, says Mimi, so once you have your foot in the door it is easier to get good positions. Arabidopsis thaliana is related to the mustard plant and cabbage. Since it was the first flowering plant to have its entire genome sequenced it is used in studies of plant genetics and to investigate such phenomena as root growth at a molecular level. Mimi showed, through her research, that ethylene controls root hair development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Mimi says, My experience at John Innes was a major factor in my deciding to go into research, and in particular it sparked my interest in plant biology. Whatever the scheme is its clear that being given the opportunity to work in professional laboratory situations is very inspiring for young scientists.

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Information about the Nuffield Bursary scheme http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/scibsc/page_97.html

Information about Regional Co-ordinators for interested students http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/scibsc/page_98.html

Regional BA CREST Event (usually run by the local SETPOINTs) http://www.setnet.org.uk/cgi-bin/go.pl/setpoints/index.html

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) http://www.intelisef2006.org/index.htm

Exscitec http://www.exscitec.com

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CREST

stands

for

Celebrating

CREativity

in

Science

and

Technology, and its a scheme run by the BA that comes in Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of science projects for school students of 11 upwards. Students who have completed BA CREST project work have the opportunity to display their work at Regional Finals. Outstanding projects are selected for the prestigious national BA CREST Science Fair. We investigate the impact this scheme has had for six young people, Gurjit Singh Sidhu, Lydia Arnold, three girls called Alex and one called Mubeena.

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Meet Gurjit
Hes one of those people who say YES to opportunities that come his way.

Before explaining the project, and how Gurjit helped, heres some background on radiotherapy. As you might know, its the treatment of cancer using high-energy X-Ray beams, which are targeted at the tumour. The rays are powerful and destroy the tumours cells. The down side to the treatment is that radiation can be dangerous in itself and destroy healthy cells, so its important to get the dose of radiation right. You wouldnt want to do more harm than good. So to measure the dose and its effect you need a 3 Channel Electrometer. This has a diode which is held on the skin to measure the radiation level there, and this in turn means the machine can calculate the amount going to the tumour. In the past though, the machine, and in particular the diode, was dodgy and the measurements unreliable, so although it was a good idea to measure the dose, the machine was scrapped. The new machine and diode are, thankfully, a massive improvement on the old one, but you cant just launch in and use it, you need to make sure you have calibrated the machine. So our Gurjit got the job. Its work that normally Master of Science (MSc) students would do, in fact there were two MSc students working on it after Gurjit did his summer vacation project. The Nuffield grant paid Gurjit to work for six weeks, but he ended up doing 10 weeks to get the project off the ground.

Not only has he got a lot of fun and satisfaction out of saying yes, hes had the chance to really contribute to medical science. Hes studying Mechanical Engineering at Strathclyde University now, but when he was at St Johns High School, Dundee his teacher Lorna Neil suggested he follow up his BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) CREST work by applying to continue it with a Nuffield Bursary, the two schemes being closely linked in by the Gold stage. There were only four Nuffield Bursary places in the Dundee area, and Gurjit didnt fancy any of those, so he made his own scheme of work up using contacts that hed made before whilst doing work experience at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. This bit of initiative paid off as together they came up with a project to really help the radiotherapy unit.

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Because the project was so helpful, and so successful, Gurjit won the British Finals of the BA CREST scheme, and won a place to go to Arizona, to the International Science Fair in 2005. In February 2006 he took part in the final of the BA CREST awards again, but this time as one of the judges. With all this work in hospital and promising grades behind him youd think Gurjit might have chosen to become a doctor or a medical physicist, but because hes had the experience of working in a hospital environment hes realised its not for him, and hes keeping his options open with a mechanical engineering degree. In August 2005 he applied for and was awarded a British Airways scholarship to work in aeroplane maintenance at Glasgow airport. He worked with jet engines and did other maintenance jobs with the crew there. But why limit yourself to the ground? This work led on to the opportunity to get a flying scholarship from the Air League, for 15 hours towards a National Flying Licence, one third of the hours he needs. So with all these skills and options what will Gurjit decide to do? At the moment hes into being a NASA engineer, a Formula 1 engineer or an airline pilot. For more information on what Gurjit has been up to, check out the Links page at the end of this section. Gurjit has also just received a NESTA Ignite! Creative Sparks Award which will enable him to visit the Japanese Space Agency (The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) and engage with the Japanese space programme since theres a rocket launch planned for 2007.

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Lydia Arnold
Its not just Gurjit who gets all the prizes. Lydia Arnold won this years Intel ISEF Prize at the National BA CREST Science Fair for an electronics project where she designed a laser-controlled hand, able to mimic the operators hand movements. Her trip to Indianapolis for Intel ISEF wasnt just a fantastic trip abroad with a bit of science mixed inshe also won a prize there from the Patent and Trademark Office Society. Talk about international success. Find out more about Lydia online, or from the url links list at the end of this section.

Alex Carty, Alex Cook and Alex Waters

Another set of bright young sparks have designed a device to help primary school education. The Three Alexes all from St. Anthonys Girls School in Sunderland, won the first prize in the Best CREST Technology Project at Bronze Level for their invention, the niftily named AAA Weather Station. Their aim was to create an innovative product to excite primary school students to want to learn more about the weather. Of course, with an idea that good youd expect them to be making a splashChildrens BBC have followed their trail and these young technologists have been chosen to appear on the CBBC programme Level Up no less than four times throughout 2006. And talking of Level Up, the programme recently featured a young girl, Mubeena, who went out to sea with some marine biologists, and learnt all there was to know about dolphins, and how to record them. She was trained on how to take quick camera shots of each dolphins dorsal fin that she spotted. A dolphins dorsal fin has a variety of notches and scratches, which can help identify an individual the same way humans have fingerprints. Despite finding it difficult at first, Mubeena managed to identify a dolphin, first spotted in 1998, and it was the first dolphin they had correctly identified this year. Mubeena said, I feel like a proper marine biologist, and Im really proud of myself, as they can use this as part of their research. Theres more on record keeping for wildlife, in this case Manatees, in the section called Real Science International Examples.

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BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) CREST http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/ResourcesforLearning/BACRESTAwards/

The Nuffield Bursary Scheme http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grantprogrammes/page_260.html

For more information on what Gurjit has been up to, check out: http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-41315.html http://www.intel.com/cd/corporate/education/emea/eng/uk/elem_sec/comp_awards/ isef/success/220135.htm http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2005/03/04/story6876415t0.shtm http://www.setpointscotland.org.uk/newsitem.cfm?newsid=136 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4318/is_200506/ai_n15055389

NESTA Ignite! Creative Sparks Award http://www.nesta.org.uk/ignite/

Find out more about Lydia Arnold at: http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/News/_SciFair2006.htm

CBBC programme Level Up http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/levelup/

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Research

by

Eric

Topham,

an

18

year

old

student

at

Thomas

Hardye School in Dorset, started as a summer project, and went on to win the AstraZeneca Young Innovators Award at the BA CREST Science Fair in February 2006, and eventually caught the interest of the BBC. Better than that, his work will be expanded on by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) research site at Winfrith. Erics project Communication in ants, and between ants and Alcon blue butterflies is a great example of a student contributing to the body of scientific knowledge.

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Q. Why would a caterpillar want to communicate with an ant? A. When its an annoying little parasite
The Large Alcon Blue Butterfly (Maculinea alcon) is an endangered species in the United Kingdom and Europe. By studying the behaviour of the Alcon Blue caterpillar and its relationship with red ants (Myrmica) you can gain vital information about conservation and reintroduction of the species. The butterfly (in caterpillar mode) spends its life on the Marsh Gentian plant. It falls off the plant, onto the ground. Red ants scurry towards this fleshy delicacy, but they dont eat it. Instead they carry it to their nest. The ants have been duped into thinking the caterpillar is one of their own, a lost ant larva. This is all because of chemical mimicry, i.e. the caterpillar exudes the same chemical signals from its skin as a red ant larva would. The ants then look after the caterpillar through to the pupal stage. Thats almost two years of total sponging! However there is another possible method of communication. The caterpillars could be producing sounds similar to the ants i.e. acoustic mimicry, and there has been some evidence of this in previous studies. The equipment and recordings used in Erics project have since had a brush with fame they were featured on the BBC series, Life in the Undergrowth. Eric concluded that even though caterpillars made noises, it was only to attract attention, the chemicals really did the job of tricking the ants. The ants did seem interested at first, since they investigated the microphone, tapping it with their antennae, searching for further clues. Erics aim was to check this theory out i.e. if there are no physical, chemical clues, do the ants respond to only the noises of the caterpillars? Sensitive recording equipment was used to record the noisy caterpillars. These sounds were then played back to the ants.

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Eric: The project was a wonderful opportunity for me to discover exactly what scientific research was about, and to work with real scientists. It gave me a taste of post-educational scientific work and what a career in science might be like. It was also a chance to study an area of biology that I had never come across in school. Many PhD students wouldnt have a clue whats expected of them when theyre just starting their research, but students such as Eric get a taste before theyve even started their degree. Being part of the BA CREST Science Fair involves submitting an abstract, presenting a poster and answering questions by judges which isnt that much different from your average international scientific conference. To find out more about Erics work: www.ceh.ac.uk/scisoc/Nuffield2005Topham.html http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/scibsc/news_1784.html Erics project is part of the EU fifth framework project Macman working to conserve the habitat of the Maculinea butterfly.

Credit where credits due

Whilst Eric rightly deserves praise to be heaped on him, there are others who deserve it too. Every school student who succeeds is of course supported by parents, teachers and schools, working together to mould them into the scientists, engineers or technologists of the future. Erics school is no exception.

Thomas Hardye School in Dorset is a NESTA awardee, for a project named Films for Learning. Its an online film-making project, getting all students and teachers creating their own teaching videos to share with others. For more on Erics school check out the links page at the end of this section.

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CEH, working to solve man-made environmental problems

CEH is the daughter organisation of NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) and is the UKs Centre of Excellence for research in land and freshwater environmental sciences. CEH is especially interested in how human activity impacts on the natural environment. Visit their website for further information.

CEH have been great supporters of the Nuffield Bursary Scheme and have benefited from Nuffield students contributions to their ongoing research over the last ten years. And its not just the Nuffield Bursary Scheme they support. If youre in the Dorset area, check out their National Science Week activities, lectures, Science Ambassador events, work experience placements, taster days, careers events and materials, teacher training daysand much, much moreall offered by the CEH. How kind of them

To find out more about Erics work: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/scisoc/Nuffield2005Topham.html http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/scibsc/news_1784.html BBCs Life in the Undergrowth http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeintheundergrowth Erics project is part of the EU fifth framework project Macman: http://www.macman-project.de Erics school is a NESTA awardee for this project http://www.filmsforlearning.org For more on Erics school: http://www.thomas-hardye.dorset.sch.uk The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology http://www.ceh.ac.uk/

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Hey, I have an idea

Some students just wont accept that there isnt a particular product available to address a real need. These students are the rare gems who will work beyond the call of duty to bring an invention to life and get it noticed.

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Julie Crawford is one such individual. At the age of eighteen, she won the NESTA Award for Innovation at Young Innovators 2005 in Belfast, for designing a cotand its not just any old cot. Julie designed an inexpensive, temporary cot to be used in emergency relief efforts for newborn babies. Inventive students have ideas everywhere, not just in their science or technology lessons. Julie, from Grosvenor Grammar School in Belfast, heard a talk at her church about community work in Malawi. She realised that a simple, cheap, recyclable cot could be designed and produced to help with the lack of resources and facilities in overcrowded hospitals all over the world. They can be especially useful in the cases of natural disasters or in refugee camps. The cots are light, flat-packed and vacuum-sealed and therefore can be easily distributed. As any good designer knows you need to do your background market research. Julie visited the Red Cross who told her that there was a gap in the market, and explained what exactly was needed. She visited packaging companies to learn more about cardboard engineering, designs, and how to produce these on a large scale. Ulster Hospital offered medical advice in terms of the babys requirements, and Julie has also thought about adding some educational instructions about babies sleeping on their backs, and advice on bottle-feeding with the cot. Definitely an inventor/designer to watch in the futurebut shes been so inspired by her teacher, Ricky Cowan, Head of Grosvenors Technology and Design Department, that shes been toying with the idea of becoming a teacher. Julie also won the Northern Ireland heat of Audi Young Designer of the Year 2005 with her cot, and was highly commended at the National Finals in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in September 2005.

