Ambassador Case Study February 2010

 

February 2010 - STEMinars Continued ...

 

The STEMinar series is Part of the Bridge to Employment programme, open only to 4^th Year students to provide revision for their standard grade science subjects.  The 6 Schools in the BtE programme are Millburn Academy, Inverness Royal Academy, Grantown Grammar, Alness Academy, Invergordon Academy and Fortrose Academy. The STEMinars are run by Inverness College where science lecturer, Elizabeth Barron, spends the first hour of the session teaching and doing revision on an aspect of science, technology, engineering or maths and then someone from industry i.e. our ambassadors, then talk about how they use that aspect of STEM in working life.  The STEMinars have taken place on a fortnightly basis at the College and have covered the following topics:

 

‘Geneious’ – Stephen Dodsworth, Head of Life Sciences at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, demonstrated how genetics forms us as people but also got the young people to consider the ‘nature or nurture’ argument.  Groups of pupils were given topics to debate e.g. ‘murderers – born or made?’.  Liz noted that Stephen ‘helped the students to come to their own conclusions without telling the kids if they were right or wrong.’

 

‘Telecommunications' – Mark Abbs a Programme Management Consultant  from EBBA Consultants talked about his career in the RAF and how communication and telecommunications were vital to operations.  Also looked at how communication has changed over the decades and the technologies involved.  Liz said that Mark was a ‘very engaging speaker’ and that ‘some of the lads went up to speak to him at the end (this is rare!).’

 

‘Constructive Maths' – Darren Main, Section Engineer from Morrison Construction gave an account of his career pathway and the local projects he had worked on.  Darren admitted to not doing well in school but worked hard and is now studying towards chartered status – very inspiring.  The young people were involved in constructing their own village on a large floor map and calculating fees, material costs and were ‘fined’ if they exceeded their timescale.

 

'Natural Products' – Robbie Mutton, PhD Student from the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso provided pupils with an insight into his PhD which looks at extracting natural products from seaweed that can be used in household items. 

 

‘The Science of Maths' - Dr Thomas McCallum who runs his own company, Gulfstream Software Ltd, looked at how maths and technology underpin every aspect of our lives.  Providing the students with a brief history lesson in the evolution of maths and how it affects the way we live and communicate.  Tom also got the young people thinking by providing them with codes to crack and mini maths challenges.   Liz highlighted that Tom ‘demonstrated how important maths will be to them in the future’ and that a ‘teacher reported back on how much they enjoyed the session’.

 

The STEMinars series has now come to an end but we will be looking to run the sessions again soon.