Scottish STEM Ambassador Awards

Scottish Leading Lights Announced In STEM Ambassadors Awards

Individuals and companies rewarded for inspiring future scientists

 

The 2010 STEM Ambassadors Awards for Scotland took place today (Tuesday, 23rd March 2010).  The Awards highlight the achievements of individuals and companies who provide extraordinary support to schools across Scotland by helping teachers to captivate and capture the next generation of Scottish engineers, scientists, technologists and mathematicians.  The Awards, run by STEMNET (the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network), were presented to winning individuals and companies by Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning at a ceremony in Edinburgh. 

 

STEMNET currently has over 2,000 individuals in Scotland, mainly from STEM related companies and organisations, who give their time and enthusiasm free of charge to inspire young people to study STEM subjects and then go on to pursue a career using this knowledge.  Teachers of STEM subjects can use the STEMNET services to access Ambassadors from the business and research worlds to support projects or make presentations to their classes or after school clubs.  The finalists were nominated by schools.

 

The winners demonstrated remarkable inventiveness and dedication in bringing STEM careers to life in the classroom.  Activities included getting pupils to handle mock outbreaks of e-coli 157, devise public health campaigns around a new meningitis vaccination, solve crimes with forensic techniques and design and build wind turbines.  

 

The winners of the four awards are:

  1. Best Activity Award:  Dr Christine Peters from Greater Glasgow Health Board. 
  2. Inspiration Award:  Linda Thomson from Strathclyde University, Glasgow.
  3. Most Dedicated STEM Ambassador Award:  Scott McNeill from Scott McNeill Ltd, Edinburgh
  4. Most Dedicated Company Award: Lifescan, Inverness

Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning who spoke at the event and presented the awards said:  “The STEM subjects equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to be work ready in areas where we have economic demand for new jobs and new talent. The STEM Ambassadors programme is an excellent example of business working with schools and colleges to support a successful and sustainable workforce of the future. The Ambassadors are all winners in terms of inspiring and motivating pupils across Scotland. I thank everyone involved for their dedication and passion for this programme”.

 

The event was attended by some of Scotland’s most inspirational and dedicated STEM Ambassadors, teachers and STEM academics, representatives from Scottish businesses that are reliant on people with STEM skills, Colleges and Universities, organisations that represent and work with STEM in Scotland and Members of the Scottish Parliament. 

Yvonne Baker, Chief Executive of STEMNET says:  “Our Ambassadors relate STEM study to real jobs in the real world.  Their passion for their subjects really shines through, and that enthusiasm is contagious.  We would like to thank all the employers and individuals who take part in the programme, they all really deserve awards, as well as congratulate the role models whose particular dedication has made them finalists or winners today.”

Best Activity Award

Dr Christine Peters has run a number of innovative workshops to engage school children in Microbiology.  Subjects have included Bugs on the Runs around the dangers of Ecoli 157 and how the bacteria can be passed on by not washing your hands.  She also runs a workshop called Bugs on the Brain, getting pupils to promote a new vaccine for meningitis through a public awareness programme that includes designing a radio advertisement.  As part of her work she has run a training day with biology teachers across Glasgow showcasing her ideas and bringing the subject to life in a range of interactive and stimulating ways.  Yvonne Baker says:  Dr Peters has won this Award for being so inventive.  Her clever simulations of real life experiments for real infections have left pupils spellbound and her enthusiasm for her job is, quite literally, infectious.”   

 

The other two finalists for this Award were Marco Cardosi from Lifescan and Stuart McKelvie from C Dobbie Electrical Ltd.

Inspiration Award

Linda Thomson who teaches in the Chemistry Department at Strathclyde University won the Inspiration Award for her work with after school Chemistry Clubs.  Her speciality is Forensics and she engages students by getting them to solve court cases, looking at different suspects and how they carried out the crime using various forensic techniques.  Yvonne Baker says:  “Nothing is too much trouble for her ;  Linda is full of enthusiasm and has a sense of fun while being able to talk to pupils abut the research work she’s carried out without dumbing down or patronising them.  Her willingness to listen to their questions and ideas has made Linda an inspiration.” 

 

The other two finalists for this Award were Steve Dodsworth from H&I Enterprise and Ruth Morrow from Conoco-Philips.

 

Most Dedicated STEM Ambassador Award

Scott McNeill who runs his own engineering design consultancy, has been involved in a large number of projects and events involving schools and colleges.  He endeavours to demonstrate very practical experiments to bring science to life in a visual and interactive way.  These have included getting different teams to design and build catapults to demonstrate the principles of levers and holding a competition to see which is the most effective by launching water balloons at teachers.  Says Yvonne Baker:  “We understand that the water balloons were incredibly popular!  Scott’s work with Apple and 3G compression chips is also of great interest to young people.  He is a very proactive and helpful STEM Ambassador who also acts as a role model to new Ambassadors and is always available to help and encourage young people.”  

 

The other two finalists for this award were Chris Connor from Glasgow University and Pat Kieran, MBE from DSRL.

 

Most Dedicated Company Award

Part of multi-national company, Johnson & Johnson, Lifescan Scotland has a made a huge commitment to the STEM Ambassadors programme with nearly 50 employees acting as STEM Ambassadors ranging from  apprentices right up to the Executive Director of Quality Assurance.  Lifescan Scotland actively encourages its staff to participate and work with local schools but before they can do so it is compulsory for them to have gone through the STEM Ambassadors training.   Ambassadors are given paid time off to attend the induction and undertake activities with schools.  Activities its STEM Ambassadors undertake with local schools may range from designing and building a wind turbine to designing and manufacturing a new diabetes meter.   Its work in the local community gives pupils the opportunity to be inspired by real scientists and engineers.

 

The other two finalists for this Award were Dounreay Site Restoration Limited and INEOS Grangemouth.