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And talking of young innovators, another NESTA awardee shines forth

Like father like son!

The Stephenson Centre, at the University of Newcastle brings together six international business outreach units, named after famous father and son team, George and Robert Stephenson who were THE name in the railway game. Over two centuries later, Martin Rosinski (studying electrical engineering at Newcastle) and his father Jarek have invented a technological masterpiece - tinier than a matchbox! Microlog is a pioneering invention, a mini data logger able to detect problems on rail lines e.g. when tracks develop a fault or wheels slide on a wet rail. Its attached to the trains wheel axles and records the data - sending location details via satellite and mobile phone technology to a computer in operators office. Getting such information early enough could help rail operators better understand wheel-rail interface conditions and hopefully prevent rail disasters. Martins system is now in full operation on routinely operating trains in Germany. NESTA had an award programme for young people called Ignite! which awarded Martin 4,000 to enable him to visit overseas centres of excellence and develop his electronic designing skills. Impressively, this isnt Martins first claim to fame in the electronics world. Back in 1998, at the tender age of 13, whilst still at Coates Endowed Middle School, Northumberland, Martin won YEDAs (Young Electronic Designer Award) junior category. He had developed a novel device which would warn the drivers of heavy goods vehicles when conditions were so windy that their vehicles were likely to topple over. Subsequently Martin has won five UK national electronics competitions (YEDA) and an array of other prestigious awards.

YEDA, which encourages innovation in electronics design, is open to all students aged 12 to 25 years, and now forms part of the Annual Celebration of Engineering organised by Young Engineers. For more information see: http://www.youngeng.org. Martin is now looking to set up his own company, Wireless Dynamics. Hes in final discussions to secure venture capital of 400Kand although his concept is top secret at the moment, keep your eyes peeled for the technological developments of the future. The Rosinski name wont be too far away

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The MarLIN Project, Marine Life Information Network

If you are well-versed in everything to do with that famous underwater movie created by Pixar, youll know that Nemos dad was called Marlin. The link with Real Science from to a stand is that, marine for the other than the point Life film of being view, completely MarLIN also accurate happens biological MARine

Information

Network. Established in 1998 by the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, MarLIN is the source of all information to do with marine life

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MarLIN is the marine node, or section, of the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) which is a UK-wide project to build a network of biodiversity information. MarLIN collates all the records of seashore and seabed wildlife and sends this onto the NBN. If you like the sound of that, you and your students are welcome to get involved. The network works with volunteers and school groups taking part in field work and getting stuck into identifying and recording all the marine species that they find. This information is a valuable resource showing how marine life in Britain and Ireland is changing. The records can indicate changes in climate, especially when non-native species paddle over here. (Its not just us humans who like to travel to warmer climes.)

MarLIN also provides educational resources. The Learning Zone has stacks of information on everything you need to know to identify the variety of marine flora and fauna and sections for volunteer recorders, with online forms. It doesnt matter if youre a non-specialist or youre studying for a degree in marine biology theres useful stuff for everyone. Working with organisations such as Plymouth Young Peoples Agenda 21 and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers as well as the Dove Marine Laboratory at the University of Newcastle, MarLIN encourages future generations to take notice of their marine surroundings. After all, being the British Isles, we have plenty of shoreline to investigate. School groups with access to the shore are being recruited to offer a helping hand with rocky shore recording. Primary students, aged 7-11 years, can also go on a Seashore Safari. They use the beach lab to explore the rock pools, and play games, which not only gets them thinking about environmental issues, but citizenship too. If youre over 11 (slightly, or actually way over is fine too) youre welcome to have a go on a Seashore Safari as well, since they are also held for the general public. Volunteers, if theyre really keen, can get extra training in identifying species and everything to do with shore ecology. Remember to keep an eye out for the Sealife Signpost (which is online too via the Learning Zone). Its basically a sticker which youll spot on clubhouses, bags and boats giving information on 12 different recording schemes including the MarLIN 24-hour recording hotline. So youre never off dutyspot something fishy (literally), pick up that phone! Theres a new Sealife Signpost on the way too, and it claims to be more sophisticated. Recorders will be able to upload mobile phone pictures and send text messages directly to the MarLIN website. Theres actually no better way to get your students rummaging around rock pools for limpets, beadlet anemones and the most petite crabs theyve ever seen. Fresh air, open shore, real hands-on sciencethe worlds your oyster!

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MarLIN http://www.marlin.ac.uk The Learning Zone http://www.marlin.ac.uk/LearningZone Plymouth Young Peoples Agenda 21 http://www.pypa21.com/ British Trust for Conservation Volunteers http://www.btcv.org.uk Dove Marine Laboratory at the University of Newcastle http://www.ncl.ac.uk/marine/about/facilities/dml.htm

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Phenology is described on Dictionary.com as: phenology n.

1. 2. The scientific study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding, and migration, in relation to climatic conditions. The relationship between a periodic biological phenomenon and climatic conditions.

The word originates from the late 19th century combining phenomenon and -logy. Practically, its about keeping records of all the biological phenomena taking place in a particular time period, and comparing it to previous records (e.g. when do you hear the first cuckoo). Its an easy exercise for students of all ages, and their teachers, to get involved in. The information you find out is extremely useful

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Phenology Fact:
Robert Marsham was Britains first phenologist. He started recording his first signs of spring in 1736. The UK Phenology Network based at the Woodland Trust have joined up with CBBC SpringWatch to set up Nature Detectives aimed at schools and other community groups. Results compiled through all these schemes, including the popular annual BBCs SpringWatch are most definitely valued by scientists. Researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology use this information to help investigate changing seasons and to monitor whats going on in terms of natures events. There are a variety (and a plethora) of MegaLab experiments (i.e. the great outdoors is obviously the biggest research facility youd find anywhere), and the results recorded form a vital database that scientists can access at any time. We offer you 8 fine examples, plus a site that collects data and gives tips on how to handle it:

Recording Bluebells Online

Geri Halliwell had the right idea by naming her daughter Bluebell. Her reason: Bluebells are rare and precious. Aw. The Natural History Museum are calling far and wide for everyone to let them know if they spot bluebells, and to identify which ones they are, what they look like and where you spot them. Why? Well it seems there are three types: native, Spanish and a hybrid. Of the three, our native lovelies are under threat. It gives everyone a chance to draw a bluebell too!

Backyard Biodiversity Day

The fact we have such a diverse number of living organisms on Earth is what makes life worth living. To make students aware of the variety, get them out there and couting up, looking at the millions of species in the world around them. A few years ago, as an activity for Science Year, this is just what we did. The charity, Action for Biology Education along with the Chelsea Physic Garden organised a Backyard Biodiversity Day on 21st June 2002 for all young people (9-12 years) to look at all organisms, whether endangered or not, inhabiting their local parks, back gardens, roads, car parks. All they had to do was spend 15 minutes looking for all living things in their chosen area, observe and record. Even if the smallest amount of knowledge gained was that a child realised oak trees came from acorns, ABE had done its job. The website also included pages where children could have their results published. The initiative was an approved project of International Biodiversity Observation Year. Theres not much about it on the web, but rest assured that if it ever happens again, the completely free Planet Science Newsletter will keep you in touch. Do sign up if you havent already.

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Big Garden Birdwatch: When was the last time you saw a Song Thrush?
On January 28th and 29th 2006, people from all over the UK went outside to count a record number of garden birds8.1 million birds, give or take a few! These records help the RSPBs (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) conservation work, since they can find out more about the population trends of UKs garden birds. Check out the website to find out which ones were the Posh n Becks of the bird world i.e. those that were spotted everywhere (not out shopping for diamond-encrusted watches of course, apart from magpies). This initiative came into being as a result of a one-off activity back in the 70s asking the RSPBs junior membership to count the birds in their garden over an hour one weekend. Now its one of the most popular events in the science calendar. Its so simple, easy, and before you know it, and hour has passed and youve tallied up every single bird youve seen. Everyone can get involved. Its an ideal way to get primary school students thinking about whats happening in the world around them and how different factors affect the local wildlife. The presence of wild birds indicates a healthy countryside. For example, we now know that the decline in song thrushes has been a result of intensive farming and the use of chemical pesticides. If the RSPB get information fast enough that certain bird species are in decline, they are able to step in quickly to save the species.

The British Waterways survey does just that. The water voles in danger because its habitat is disappearing, and the American mink (an escapee of 1960s fur farms, now settling in nicely, thank you very much) is threatening poor old Ratty.

Wild Wales
This is nothing to do with the nightlife in Cardiff. Its a biodiversity project allowing school students to work together to collect and analyse data. Students aged 9-14 get out of the classroom for a bit to collect species data near their school. SETPOINT Wales collects this valuable data to pass onto older students 16-18 year olds. They then have real raw data to get their mathematical teeth into, and on which to perform statistical analysis etc. The results are then passed back to SETPOINT who distribute this to local councils. Is this useful information? Without a doubt! Local councils need this data to produce their Biodiversity Action Plans.

Ratty was a vole?

It is said that Ratty from Wind in the Willows wasnt a rat, but a water vole. Water Voles are mega cute but mega shy and theyre Britains most endangered mammal, so its important to keep track of sightings of them.

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Manchester Fieldwork
Keep an eye out for a pilot initiative set up by the Field Studies Council and British Ecological Society. Working with schools in and around Manchester, they have carefully planned activities in school grounds and local areas (parks, playgrounds, woodlands) where they have mapped out the flora and fauna that is available. Teachers spend the day observing fieldwork being delivered to 30+ Year 9 students and discuss extended fieldwork opportunities that they can then deliver independently. Not only do the students help compile and record new data, but they can also make new discoveries of their own AND theyre not stuck in a stuffy classroom

Aimed at 8-12 year olds, it involves making your own rain gauge (very simple an empty fizzy pop bottle) and recording rainfall over the week of 6th-10th November 2006. You can even try out the online rain data calculator. All data will be stored on the website, and scientists will access it for their complex calculations, analysis and predictions.

Bitten by the bug

Buglife The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, the only organisation in Europe dedicated to conserving invertebrates, has managed to convince all the invertebrate enthusiasts to get on their hands and knees, out in the grassy greens of Hertfordshire, searching for the mysterious and rare Scarlet Malachite Beetle (Malachius aeneus). At only 7mm long, and around for three weeks during summer, itd be quite easy to miss if it werent for its ruby and emerald markings. This was the project in 2006, to keep up to date with other Buglife projects have a look at their website: http://www.buglife.org.uk For further educational resources on mini beasts and everything creepy and crawly, check out the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council website: http:// www.bbsrc.ac.uk/society/engagement/ schools/resources/download.html. Malcolm Walker, Education Resources Manager at the Royal Meteorological Society has also discovered something extraordinary. Some participants have measured rainfall with both homemade and commercially available rain gauges. The results showed that the homemade gauges systematically recorded about 3% too low. Malcolm says, All of the online calculations we provided were correct so we looked for other explanations and the only one we have thought of is that the surface tension of the inside surfaces of plastic bottles is different from that of the copper gauges which are commercially available. The Royal Meteorological Society plans to repeat the project year on year for the data to be really useful, and they also run a project for older children called Metlink where real collected weather data from the school students is added to a global database, and is used by meteorologists in their work.

Raindrops keep fallin on my head

Not everything is to do with counting insects, plants and small creatures. Why not check out RainCatch, an educational initiative of The Royal Meteorological Society.

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Real Statistics in the Classroom

Being able to collate and analyse heaps of data is a great skill to have for many different reasons. There are Real Science benefits of course, but also students get experience in data handling as a skill in itself.

Have a look at The Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education (RSSCSE)s AtSchool projects, which include: CensusAtSchool, ExperimentsAtSchool, SurveyAtSchool and the brand new, IssuesAtSchool. They all target 7 to 16 year olds and aim to use Real Data for Real Learning i.e. students collect real data, add it to data already recorded, analyse it, make their own conclusions and so contribute to the bigger picture.

ExperimentsAtSchool in particular contains investigations and experiments for the students to do which are online and interactive. If youd like to play, you can access the sites with a special Planet Science code of Lea 500 and School 8562.

The site is accessible to all and theres proof that academics from as far away as Melbourne University, Australia have used the data for their research. Fair dinkum.

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The UK Phenology Network http://www.phenology.org.uk/ The Woodland Trust http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk Nature Detectives http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk BBCs SpringWatch http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch Bluebell Recording http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/british-natural-history/survey-bluebells/bluebellsexploring-british-wildlife.html Big Garden Birdwatch http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/index.asp Water Vole spotting http://www.waterscape.com/features/wildlife/ Minibeast projects http://www.buglife.org.uk Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council website: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/society/engagement/schools/resources/download.html Rain Catch: http://www.raincatch.org The Royal Meteorological Society Metlink Project: http://www.metlink.org Real Statistics in the classroom: http://www.rsscse.org.uk/activities/atschool.asp

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Plants are the basis of all life on Earth and are used all over the world as food, medicine, fuel and shelter. However some plants may not be around for much longer. Human activity is causing the loss of habitats. When habitats are lost, species become extinct. Once a species becomes extinct, it is lost forever. So begins the decline of biodiversity, including the plant species that could have been of some benefit to the human race. Going, going, gone? Well, we cant let that happen, can we?

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This year, two schools are involved in a pilot study to help protect plant biodiversity and contribute to the formal research already going on in an ambitious conservation project. International Baccalaureate students from Ardingly College in West Sussex and Alevel students from Mexborough School Specialist Science College in Doncaster are helping scientists at the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) test the lifespan of seeds when put in storage. The Millennium Seed Bank Project is a global plant conservation initiative based at Wakehurst Place, in Ardingly, and managed by the Seed Conservation Department of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The seed bank is a huge, underground vault, containing seeds from all over the world. The most efficient and cost-effective method of conserving seeds is to dry them and place in cold storage. Thats really quite cold, -20C, and seeds can then be monitored regularlysay, every ten years. Seeds from different species have different longevities (life span). Some seeds are viable (i.e. still able to germinate) for thousands of years, but some only last a decade.

So if youre only monitoring every ten years, and the seeds only remain viable for ten years, you wont get plants from sowing those seeds. With the support of the Millennium Commission and The Wellcome Trust, one of the projects aims is to collect and conserve 10% of the worlds seed-bearing plants thats over 24,000 species by the year 2010. It has already achieved 97% of another aim: to collect and conserve the seeds of all the 1,400 species of UKs native flowering plants. No more species, thats what. To improve seed conservation and make sure that there are viable seeds for re-introduction into the wild in the future, scientists need to do some research to find out which seeds have a shorter life, so they can be monitored more frequently. What if theyre the last seeds on Earth of that species?

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Some information is already known, which always helps. For example, did you know that Heathers and Rhododendrons have short-lived seeds. We wouldnt want to lose these by keeping them in the cold too long, in the hard to imagine event theres ever a Heather or Rhododendron scarcity.

Its a lot of work, so this is where the schools come in. The experiments arent quick (125 days plus extra for scoring), no one knows the answer, and the results are of global importanceso not your every day plant science practical. Kits are sent out to schools with everything they need to get started and an experimental protocol for some of the stages has been designed especially for the students to carry out. They then send their results to the MSB at Wakehurst. The pupils are working hard to look at accelerated ageing in British native seed collections. Since these are trials, purchased

The scientists perform comparative longevity or accelerated ageing studies on the seeds to find out which species have short or long lived seeds. Scientists expose the seeds to varying ageing conditions (different humidities, and different temperatures - 60% RH (relative humidity) 45C) and then based on a series of complex equations, they can extrapolate the results back to see how long the seeds will remain viable in the bank. Seeds are plated on agar after 1 day, 2 days, 5 days, 9 days, 20 days, 30 days, 50 days, 75 days, 100 days and 125 days of being in artificial accelerated ageing conditions. The seeds are then scored as to whether theyve germinated or not i.e. are they still viable? By 125 days, youre not likely to find any viable seeds!

seeds will be tested first, before moving onto the samples from the seed bank. And all those taking part in the pilot realise the importance of this research too. Some have said that they even feel nervous labelling plates and plating seeds onto the agar in straight lines!

If you would like to get involved contact Sue Hunt or Fiona Hay on schoolswp@kew.org Kews Seed Information Database (SID to those who want to be on more familiar terms), is available online for all to view.

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Everything you need to preserve your own seeds

So what can you do in your classroom? How about getting your own Mini Seed Bank? Kew have designed a mini seed bank especially for schools to explore the topics of seed germination and growth. You can collect, process and store seeds to your hearts delight exactly the same way real scientists do at the seed bank. See the links page at the end of this section for more details.

They even get to show off their orchids at horticultural events.

And a couple of the students have recently been featured in the Saturday Times Magazine as Nuffield Bursary students who have done some great orchid-growing work. The Nuffield Bursary scheme is also featured in Hands On Real Science.

If you ever get the chance to meet the students, get them to give you an unforgettable quick test on what you think each one smells like. From wafts of fresh grass, to stinking rotting flesh!

Kew inspired Sci-Art

Not only is the art of protecting the worlds seeds vital to preserving biodiversity, the amazing world of seeds has been transformed into stunning works of art.

Kew has also been involved in a cool orchid project

Grace Prendergast (Scientific Officer, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) and Simon PughJones (teacher at Writhlington School, Bath) received a Royal Society Partnership Grant (see our section on Royal Society Partnership Grants) so that 60 pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 could investigate tropical orchids. The money the school received enabled them to set up their own micropropogation unit to sow seeds, wean the seedlings and learn more about reintroducing these beauties into the wild.

Have a look at NESTA Fellow, Rob Kesselers work at http://www.robkesseler.co.uk. Beautiful examples of visual art, all in the name of botanical diversity.

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The Millennium Seed Bank Project http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/msbp

If you would like to get involved contact Sue Hunt or Fiona Hay on schoolswp@kew.org

Kews Seed Information Database http://www.kew.org/data/sid

Get your own mini seed bank kit http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/shops/miniseedbank_schools.html

More on the Orchid Project http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1961

Look at Rob Kesselers beautiful pictures of seeds http://www.robkesseler.co.uk

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The

GLOBE

(Global

Learning

and

Observations

to

Benefit

the

Environment)

Programme is an international science education project

for primary and secondary schools, where students measure aspects of their local environment (phenology*, soils, atmosphere etc.), and then share their results around the world using an Internet database.
* More about phenology in our section called Megalab, Mass Participation Science)

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With over 100 countries and thousands of schools involved, the GLOBE Programme supports practical activities in science, geography, maths and ICT. It gives ideal opportunities for cross-curricular links, and also provides a unique forum to share ideas, experiments and experience around the world.

In addition they have developed new ways of measuring progress towards Sustainable Development, with science-based activities linked to the National Curriculum for students to carry out in schools. There are twenty GLOBE-UK SD activities, in the five areas of Energy, Waste, Transport, Water and Biodiversity - all with hands-on activities for students to really get stuck in to.

Students have the chance to take scientific measurements, report their data over the Internet, publish their research projects and collaborate with scientists since the results they collate and analyse are really useful. Pupils from all over, from small towns in Croatia, to large cities in USA have done some wonderful projects that are globally important, from investigating the impact of acid rain on conifers to looking at whether air temperature affects the number of respiratory diseases.

The GLOBE Programme was initiated in the USA in 1994 by ex-Vice President Al Gore, and now its run in the UK by The Wildlife Trusts, a nationwide partnership of environmental charities and based at Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Brandon Marsh Nature Centre, Brandon Lane, Coventry CV3 3GW. Andy Tasker of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust coordinates the GLOBE Programme in the UK, and links with partners in the 107 GLOBE Countries around the world.

Here in the UK, the GLOBE Programme has trained over a thousand teachers in more than 500 schools and centres, providing on-going support as well as links to schools and students across Europe.

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Andy shares some of the feedback received from teachers:

GLOBE seems like a very good resource just waiting to be used. It is up to us to use it; any school who doesnt is foolish! - Crown Hills Community College At last! A valid reason to use the Internet! - Ambler Junior School (They must mean apart from Planet Science.) This is an exciting way to make science real to children. It will show them that their work really does matter and is needed. - Edgeware Junior School I found it interesting and of wide (and inspirational!) application. - ICT Adviser, Barnet LEA An interesting project with vast possibilities - Much Wenlock Primary School These activities are both valuable as a means of delivering the curriculum and enjoyable because of the knowledge that we are contributing to a worldwide project. - Bredenbury Primary School

You can find out more at the GLOBE web site: http://www.globe.org.uk

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The Faulkes Telescope Project began in March 2004, with a single robotic instrument located at the top of the massive Haleakala mountain on Maui in the Hawaiian islands. This instrument, FT North, is soon to be joined by its twin, FT South, currently undergoing final testing at the Siding Spring Observatory site in New South Wales, Australia. Sounds like funHawaii, Australiabut you dont actually go there.

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Located on the opposite side of the planet from the UK, these telescopes can be controlled live by users via a simple web site, as the entire school day over here coincides with night time at the sites. Dr Paul Roche, head of the Faulkes Telescope Project (FTP), Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University tells us all about how school students can get a real buzz from scientific discovery. Equipped with research-grade scientific instruments, these large telescopes (each with a 2-metre primary mirror) mark the start of a much bigger project, the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) network. LCOGTs slogan is Always keeping you in the dark, and that is exactly what is planned a network of robotic telescopes spread across the globe, with several in each hemisphere so between them, always in night time. These telescopes may be serious research tools, used by professional astronomers to study the mysteries of deep space, but at the same time multi-million pound, stateof-the-art equipment will be used to link students with real science and they also get a chance to work alongside astronomers. The universe is a big place, with plenty of exciting things happening all the time, so the telescopes are not short of things to look at! Through the FT web site, users are kept informed of any interesting new targets that researchers are interested in, such as comets, Near Earth Objects (NEOs), supernovae or Gamma-Ray Bursts. There are a host of other predictable events too, such as variable stars, eclipsing binary systems and even the transits of alien worlds across the face of their parent star. The FTP part of the programme already allows free use by educational groups (mostly schools and science centres) across the UK and Ireland, and to date over 400 schools have registered to take part. Small pilot studies have taken place in Europe, with support from the British Council allowing several dozen schools in Poland and Russia to participate. It is hoped that UK schools will have access to FT South from September 2006.

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Whats happened so far?

NEOs: Remember the Hollywood films `Armageddon and Deep Impact? Thats why Near Earth Objects make astronomers slightly uneasy. FT has teamed up with the amateur and professional NEO community in order to offer students and teachers the opportunity to carry out NEO observations. Through close links to the international Spaceguard organisation, and particularly Jay Tate of the Spaceguard Centre in Powys, schools have been involved in following up newly discovered asteroids, as well as performing observations to allow asteroids to be assigned numbers and eventually names.

Deep Impact: On July 4th 2005, NASA slammed a fridge-sized copper bullet into the nucleus of comet Tempel-1, to see what lay inside. Cameras on a fly-by part of the spacecraft captured the impact, but observers on Earth had to wait around 15 minutes before the light travelled from the distant comet to an array of ground-based telescopes. The first ground-based images released to the public were not from NASA but from FT. A sixth form student, Jon Yardley (who now works for FTP!) went out to Maui in July to run the ground-based observations. Dr Roche says, These were the first publicly available images (obtained from the ground) of the event, anywhere in the world, which was a real coup for us! The data from the Deep Impact observations are being analysed by Prof. Alan Fitzsimmons and his team at Queens University, Belfast.

Supernovae: Since September 2005, a programme to monitor supernova explosions has been piloted by Polish schools, working through the British Council. When a massive star explodes at the end of its life, the glow from the explosion can be viewed across vast distances. Measuring the changes in the brightness of the supernova as it gradually fades over the following months can help astronomers better understand the processes that govern the end of these giant stars.

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Students get some good perks out of working on these astronomic projects. Laura Wyglendacz, from Rougemont School, Newport, worked with Dr Paul Roche in 2004. Her project involved looking for undiscovered distant galaxy clusters and as a result she was invited to present her work at a Young Scientist Conference in Poland. There is also currently a draft research paper in production that uses data obtained by students at Oundle School in the Midlands, who have been assisting astronomers at Leicester University with observations of a new type of binary star system. The FTP started as an educational programme based in the UK, but having joined up with LCOGT, this large robotic network will act as a global tool for research and education. The best is yet to come Dr Roche says, The FTP markets itself as real time, real science, real scientists and after the first full school year of operations, we are finally starting to see the realisation of this dream, and the beginnings of a much bigger future as part of LCOGT.

All attendees get a chance to work on an astronomical project of their choice, with young scientist role models to nudge them along in the right direction. At night theres time to study the twinkling stars, plus throughout the camp there are plenty of non-astronomical fun and games planned. Most projects in the International Astronomical Youth Camps (IAYC) dont involve completely new research, due to time constraints, but theres so much to learn about what real astronomers do, and the highly specialised equipment they use. The projects are centred around designing and conducting experiments confirming results from very newly published work.

However, one student, Alex Golovin from For more information on the Faulkes Telescope, have a look at their website: http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/ Ukraine, took a project he was working on to the IAYC, and he continued the project at the camp itself. The work was accepted for publication in the electronic edition of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Have a look here, if youre reading Want to get involved in a little more astronomy research? Every year the International Astronomical Youth Camps organise summer camps for those aged 16-24 years. For further details on IAYC see: http://www.iayc.org/next_camp.php this online or put AAVSO Alex V Golovin into Google.

Learn the tricks of the trade of professional astronomers!

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The Royal Society offer their partnership grants of up to 3000 to primary or secondary schools to work in partnership with a scientist or an engineer to make those extra special teaching ideas come to fruition. There are many examples of the big success of this scheme; here are a few that caught our attention.

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Beetle-Mania
Think back to your playground at primary school, all that really mattered then was who your best friend was, and who you were going to play with. Well times have changed. Anne Sweeney, who teaches Year 4 (aged 8-9) at Herries School in Cookham Dean, Berkshire tells us that her pupils use their playground for a spot of research. This is just what they did, with the help of another two Partnership Grants, and a PhD student, Deborah Harvey. Sponsored by Royal Holloway, University of London and The Peoples Trust for Endangered Species, Deborah needed help with her stag beetle count. Stag beetles lay their eggs in dead, decaying wood (since its nice and soft). The larvae hatch, live and feed on rotting wood underground for around 5-7 years. This was going to be one long science project, involving real-time research, to help find out why one of Britains largest beetle species is slowly dying out. Deborah visited the school with a beetle and a grub, talked to the children and looked round the Herries School grounds. The work the students had already done on microclimates helped with deciding where Back in 2001, Herries School were awarded their first Royal Society Partnership Grant to study the microclimates in the school grounds. This got the students thinking about the conditions in the different areas of the school, and how this would attract species who liked that particular habitat. Then a few stag beetles were found walking in the playground, minding their own business, as the kids went out to play... Anne and her class wanted to study these, the largest beetles of Britain, which are becoming endangered. to put log piles to attract stag beetles. So Deborah and Annes class chose two sites where the beetles were most likely to want to set up camp. The pupils got to work building two contrasting log-piles on these sites in the hope that female beetles would lay their eggs in them. The log-piles were not to be disturbed or else they risked killing the very creatures they were trying to preserve. This was exciting stuff, and the local paper even ran a feature on it.

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The children asked questions such as: What sort of wood do stag beetles like best? Do they like sunny or shady places? Are they like frogs, needing damp places? Will the sound of children playing scare them away? Do they like smells (in the way some insects like flower smells)? The first log-pile was made of ash in varying states of decay, at the top of the playground, and the other had a variety of different woods which were felled the year before, at the bottom of the playground. A data logger was used to record the conditions of both log-piles i.e. temperature, light, sound and humidity. All the data was logged by the eager young scientists, recorded onto a computer spreadsheet, and converted into a spreadsheet. Yes, were talking 8 and 9 year olds, not university students. Deborah supplied an experimental nesting box for log-pile 1 too. Using prompt sheets they also interpreted what they saw.

Results for the temperature, humidity, light and noise levels in the nesting box were that they didnt fluctuate the way they did on the log-piles. Even the noise of playtime was drowned out in the box. The students waited to see whether the beetles would breed in the log-piles or nesting box. Teacher Anne Sweeney said It really isnt a lot of extra work. Year 4 children study habitats as part of the national curriculum. This project covers that unit, but goes way beyond the QCA requirements, inspiring the whole school and the wider community in the search for Stag Beetles. However, it is essentially a simple project which any school could easily adopt without a lot of extra work for the teachers. Later in the year, the children noticed that the log-piles were sprouting lots of fungi. They wanted to know whether or not Stag Beetles were attracted to logs with a particular fungus on them. Log-pile 1 had a huge variety of fungi, but log-pile 2 had some spectacularly large ones (not edible mind you, and remember to wash your hands!). Each student was responsible for taking a weekly picture of a particular log (using a digital camera, which only the Royal Society Partnership Grant could have allowed). However it was still not clear which logpile the stag beetles liked, as there were very few sightings on the piles themselves. Children found beetles all over the playground, and dead ones (victims of ravenous magpies, or was it the attractive shininess of their shells?) were nearest log-pile 2. This was not very helpful as there was no way of knowing where they were when the magpies found them.

The children worked with Deborah to see if her newly designed trap would work. They caught stag beetles and recorded their size, sex and where they were found. To mark each stag beetle so one individual could be recognised from another, that stationery essential Tippex - was used.

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But then in 2004, it all went belly-up. Extension work to the school hall meant that log-pile 1 was seriously disturbed because of builders rubbish thrown on it. The nesting box was crushed. As were the students hopes. The box had to be re-made, and Anne and the students realised that they would need to continue the experiment in more than one area.

The questions the students came up with were, do the beetles like to breed in these buckets? and is there a best place to bury the buckets? The project is still going strong, with all the participants from the bucket-burying project now being asked to dig up their buckets and find evidence of stag beetle grubs. Unfortunately no one has yet found any

This mirrors the rollercoaster journey that grown up scientists go through when theyre doing real science. Exciting, yet unpredictable. The Peoples Trust for Endangered Species was running a national programme to Bury a Bucket for Beetles. Anne applied for another Royal Society Partnership Grant to fund 32 beetle buckets which were to be distributed to local schools and homes. During National Science Week in 2005, they launched their beetle bucket project.

stag beetle eggs or grubs, but they have learnt a lot about the type of creatures to be found in each habitat. The results were shared with all the participants. Anne is hoping to set up a webcam to see if any beetles are emerging from their own log-piles when no-ones at school. These webcam pictures will be shared with the Borough Sustainability Co-ordinator and to help a wider science community network through a possible Science Across The World project. Deborah now plans to include the students

The children buried buckets in the grounds, the Marsh Meadow Schools Environment area and send out a further 30 buckets, along with instruction letters, to the participants who were asked to record all the creepy crawlies (whether beetles or not) found in them on 16th April, 16th May and 16th June.

monitoring studies in her thesis, especially on the work with the buckets the techniques of which the children have almost as much expertise as Deborah. Anne tells Planet Science, One benefit to the children is the awareness of an endangered species, not out there in the jungle, but right here in our back yard. Another benefit is that some children become really engrossed by the beetles, making up little research experiments at home and writing up projects themselves, without being asked to, but because they have found something to inspire them. This, for me, is priceless.

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Anne and Gatsby

Anne is also a Gatsby Teacher Fellow. Gatsby Fellowships allow teachers to develop new curriculum materials. Find out more about being a Gatsby Fellow in the Real Science feature about the Teacher Scientist Network. Although the Stag Beetles project was generously supported by the Royal Society, the Gatsby project was what initially got Anne thinking about inspiring her colleagues and students with how wonderful science is. She used her Gatsby Fellowship to produce a box of off the peg practical science lessons for non-specialists. The boxes were fully equipped with everything needed to cover a science class with an unfamiliar year group and at short notice. Anne did this because she knew teachers may be hesitant to teach any science they are not too sure about. The stag beetle project provided an extra dimension of interest throughout the whole school and raised the profile of science - everyone became a beetle hunter! Anne also encourages other teachers to apply for these schemes since the support from both organisations is so motivating. At Herries School they also use BA Young Investigators materials in their science club, which really gets the kids wanting to do science investigations. Anne says, It is very exciting to see children become genuinely interested in science and not just in it to pass exams.

More on the mighty stag beetle

The stag beetle is Britains largest beetle, but there arent that many all over Europe. Somewhat counter-intuitively there are more in London than anywhere else in Britain. The London Wildlife Trust has set up the London Stag Beetle Hunt funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to get more information about where the stag beetles are: are they flying across your garden, under some huge stones in your park, or wandering around your playground? The Trust is collecting any data on the beetles i.e. whether you see dead ones or the absence of where you had seen them in previous years. This all helps to build a record of how the stag beetles are spread across the London region. They also want to know if youve seen one outside of London, get in touch! Stag Fact: stag beetles have strong body armour, and even though they can be killed on roads and by being trodden on, one of them has managed to survive being run over by a lawnmower. Check out the UKSafari site for more details on the life and times of Mr (or Mrs) Stag Beetle.

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Its a bugs life

Following on from talk about stag beetles, remember National Insect Week happens every year in the third week of June. Everyone can join in the fun of pond-dipping, entering a photo competition and counting ladybirds. Its the ideal piece of insect research, where anyone can take part, all ages, all abilities, and at all times. National Insect Week is an initiative of the Royal Entomological Society (of which Charles Darwin was a Fellow).

The project allowed students to actively interact with scientists and as a result, this raised the profile of science within the school. The students have a better understanding of food webs and aquatic ecosystems, and it wasnt all about scientific skills. Their designing and entrepreneurial skills were called into play. Some pupils constructed frog-friendly shelters (frog flats) to investigate if frogs used them, and also to investigate if population density affects the rate of development of tadpoles.

Pond Life...
Drs Genoveva Esteban, Chris Reading and Gabriela Jofre are inspiring pupils to pester a pond population. Based at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), Dorset, these scientists are working with Year 4, 7 and 8 pupils, and their science teacher, Charlotte Sharp, at Dumpton Preparatory School in Wimborne with their Partnership Grant. In 2004, two ponds were constructed in the woodland area of the school, and as part of an Environmental Science course, the older students built paths to the ponds, making them more accessible to their younger friends. Now that everyone could get to the ponds, it was time to get experimenting. Students were naturally quite inquisitive about the ponds and the aquatic life within them. So it didnt take much to get them using sampling techniques, recording animal species and cataloguing them to understand more about habitat requirements.

These pupils knew about protozoa too. Protozoa is a term used to talk about microscopic single-celled organisms (not bacteria), but most students would only learn this at A-level. These children werent fazed. They had developed their microscope skills, manufactured ingenious foam traps to catch protozoa and other small organisms. Students also learnt sterile techniques to take samples of pond shore sediments. Dr Esteban tells Planet Science that the students literally all screamed out WOW when they saw the microbes actively moving around in drops of pond water under the microscope. Well, in answer to that, all Planet Science can say is also WOW! All students involved got the chance to really enhance their ICT skills too. For example, they learnt microphotography using special equipment at the CEH, and then used the images to make educational posters, notelets and calendars for the school. Surely theres a money-making initiative in there somewhere?

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Get ready to rumble

Chris Chapman, a retired physicist with an interest in seismology, has been working in partnership with Stewart Bullen who teaches at Haileyhall School in Hertfordshire to find out more about why the earth rumbles i.e. when there are earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, tsunamis and so on. Youd imagine its not the easiest subject to teach in schools in the UK from a practical perspective, what with being on an island, and situated away from major tectonic plates. But thats where youd be wrong. You can also pick up signals from severe weather systems and storm fronts. Did you know, here in the UK, we get more tornadoes per square mile than any other country? Luckily theyre only diddy onesexcept that one in Birminghamthe Great Tornado of 2005. A seismograph is a machine which picks up seismic signals (youve seen one probably, squiggly lines drawn with a pen moving up and down, a bit like an earth ECG) and the record you get is a seismogram. By studying the seismogram, scientists can tell how strong and how far away the earthquake was. But theyll have no idea where the epicentre (origin of the earthquake) is. To do this you need to know what was recorded by at least two other seismographs in other parts of the country or the world. But seismology isnt all about recording these natural disasters. Seismologists can study earthquake wave patterns and learn about the deepest parts of the Earth. Thanks to their Royal Society Partnership Grant and the help of the British Geological Survey theyre working on a project to develop a seismometer suitable for use in schools, and getting students inspired to learn more about the earths activities, and contribute to the ongoing database of seismic signals. This is real world-wide science coming into the classroom. Look at the SciEds web site for more information on educational seismology. The Royal Society gives out grants to a variety of projects and to schools all over the country.

The Mediterranean region, southern Portugal and Spain, the Pyrenees, the Alps, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the north coast of the African Continent are all quite active and quite close. Although the UK is seismically fairly quiet, earthquakes from these other regions can be detected, as well as other earth-shaking events. Haileyhall School saw a huge trace on their seismograph when the Buncefield fuel depot at Hemel Hempstead exploded.

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Other eye-catching projects include:

Students from Thornhill College, Londonderry looked into renewable energy generation i.e. wind energy and solar heating. They aim to make a final presentation to their local government. Resistant and Blight-susceptible tomato plants were investigated by pupils from Prince Henrys Grammar School in West Yorkshire in an attempt to really understand how they could help combat this devastating plant disease. Mr Kirk Sargent and pupils at Redbridge College, Essex studied the ecology of the water vole in the inner Thames Marshes. Theyve been looking at ways to stop cattle poaching river banks (voles homes) but still allow them access to water. If youve been inspired by any of these ideas and youd like to know more about the Royal Society Partnership Grants Scheme see the links below.

Royal Society Partnership Grants http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1948 Royal Entomological Society http://www.royalensoc.co.uk National Insect Week Info http://www.nationalinsectweek.co.uk Herries School environment projects http://www.herries.ws/environment.htm Science Across the World project http://www.scienceacross.org/ BA Young Investigators http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/ResourcesforLearning/ Stag Beetle Research Site, London Wildlife. http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/stag_beetle.php UK Safari Stag Beetle Info http://www.uksafari.com/stagbeetles.htm National Stag Beetle Hunt http://www.greatstaghunt.org/ Educational seismology http://www.scieds.com/spinet/

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It would be logical to assume that teachers could get more ideas and extra assistance with their science lessons if they buddied-up with some practising scientists. A good way to get some REAL science in the classroom. So how easy it is to do this? This section will give you a few schemes, pointers and ideas to help you join forces with the scientific community

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Talking about their actual research always goes down well, and it not only shows students how science is really valuable, but also offers the scientist some new perspecThe Teacher Scientist Network established in 1994, and regarded nationally as a beacon of best practice in this area, matches up scientific staff from the Norwich Research Park with science teachers across Norfolk area (and even into Suffolk). This unique collaboration allows scientists to interact with teachers and children, to get real science into the classroom, and to get a chance to learn more about what science topics are taught in schools. As an added bonus, they get to disprove the stereotyped theory that all scientists are old, white-haired eccentrics. The network get together each year at their October Annual Meeting, a chance for teacher and scientist to meet socially and with others in the network to share ideas and experiences. This vibrant evening includes an entertaining science talk and a giveaway of surplus resources. Find out more about Dr Mimi Tanimoto, a student who did a research placement at JIC, a world leader in plant and microbial sciences, by looking at the first Real Science section on The Nuffield Bursary Scheme. tives including getting the opportunity to go away thinking, Hmm, Im not doing a bad job after all! The Teacher Scientist Network, based at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Coordinator Dr Phil Smith, himself a partnered scientist with a teacher in Essex, reveals the key to the success of TSN, we truly believe in responding to what our teachers ask for.

Scientists can talk directly to the students about what its like to be a scientist, help the teacher develop new investigations, and drop the topic of Real World Science into the average classroom.

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Full Marks
Dr. Phil Smith told us about sixth-form student, Nicholas Johns, who benefited from a partnership between his A-level chemistry teacher Neil Gordon and food-scientist Mark Roe in a project to turn paper into sugar. He scored 50/50 for his project. These were the best ever results for the school. Nicholas thought that since paper is mainly cellulose, and cellulose is nothing more than lots of simple sugar (glucose) molecules then surely he could turn paper to sugar? Miracle or science? Mark, a researcher from the Institute for Food Research, was more than happy to help Nicholas and Neil with some technical input and set realistic goals for the project. He was also able to provide access to a highly sensitive spectrophotometer which enabled Nicholas to accurately measure small amounts of glucose. Scientists, teachers, students and resources who could ask for a better collaboration?! The TSN also runs a Kit Club supplying free to loan resources for teachers and scientists to use in the classroom. This activity was recently recognised as an example of best practice, with the DfES providing funds to TSN to replicate some of the kits at three Science Learning Centres around the country (East of England, North East and West Midlands).

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Teachers getting in on the act!

Why should students be the only ones to get researching? The TSN also offers mini-grants to allow teachers to develop classroom ideas and activities based on topics they think need more attention, or could do with being brought to life. With the help of their partnered scientist Dr Charles Hill used to be Head of Biology at Wymondham College, Norfolk and was a TSN-partnered teacher for ten years one of the originals. Dr Hill has also used these practicals in He was awarded a Robinson College/SAPS Schoolteacher Fellowship which allowed him to work for a term at Cambridge in the plant science department. Charles wanted to continue this work one day a week, so he decided to approach Dr Wendy Harwood, his TSN-partnered scientist. BBSRC-funded and TSN-supported National Science Week events for his own pupils and those from other schools. For details of Dr Hills work on using PCR in schools to identify dwarf and tall Arabidopsis plants, have a look at: http://www. embo.org/scisoc/tw03Hill.pdf. PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction which is a molecular biology technique used to replicate a specific piece of DNA. He completed a project in extracting DNA from plants, and has developed other molecular biology protocols for schools at the John Innes Centre with advice from staff there.

Dr. Phil Smith says, The scientist working in partnership with a teacher becomes a normal person, someone willing to talk to the pupils, work with them and help design their investigations and make the science REAL. Equally, for the teacher too, there are tremendous professional development opportunities.

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Various schemes can help you get a real scientist into the classroom:
SETNETs Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs): SETNET is a UK charity aiming to make sure all young people get some really good STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) experiences. They run the Science and Engineering Ambassador scheme to promote STEM in schools by recruiting vetted volunteers from academia, industry and all sorts of STEM companies to be role models in the classroom, and they offer their thoughts on science and science careers. SEAs is funded by the Department for Trade and Industry and is supported by the Department for Education and Skills. So, why not invite a scientist, technologist, engineer into your classroom to tell all the class about what its like to be a scientist and what they do!

Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme (UAS): This scheme enables STEM undergraduates to gain credit towards their degree by working in local schools. Undergraduates gain an insight into the teaching profession and transferable skills, and schools gain young, enthusiastic role models who can show school students that you can have fun doing science at University.

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Researchers in Residence
Researchers in Residence is funded by Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust, and is now managed by the University of Edinburgh. The scheme encourages all PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in the field of STEM to spend time in a secondary school. This gives students another chance to chat directly to positive role models, as well a learn a bit more about current research. Researchers also love the chance to work with teachers to develop more activities that students can do in the classroom. If youd like to find out more about the scheme contact info@rcuk.ac.uk, or go to the Researchers in Residence Website: http://www.rinr.ac.uk Researchers in Residence will be evolving to integrate its activities with other established schemes for school science and engineering enrichment. The main candidates will be our friend the BA CREST awards and the Science and Engineering Ambassadors scheme (SEAs).

Gatsby Teacher Fellowships

As mentioned earlier, Anne Sweeney, a teacher at Herries School, is a Gatsby Teacher Fellow as well as a Royal Society Partnership Grant awardee.

School Teachers who are Research Fellows too!

Dr. Mo Afzal knows what it means to do Real Science, and the importance of getting students interested when theyre young. He is Head of Science at Warwick School but is also a Research Fellow at Warwick University. Mo runs research projects to give his chemistry students a real experience of lab work. One example includes discovering novel ways to make aspirin so that its cheaper to produce for third world countries.

Twelve fellowships are offered in one academic year, offered by the Gatsby Technical Education Projects (GTEP). Up to 3,000 is on offer to enable teachers to be creative, inspiring and motivating and develop novel methods of teaching their subject (either mathematics, science or design and technology). This can even be in the form of developing new project materials and experiments. Fellows also have the chance to network with their fellow Fellows, and enjoy mentoring by wiser souls and buddying up for extra support and advice.

Theres more
Information on the Royal Society Partnership Grants is also featured in this Real Science collection.

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The Teacher Scientist Network http://www.tsn.org.uk

Science Learning Centres http://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk

SETNETs Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs): http://www.setnet.org.uk/cgi-bin/wms.pl/29

Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme (UAS): http://www.uas.ac.uk/

Researchers In Residence (RinR) http://www.rinr.ac.uk

Gatsby Teacher Fellowships: http://www.gtf.org.uk/

Royal Society Partnership Grants http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1948

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School students of all ages have their own opinions on everything from music and fashion to genetic modification and vivisection. As scientific advance changes the world, its important to hear what those who will be living with the consequent future think about it. They are entitled to an informed opinion and to be able to voice their thoughts and it seems more organisations are listening. We explore five examples of students making their voices heard in various ways.

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Thinktank and the Council of Science and Technology

Scientists should listen as much as they speak (Quote from a KS3 student) Dr Kenny Webster works at Thinktank, the Birmingham science museum, as the resident scientist and tells Planet Science of his proudest achievement to date.

There were workshops in which over 200 students came in and made their very own DNA and took it home in a necklace. They also had Meet-the-Scientist type event and talks. The best bits though, were the two debates. The Rosalind story raised lots of issues, such as the role of women in science and also research ethics that are as relevant today as they were then; for example, the events surrounding the fraudulent stem cell work in Korea. For the debate Dr Webster included a section on DNA structure and function which was very much a teaching session using the Thinktank interactive voting system. He then moved onto research ethics and got the students to define right from wrong in a very black and white situation such as making up results. He then made the example situations greyer and greyer to give them a flavour of how real research is done and how difficult it is to tell when results have been tampered with.

Forget the time he managed to convince Lord Robert Winston to come up to Birmingham for an eventthe thought of how he got school students ideas heard by the Council of Science and Technology still gives him goosebumps. This is how it happened. Thinktank and the Birmingham REP theatre submitted a grant to the Wellcome Trust to make a dramatic production of the life of Rosalind Franklin (the woman who did the crystallography experiments that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA).

By chance the Council for Science and Technology (CST), the UKs highest level of Government advisory committee, had just published the draft version of their Code of Conduct that they wanted all universities, industries and schools to take up. This was because Sir David King, the governments Chief Scientific Advisor, asked for a working group to help him develop a universal ethical code for scientists i.e. a code that would make scientists think more about the ethics of their research and the responsibility they have to society. The CST were asked to tell all universities,

The REP did the production and Thinktank did an education programme alongside it.

institutions and organisations about it and find out how useful it would be.

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At this stage, all they were asking was for people to give feedback. Obviously, the CST was only expecting Vice Chancellors, Heads of Industry and Learned Societies to respond, but Dr Webster had other ideas. He rang them and mentioned the workshops and debates, and asked if it would be OK to include some of the CST questions within the debate. Not only were they very happy for Dr Webster to do this, but they also asked if he could include some extra things that would be useful for them to know, for example, whether having the code of conduct in place made science a more attractive career option. Dr Webster did just this, and wrote up the results, which were semi-quantitative due to the Thinktanks interactive voting system, and sent them off to the CST. At best I was hoping that they would send a letter saying thanks very much, which I was then going to send on to the schools that had participated, to close the circle as it were. However, what they actually did was read the report and include it in their public response to the consultation. There is a half page section that specifically deals with education and the code and it is almost entirely based on our results. I was delighted. This Government body had actually read what the students said and responded publicly to it, including the things that they specifically asked us to do, which none of the other learned societies could have done. To summarise: the students agreed that there should be a code with the majority wanting to follow it in their own work. If youd like to read more, go to this web address to see a copy of the Universal Ethical Code for Scientists: summary of responses to CSTs consultation and for Dr Kenny Websters report on the debate day and their findings: http://www.cst.gov.uk/cst/reports/#11 The debate session was very intensive and the students deserve a lot of credit for making it through to the end in one piece! Dr Webster

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Bioethics Consultation
In January 2006 The Nuffield Council on Bioethics launched a consultation paper on the ethical dilemmas in public health topics i.e. infectious diseases, obesity, smoking, alcohol, and the supplementation of food and water. The Council wanted youngsters to have their say and listened to all responsesand who knows what lies ahead if students can influence the influencers. The consultation ended in September 2006, and the results will be published in the autumn of 2007. Examples of questions asked in the consultation were: Should there be any cases where the This actually isnt the first time that the Nuffield Bioethics Council has sought the views of school pupils. In 2005 and early 2006, the Council worked with Thinktanks Education Manager, Julia Kingston, and ecsite-uk, the UK Network of Science Centres and Museums, to develop and run workshops for young Should people who smoke or drink people on the issues surrounding the treatment of premature babies. The Working Party on Critical Care Decisions in Foetal and Neonatal Medicine: Ethical Issues helped to produce the workshop materials. The results from the workshops were made available to the Working Party for consideration. excessively be entitled to fewer resources from the public healthcare system, or should they be asked for increased contributions? vaccination of children takes place against the wishes of the parents? What are the roles of parents, schools, The Planet Science Newsletter will keep you informed of all the latest opportunities as they come up. If you havent already, youre welcome to sign up, its completely free. Youll find the link to the sign up page from our home page. There are plenty of opportunities out there for students to engage with ethical issues in science. The consultation was open to all, and teachers were welcome to run debates in one or all of the issues involved.

school-food providers and the government in tackling childhood obesity?

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SuperSize Discussion
Emma Faragher, Education Outreach Officer at the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) tells Planet Science how they give young people the opportunity to truly have their say in issues that affect society. Held at a different location each year, the RSEs Young Peoples (YP) Discussion Forum aims to offer 15-17 year old students a chance to get to grips with complex topical issues such as Climate Change, Energy, Obesity and Cloning. The students hear evidence from experts before getting into smaller groups to discuss the issues in more detail. The students then put forward their own ideas and proposals which are compiled into a report and sent to policy-makers and decision-making bodies throughout Scotland. In 2003 the YP Discussion Forum focused on Obesity in Scotland. Three experts introduced the topic and spoke about different approaches to weight management: drug treatments, clinical aspects, and the risks of associated diseases. Following the talks, students were split into workshops to consider the issues and come up with a plan as to how Scotland should proceed. The groups then fed back their ideas, even if some of them found the idea of making a presentation quite daunting.

In summary, the students called for more education on a healthy lifestyle, and clearer labelling and taxation of the advertising of unhealthy foods. They were on the whole, in favour of drug treatments for severely obese individuals, but felt that patients should be encouraged to make lifestyle changes and avoid long term drug treatments.

Following the YP Discussion Forum, the report was sent to decision-making bodies including the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Science Advisory Committee and Food Standards Agency (FSA). And what about this for a result: FSA Scotland did use the results from the YP Discussion Forum to disseminate information on Obesity in Scotland. Students enjoy the YP Discussion Forum, especially since its not only about learning new facts; they also meet new students from other schools. Learning whilst socialisinga winning formula. In 2005, the RSE launched a new teaching resource so that wherever you are, you can run your own YP Discussion Forum. This is available as a CD ROM and on the RSE website. Who knows who your students will influence next?!

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Its so not Happy Families or Snap

The New Economics Foundation provide a top notch card game called Democs (DEliberative Meeting Of Citizens) that enables small groups of people to discuss issues of public concern.

The main games (used in Caf Scientifiques and at many other public science events) have been used as a policy-making tool e.g. in the GM Nation debate, by the Greater London Authority on their Noise Strategy, by the Human Genetics Commission etc. Now Democs has been adapted to the cur-

Democs kits aim to: give information on a topic create space for players to decide what they think on a topic have a voting system to link into policy and decision making. Participants are usually given a choice of four policy positions (but they can add their own too). For example, positions in the Animal Experimentation Democs game are: Policy position 1 - Researchers should be able to decide for themselves when to experiment on animals. Policy position 2 - Animal experiments are justified when the benefit (largely to humans) clearly outweighs the harm to animals.

riculum, promoting discussion-based learning in the classroom. Games for students include the topics of: stem cell research, climate change, vaccinations policy, animal experimentation, neuroscience and GM (genetically modified) food, and you can also upload your results and view all the votes online. What a neat way for students to lend their thinking power and really start to influence those policy makers. Look at their website for more information on the Democs card game, and to download the games for free. A practical guide for teachers and science communicators on how to adapt Democs for schools is also available from this site. Check out the students game.

Policy position 3 - In addition to 2, introduce a phased outlawing of experiments on animals. The use of alternatives to animal experimentation will be prioritised and enforced. Policy position 4 - Animal experimentation to benefit humans is never justified. People vote whether they find each position: unacceptable, they can live with it, support fully, or dont know before and after theyve played the game.

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Taking part in real research in a museum?

What better way to catch the public, than grab them at the Science Museum? Researchers are doing just this. They set up camp in the Museum for a week (or even months) to draw on the visitors as subjects for their research, asking lots of questions and find out what everyone really thinks about subjects like music, smells, or how to stop a satellite from crashing to Earth! Anyone is most welcome to join in, whether youre a teacher, parent or child or school student.

Thinktank http://www.thinktank.ac/ Dr Websters findings for the Council of Science and Technology http://www.cst.gov.uk/cst/reports/#11 Nuffield Bioethics Consultation http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org Research in Museums http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/lets_talk/livescience.asp Royal Society of Edinburgh, young peoples discussions http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/ Run your own young peoples discussion http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/schools/index.htm Information and downloads on Democs http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/democs.aspx Students Game http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/node5959.html Caf Scientifique http://www.cafescientifique.org/

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The take-off run is 6,250 ft. There is a 250 ft obstacle 9,740 ft from start of roll. The runway altitude is 7,200 ft. Its a 5 kt. tailwind. Its 1.2% uphill. Its 30C. Its a wet runway. Its 2,350 nautical miles to JFK. This may not mean a lot to many of us, but it is important information for aircraft pilots. Without these facts there would be no such thing as a safe flight. So, how can students use this information to help pilots and ensure the course of true flight runs smooth?

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Soon after the launch of NESTAs Real Science report a member of a small company based in Hersham, Surrey, got in touch with Planet Science. William Lonergan, a Royal Air Force pilot who is now Aviation Systems Director of Maestro Aviation, says he knows exactly how to get students contributing to real world science. We take it for granted that when we get on an aeroplane, the pilot will take us to our destination, safely and with the smoothest of flights but pilots constantly have to make calculations. Whats the minimum altitude before fuel becomes a problem? Whats the maximum altitude before oxygen becomes a problem? What if theres a sick passenger can we recalculate the flight path? These are the all-important safety critical calculations that an aircraft captain must do before each flight. If an incorrect calculation is made then, in the case of say, an engine failing on takeoff, the aircraft could crash with fatal consequences.

Maestro Aviation have found a solution to make pilots lives a little easier (and less scary). In order to keep cockpit paperwork to a minimum, theyve introduced an Electronic Flight Manual (in the form of a handheld computer) which offers pilots instant access to data by carrying out all the performance-related calculations.

The team at Maestro have taken the graphical data in the Aircraft Flight Manual and turned it into digital data to run on the small computer on the flight deck. The fact that the airlines can move away from error prone, paper-based calculations to a highly accurate digital solution will have a major effect on the way future airlines operate. It may even give the first airlines to use this system a competitive edge over other airlines. William has managed to recruit a few Alevel students from local schools, to work at Maestro Aviations Headquarters for 1-2 afternoons a week to gain an experience that theyre unlikely to forget. The students do the digitising of the graphical data and theyre responsible for the quality of the work they do. This has some very interesting consequences for both Maestro and the students.

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One student, James Stearn from Rydens School, Hersham, happened to be in the area of Maestro Aviation HQ for violin lessons. His friend, Jacob Copeland was already working at Maestro, and so James was curious to know more about the world of aviation. James was invited to come back and give working at Maestro a go. In no time at all James was collecting data, converting it to computerised data and generally getting into the full swing of things. Its a very interesting experience; different to anything else Ive been involved in before. I like the no-blame culture, how if you do something wrong, you just have to improve. Its such a relaxed atmosphere and a nice place to work, and even though there are other people my age to chat to and discuss the calculations with, there is also the huge wealth of experience in the staff here. The response we have had from the students we have used is interesting, says William Lonergan.

Once they realise that it is not simply an academic exercise and that real lives depend upon them getting it right they rise to the challenge and produce work of an extremely high standard. Everything Maestro does is new and students love being a part of new research. They also have a chance to see how the methods they develop in the Maestro office have an effect on what real pilots do on real flights.

James

William tells us of one A-level student, Rebecca Taylor, who started working at Maestro Aviation one Tuesday. By Friday she flew to BAE with William, where she explained how to get accurate safety calculations to senior pilots there. They were not only very impressed, they couldnt believe shed only been working there for a few days. Surely she mustve been working there at least two years! So, are students really contributing new information? The answer is YES, says William. We believe that by giving the students the right level of training we get invaluable feedback for our future product development.

Jacob

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Engineering Go-Karts
Weve heard about students getting involved in vehicles in the sky, but how about modes of transport on the ground? Chris Hinchcliffe, Senior Engineering Technician at Woodchurch High School, Wirral has discovered the most fun way to get pupils fired up about engineering. Get them to design a kartthat they can actually race. The karts we build are full race versions and take about 12 months to build. They range from 45 mph novice karts up to 125mph with a 125cc six speed gearbox. I build the karts with years 7 through to year 11, but Schools karting age range is 10-18 so they can be built and raced from year 6 primary to 6th form. Not a bad idea to entice pupils into technology and engineering with a little high-speed racing.

Chris and the students race at tracks all over the country with the School Karting Association. Relating topics such as levers, electrics, forces etc. to karting and being able to show these principles in the flesh is really enjoyable to all pupils. Some students take the project further by building dynamometers to check engine output, experiment with fuel mixtures or change gear ratios. By making slight changes themselves, they can feel responsible that their own work has resulted in the perfect kart. And its not all about fuel-powered karts. There are races for electric motors too. Yes, travel in style whilst being environmentally-friendly, why not?!

Maestro Aviation http://www.Maestro-Aviation.com/ School Karting Association http://www.natska.co.uk Green Power http://www.greenpower.co.uk

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Be part of the bigger picture with e-Science... In the last few years the technology behind the internet has

enabled some very big research projects to be done, utilising the spare capacity of thousands and thousands of domestic computers.

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When theres too much data to shake a calculator at, scientists need super-super-computers and sharing the calculating around in this way means they can get the work done, without the need for building a computer complex the size of Doncaster. It is known as distributed computing. The Internet is then used for relaying information back to the scientists. If you saw the BBCs programmes in 2006 about Climate Chaos then youve already heard of it. Thats a distributed computing project. In terms of climate change issues, we all know we should be doing our bit, efficient light bulbs, not leaving the TV on stand-by, and so on.

distributed computing systems, where you download the software and then let your PC run models that then input their data into a central resource. Climateprediction.net aims to make results available to the scientific community, and you can get involved in this too. Have a look at the website, and download a climate model. Whenever you switch your computer on, it will run in the background using the computing power you dont need, and dont worry, it wont affect any of the very important documents youre working on. (Or Free Cell.) You will have your own version of the world, your own screensaver with changing weather patterns on it as the model runs. These results are then sent back to the climateprediction.net team via the internet. A sample set of results are then ready to view on the site. The aim is to run the model thousands of times and investigate slight changes in the model e.g. small changes in the carbon dioxide and the sulphur cycle. This al-

Imagine though, that you could also do something very useful by taking a few little online steps, downloading a screensaver and contributing to scientific research on climate change. Youd feel a little better, wouldnt you?! Plus students can learn how they really are part of the bigger picture. The Climate Chaos campaign centred on publicising climateprediction.net, and is the largest experiment to forecast climate change in the 21st Century. Climateprediction.net is a PC-based modelling experiment, using the same underlying BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) software as other

lows scientists to tweak all these different factors and look at how the climate would change in every possible scenario. In the past only a few computers have been used to make these estimates so by recruiting everyones computer, better climate predictions can be made. Since the amount of data produced is huge (a couple of PetaBytes thats 1,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes), its impossible to store this centrally. So theyve called upon the scientific community to upload servers on their computers. This is known as hosting a results node and there are plenty of node-hosters around the world.

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Most e-Science systems seem to take a purely passive approachthis isnt one of them. To make it more fun, educational resources have been developed to learn more about what the model shows, including an interactive web community to discuss your model runs with your fellow modellers. Theres a page on the website showing the top participants and top teams so you can have a look at just how many school groups are taking part. Jon Gray, at Gosford Hill School in Oxford, is someone who has had pupils involved with the project at different times, and really values this kind of project. Climateprediction.net allows kids to see real science in the classroom and at home. The results of their experiment are talked about on the news and on the web, especially with the current BBC project. Its a great way to promote an interest in these important issues and for them to see how scientists are contributing to society. It looks like word is travelling fast. The South West Science Learning Centre has piloted the use of climateprediction.net materials for teacher CPD courses. Research Councils UK has sponsored four pilot courses at Science Learning Centres across the country which integrate contemporary science into the new GCSE specifications. They have been so popular that all the courses have been full so far and the feedback so far has been really positive: A fab course, highly recommended Really enjoyed the course, did not notice where the time went!

Courses are running on Climate Change, The Big Bang to Earth, Astrophysics and Nanotechnology. If you like the sound of these and want to know about other CPD courses in your area, visit the Science Learning Centre website, and theres also more information on some of the UK e-Science programmes within the Research Councils. To find out more about the Earths climate check out the climateprediction.net website. Theres everything about the atmosphere, oceans, Greenhouse Effect and the energy budget to help explain the situation to the next generation. Climate change is an issue of anxiety to us all and finally politicians are waking up to the potential nightmare scenarios too...with the help of these models.

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Online Malaria
Dont worry, you cant catch malaria from being onlinethere wont be any weird futuristic mosquitos popping out of your computer screen. This parasite is slurped up by a female Anopheles mosquito (yes, only the ladies want your blood) from an infected individual, and then the parasite reproduces making sure that its larval stage is ready and waiting in the host mosquitos salivary glands to be mixed into the next victim, with the mozzies next meal. Clever little blighter, but can leave humans and other animals deadunless a miracle drug can be found. Enabling lots of people to tackle problems in drug design needs a large amount of computing power, which is where e-Science comes in. Sixth formers studying for their AS-level Chemistry at Havant College, Hampshire, worked with Dr Jeremy Frey and his team from the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton.

Students can now learn more about malaria, and how to design drugs to tackle the devastating disease via an e-Science project funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee). This project allowed students to think like a pharmaceutical researcher on the quest for potential anti-malaria drugs. They followed the path of real-life scientists, using the same workflow used in realworld drug design. With around 1.5 million people dying from malaria every year (that includes ten British holidaymakers), and 300 million suffering from it worldwide, its a disease that should worry everyone, and since the majority of malaria victims are children, students tend to feel quite strongly about it. A quick recap on malaria: Its caused by a protozoan (single-celled organism) parasite of four main species: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malaria.

Dr Frey, who headed the e-Malaria project, says, This project has created a novel web-based chemistry teaching tool for schoolteachers to experiment with. And the feedback from those who took part in the pilot has been really positive. Using the context of malaria to teach chemistry, and the possibility of designing new drugs, really appealed to the students. It also raised the profile of chemistry at Havant College.

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So was this another case of downloading a screensaver? Well, there was a bit more to it this time. Dr Frey started off with a background session on how computational drug design is used within industry. Then followed the practical session The malarial parasite has an enzyme which the students were asked to design a drug against. The structure of the enzymes active site (region where the drug could bind to) was known, so students designed a 2D sketch of a possible drug. This was then converted to a 3D shape using special interactive software which allows the students to understand exactly what their drug molecule looks like. Chemistry teachers loved this bit too and didnt have to worry that there was more new stuff to teach since it had all been tailored to the current A-level syllabuses. Once they had a drug molecule this was tested on the target enzyme using GOLD software another special type of software that only pharmaceutical industries have access to. But Dr Jeremy Frey and his team get permission to use this with a licence that allows students to use it too. Distributed computing is used to convert the 2D to 3D, with dedicated computers for this task. Dr Frey says, The students and their teachers have found this to be a very successful system and have come up with some very interesting variants on possible drugs. The students can compare their results with the rest of the group and several competitions have taken place. The overall project has been described in a paper submitted to Journal of Chemical Information and Modelling.

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BBC Climate Chaos http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climatechaos.shtml

Climateprediction.net http://www.climateprediction.net/

Information about some of the UK e-Science programmes within the Research Councils. http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/

Back in 2003, JISC commissioned three short-term projects with the aim of directly involving school pupils in live research. To see all the projects look at this site: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_escience_in_education

E-malaria project http://emalaria.soton.ac.uk

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As youve read, theres a lot going on in the UK in the way of Real Science for the school lab and classroom. Here are some showcase examples of Real Science from Europe, Australia and the USA, plus some other titbits in a roundup at the end.

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Checking pollution levels in the Swiss countryside

In the past 50 years, the Earths wetlands have reduced by half. Thats pretty scary. Its a huge environmental problem, since the loss of these bodies of water impacts on the variety of wildlife and also the number of species we lose. Imagine telling future students that once upon a time we used to have water voles roaming the wetlands? This is a very likely scenario if we dont do anything about it. The health of the wetlands reflects the health of our planet. If we lose these watery homes, whats going to happen? Educational projects combined with research on water can give you, as science teachers, a chance to branch out in a cross-curricular way i.e. join forces with other teachers, especially your geography colleagues. Thats exactly what happened in this project. Based in an international school in Switzerland, Aiglon College, studies were carried out by geography and chemistry students in their final years at secondary school. Aiglon College is close to Lake Geneva, and has Les Grangettes, an area of wetland with a large variety of wildlife including 265 species of birds. Thats a lot of birds. Even though the area is protected by the Ramsar Convention its being threatened by human activities. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands aims to protect and conserve all wetlands and make sure they are used wisely. The main aim was to look into leaching of fertilisers from the farmed land into the protected area of wetland (by measuring the levels of nitrates) which leads to eutrophication and the turning of wonderfully fresh water into the dingy, dank, murky waters of the underworld. Eutrophication is a process where water bodies (lakes, estuaries etc.) receive excess nutrients that stimulates excessive plant growth (blooming algae! literally) which reduces oxygen in the water and causes organisms to die.

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Rick Harwood and Chris Starr from Aiglon College, worked with the students to collect water samples from 24 sites in the Les Grangettes region which included: canals, drainage ditches and stagnant pools. Hmm, nice. Measurements of the pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrate and phospate concentrations were carried out on site i.e. pH paper tests and more swish tests done back in the lab (using ion electrodes to detect levels of nitrates). Students were able to understand the number of methods required in scientific research and the need to get reliable results. They were also responsible for choosing the appropriate statistical test to analyse their results. So, was there any relationship between nitrate levels in the water samples from Les Grangettes and the distance from the nearest farmland? Not really. However, looking at the water samples taken from within the Les Grangettes reserve land and a set of samples from outside the region, it seemed that the latter samples had quite high amounts of nitrates. Rick and Chris found that there are very strict regulations on the use of fertilisers within the reserve, but those farmers outside the reserve can pretty much do what they like. This proved that those farmers within the reserve are abiding by the regulations. Students who took part in this project valued the fact they were part of something REALLY important, and their research was also used in their examination projects. Full details of this Swiss wetlands project are published in Issue 2 of Science in School, a free European journal to promote inspiring science teaching. Rick also told us about the Global Water Sampling Project where students from all over the world can rally round their local river, stream or pond and test the water and all this data is added to the World Water Monitoring Day database. This is one of the many collaborative projects of the CIESE (Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education).

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Spidernauts: Definitely not Incey Wincey

Did you know that in the tragic loss of astronauts during the STS-78 Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003, that a bunch of spiders was also lost? These were no ordinary spidersthese were the Australian Spidernauts. This was a three-year project, and a unique collaboration between Year 9 school students (Glen Waverley Secondary College), university scientists (from RMIT University) and Royal Melbourne Zoo. Professor Lachlan Thompson headed the research team from the RMIT University and is a senior lecturer in aerospace engineering. The aim was to encourage students in space exploration and scientific research, and in particular to look at the influence of microgravity on spider behaviour (how they make their webs wise, not whether they deserve an ASBO wise) and the composition of the web silk. Since spider silk properties are affected by spider weight, students hypothesised that weightless spiders might spin some interesting silk, and a different looking web. So how did this all come about? An international initiative known as STARS (Space Technology And Research Students) called out far and wide for students to design experiments to take place on the US Space Shuttle or International Space Station. The university and zoo provided mentor scientists and the teams met each week to knowledge-share and check that they were all on target. This project really highlighted the need for pilot experiments, being part of a research team and all the skills needed when setting up a project. The Spiders in Space team also made use of their peers talents. Technology classes got involved in designing the spider habitat boxes, and electronics classes worked on the video cameras and lighting equipment. This was real collaborative working in action. Ms Needs class of twenty-six 14-15 year olds now had to develop their own methods for selecting spider species, what to do about feeding the spiders, what they can do to encourage spiders to build webs etc. The students interacted regularly with the scientists and NASAs educational arm, SPACEHAB to get the green light for all the experiments they planned to carry out. Caroline Need, teacher of the Year 9s at Glen Waverley Secondary College, won the chance for her students to be involved in the first Australian STARS project.

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These were lucky students. They had the chance to be real scientists, working on a space mission but they had to work hard. It wasnt just your average school textbook information that they had to get to grips with either. For example, do you know what clinorotation is? Clinorotation is used to simulate weightlessness. The clinostat is like a very slow fan, with spiders in containers where the blades would be. Keeping spiders in a weightless environment on the ground is extremely costly. So a device has been engineered to make sure spiders dont know which way is downor up for that matter. This enables scientists to hypothesise just how spiders will behave in space.

The study of how a spiders body adjusts to weightlessness can help scientists from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) understand how more complicated beings (i.e. your average Homo sapiens) could adapt to weightlessness. This all adds to the ultimate goal of finding out whether we humans (and other lifeforms) could make our home in space. Although the project perfectly complemented areas of the curriculum, the students were quite prepared and happy to continue the project out of school hours. The Year 9 team had developed many skills, but no one could have imagined theyd start to think like scientists. The team had planned ahead i.e. what to do if the spiders feeding mechanism failed and whether they would need back up spiders. These are skills that practising scientists are used to: the what-if scenario. Any project that can make a student think like a scientist is already a great success. Even though the Columbia mission spiders were the first Australian creatures in space, they werent the first spiders in space. Anita and Arabella, two female Cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) blasted into

Previous studies showed that clinorotated spiders were pretty adaptable, theyd adjust to spin webs and not show a preference for which way up they should be. So youd think theyre not a good species to send into space. Well, not quite. Thats what makes them interesting.

space in 1973 for the Skylab-3 Space Station. They both successfully spun webs in weightlessness, but died before the experiment was completed. The Anita and Arabella experiment was also a student project, by Judy Miles from Lexington, Massachusetts.

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In our Aussie project, two month old Garden Orb Weaver spiders (Ericophora transmarina) spiders were chosen, since they were not too young that they couldnt produce webs, and not too old that they would die of old age by the time the shuttle launched. Whilst one set of spiders were up in space, another set of spiders were on the ground undergoing the same trials. They had to be monitored day and night, since theyre nocturnal spiders (so they get really busy at night). Both sets of arachnids were kept in identical habitat boxes and watched to see what theyd get up to. A feeding system was designed by placing fruit-fly larvae in agar gel at the bottom of the boxes, and when flies hatched from their pupae, spiders were able to catch and feed on them in the same way theyd do in the wild. Two lead spiders were compared, Wako who was in space, and Cadbury who was on the ground (it always helps to name your research subjectshonest). Shapes of both Wakos and Cadburys webs compared well to the 1973 mission results, but Wako the Spidernaut, wove her web in half the time it took Cadbury to weave hers. Israels first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, was particularly close to the Spidernaut team since he took notes, samples of the spiders webs, and sent experimental data to mission control which was then passed onto the team. The tragedy of losing Columbia meant that (aside from losing much of the data and the web samples and spiders) the team members lost their kind and helpful astronaut crew, which was of course, far more devastating. It also showed the students just how scary and unpredictable real research can bebut this only made the students more determined to continue with their studiesin tribute to the crew. The national curriculum in any country may be everyones longest to-do list, but there are ways to infiltrate it, and stuff it full of wholesome goodness, in the form of characterbuilding real science projects. Spiders in Space is an example of incorporating a project within the national curriculum. This was a pilot project, and there are now plans to have a more worldwide project, recruiting more schools, so if youre interested in Spiders in Space, or in a new project: Bees in Space, contact Naomi Mathers at naomi.mathers@rmit.edu.au or Lachlan Thompson at lachlan.thompson@rmit.edu.au for further details. More information on this project can be found on the Science in School journal website.

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Real Kids, Real Science.On The Telly!

In the United States of America, youngsters are getting their fifteen minutes of fame by being on telly for presenting their science project, which isnt very Andy Warholish really, but there you are. DragonflyTV is overflowing with hands-on, interactive science. Its really hip and happenin too exploration, latest fashions, celebrities and musicbut all with subliminal scientific messages. Split into the topics of Body and Brain, Earth and Space, Living Things, Matter and Motion, and Technology and Inventionyou can choose the topic youre most interested in. DragonflyTV also shares ideas you can do in the classroom, shorter projects for science fairs and extra desk-based or web-based research. There are plenty of handy hints for you to encourage those inquisitive youngsters.

Snorkelling with sea cows

Kristen and Christopher live near the manatees winter home on the Crystal River in Florida, and were two youngsters featured on DragonflyTV. They wanted to find out more about these creatures, also affectionately called sea cows. These poor, endangered creatures like people, and since they venture too close to humans in speedboats, the manatees often get scarred by propeller blades. As horrible as this is, these scars and marks are what researchers use to identify individual manatees. And Kristen and Christopher got the chance of a lifetime, to go snorkelling amongst the migrating manatees and take underwater digital photos. These sightings were then compared to the researchers database, and they managed to match a manatee cow to one they had seen two years earlier. It now had a baby manatee with her. Since Kristen and Christopher were the first to see this manatee with her new bouncing (well, buoyant) baby, they had contributed a small, yet very meaningful, piece of new knowledge to the manatee database. For details about Kristen and Christophers manatee adventure, look at the website.

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Wonky Frogs
DragonflyTV also featured two girls, Susie and Katie, who looked at malformed frogs. Some people arent that fond of frogs, but some love them and, better still, want to find out about them. From 1996 to 2001, this area of research was well-funded, so it was really important. However when this story came out on DragonflyTV, only one researcher from Wisconsin was interested in the findings. This is a prime example of how students are interested in finding answers to REAL questions, if only they could be heard For details of Susie and Katies quest for odd frogs, take a peek online - url at the end with the links. Rick Swanson, Science Content Director, DragonflyTV conducts many workshops about the content of DragonflyTV for teachers and says, In my experience, teachers Susie and Katie are the love them type. They wanted to try catching them to get a closer look. When they studied the frogs in their neighbourhood pond, they found the frogs had funny looking legs. These were the malformed frogs. The girls recruited their friends to help them catch more frogs, and found that nearly a third of the frogs caught had malformed back legs. So what was causing the Malformations in Minnesota? Answer: a parasite bloom in the pond. Its the kind of story that occasionally gets the attention of the local science community, and the local media: it makes great news if you find weird frogs lurking in your area! However, in terms of research, interest in this subject waxes and wanesand its all to do with funding. are especially delighted by our video and by our teachers resources. The students in our stories may not always make new discoveries of benefit to scientific community, but I believe all of our video stories serve as excellent examples of how to encourage students to develop sound scientific investigations, and how to invest oneself in the process.

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More international morsels

How about these little beauties we found on our travels

Prokaryotic electricity
Kartik Madiraju, a 16-year old from Montreal, was asked to find a way to help the environment in a school science project. He used bacteria to make electricity.

They gain experience of scientific method, problem-solving and really getting their teeth into a long-term lab project. They may not become a scientist at the end but at least they know more about whats required to be a scientist and have gained valuable transferable skills in the process. Knowledge gained from the projects is collated and its hoped that scientists and other students from all around the world can benefit from this data.

Cool Stuff
And finally, as they say at the end of the news, wed like to pay tribute to Erasto Mpemba, a secondary school student in Tanzania, who pointed out to his disbelieving teacher in 1963 that ice cream froze faster when the mixture started warm than when it started cool. Knowing that he had to come up with an idea, and whilst noseying through top-class science journal, Nature, he came across magnetic bacteria. These aquatic bacteria contain teensy crystals of magnetite and since he already knew the theories of spinning windmills using magnetic generators to produce electricity he wondered why he couldnt use bacteria? Talk about alternative energy; and it worked. By putting the bacteria into small plastic boxes and using metal electrodes either side to get them spinning, he generated a magnetic field and electric current - with half the voltage of an AA battery! Find out more about other ber-clever science students from around the globe. Mpemba persisted and experiments at a nearby university proved him right. Since then this effect has been called the Mpemba effect. Several factors lead to this counter-intuitive effect, including evaporation rates, dissolved gases, number of nucleation sites, starting temperature and super cooling. Theres a brief explanation and a review article online. We hope youve been inspired by this roundup of Real Science, and we hope your students will be as inspired as Erasto was all those years ago. Keep it Real!

Mr. Reibleins Experimental Biology Course

This course provides students at Horace Mann college in New York with the chance to try some real scientific research.

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The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands http://www.ramsar.org Science in School http://www.scienceinschool.org Global Water Sampling Project http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/waterproj/index.shtml CIESE (Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education) http://www.ciese.org/ Spiders In Space http://www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/spiders/ DragonFly TV http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/ Snorkling With Sea Cows http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/manatees.html Wonky Frogs http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/show/malformedfrogs.html Those ber-Clever International Students http://www.intel.com/technology/techresearch/research/rs05041.htm Mr. Reibleins Experimental Biology Course http://www.horacemann.pvt.k12.ny.us/academics/science/expbio/main.html Erasto Mpemba http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/explan4.html#mpemba http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0512/0512262.pdf

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To everyone mentioned in this Real Science roundup and you all know who you are, since your names are already in lights within the feature - wed like to extend a very big, hearty thank you to you all.

Alan Walker, Alex Brabbs, Alison Rivett, Andy Bullough, Andy Parkin, Andy Tasker, Angharad Snow, Ann Borda, Anne Sweeney, Bonnie Laverock, Catherine Joynson, Charlotte Cureton, Chris Chapman, Chris Hinchcliffe, Colin Osborne, Dave Stainforth, Debra Hurcomb, Dominic McDonald, Eleanor Hayes, Emma Faragher, Eric Topham, Fiona Hay, Fiona Marchant, Frances Chapman, Genoveva Esteban, Ginny Page, Gurjit Singh Sidhu, Jacqy Hale, Jane Delany, Jeremy Frey, Jo Oladejo, Joerg Dietrich, John Readman, Judith Wardlaw, Julie Crawford, Karen Devine, Kat Ferris, Keith Roberts, Kenny Webster, Lachlan Thompson, Lisa Page-Berelian, Liz Willcocks, Malcolm Walker, Mark Brake, Mark Richardson, Martin Rosinski, Michael Moore, Mimi Tanimoto, Mo Afzal, Nicola Pollock, Nicole Harris, Paul Denton, Paul Roche, Perry Walker, Peter Finegold, Phil Smith, Rick Harwood, Rick Swanson, Rob Kesseler, Simon Jones, Simon Parsons, Stephanie Forman, Stewart Bullen, Sue Allenby, Sue Hunt, Sylvia Knight and William Lonergan.

This is the end of Hands On Real Science, but of course not the end of real science - we promise to keep you up to date in our Planet Science Newsletter with all and any new real science type projects, NESTA funded or not. The newsletter is free and you can sign up at: http://www.planet-science.com/about_sy/index.html?page=/about_sy/list2. Do keep in touch if you have a project youd like to tell people about: planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk

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