STEM Ambassador Professor Anthony Campbell founder of a Pembrokeshire charity- The Darwin Centre, which has brought the magic of science to thousands of young people, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours list 2021.

Professor Anthony Campbell, founded the Darwin Centre for Biology and Medicine, has received  his award for services to biochemistry.
The Darwin Centre was set up in 1993 and is based in  Pembrokeshire. It has since raised over £1 million of funding and influenced about 40,000 children by offering hands-on field trips and workshops to every school in Pembrokeshire on themes such as forces, and renewable energy, rocky shores and  climate change.

"The Darwin Centre are absolutely thrilled for Tony, as he has always been such an inspiration to everyone who has been fortunate enough to work with him."
Professor Campbell, is a Honarary Research Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University. He is an international authority in cell signalling - which lies at the heart of how hormones, neurotransmitters and drugs affect the human body - and is also a world authority on bioluminescence.
One of his inventions, using chemiluminescence, is now used in several hundred million clinical tests per year worldwide and has been hailed as one of the top 100 inventions from UK universities in the past 50 years.
For the past 15 years his research focus has been lactose and food intolerance, which has led to a new hypothesis on the cause of irritable bowel syndrome
His natural curiosity and  need for helping people understand science has also led him to create the scientific journal with his wife, called The Young Darwinian , where students can publish their projects,
 “I feel very strongly that scientists have a responsibly to explain why they do what they do to the general public, particularly if you’re in the public sector,” said Anthony. 
“It is also a lot of fun. When you’re passionate about something you never give it up…”

2020 Space Odyssey - STEM Ambassador Mark Smith at Fenton Primary School Haverfordwest.

During the brief interval between Summer and the next lockdown, STEM Ambassador Mark Smith was one of the last Ambassadors to visit a school in person this year.

Mark visited the year group 5 & 6 over 3 days as pupil numbers in each class were restricted.
He presented a journey through space with practical activities for pupils on gravity and experiments.
Clearly we hope next year will bring us opportunities to resume school visits in person, when safety and regulations allow.

Fenton Community Primary School
@FentonPrimary

Sep 24
What a Space Odyssey! A huge thank you to David from The Darwin Centre and Astrophysicist Dr Mark Smith for a fascinating journey through space. We love space! 
 

Lemmiout Activities  Offer STEM activities to schools, specifically designed to be undertaken outdoors.
They are hands on active sessions that are designed around the new welsh curriculum.
We have a number of things you may be interested in from our full term Boxcar project or a cut down version. To single day workshops. custom built workshops to fit your school requirements and staff training workshops.
Our current themes are Go-kart designing. Rocket propulsion. Energy transfer (yr 6 or staff training)   but we have many more options available just get in touch and we can explain more.
We have experience delivering outdoor activities and STEM based projects to students from year 3 upwards and are keen and enthusiastic to encourage and enthuse students with active STEM education.
Below are some pictures of our box car project. More information can be found on our website www.lemmiout.co.uk
Or feel free to contact us on info@lemmiout.co.uk or 07834162647 for more details

Project managing the first Bitesize Science Festival in her home town of Merthyr Tydfil, Summer of 2019 – Claire created the first science festival of its kind in the town, and one of the first few to be held outside a university city. Several Ambassadors supported the inaugural Festival.
Photo ©wales247.co.uk 

CREST Awards as part of the Curriculum

To support Primary teachers to use CREST activities in the classroom, the BSA have issued a guide on using CREST Awards as part of the curriculum. The guide includes a section specifically on the Curriculum for Wales. 

The CREST guiding principles have been mapped onto the four purposes of the Curriculum and for each of the six science content areas in the Curriculum, activities have been matched from the Star collection for Foundation and from the SuperStar collection for KS2. This guide will make it easier than ever for Primary teachers to incorporate enquiry-based STEM project work into their teaching. Find it here.

As always, Thursday, Friday and Saturday provide a wealth of sessions for our primary, secondary and further education communities, including sessions from Dr Jasper Green HMI Subject Lead for Science, Ofsted and a fantastic selection of Frontier Science sessions, with leading experts across scientific research such as Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of the Crick Institute, Professor Andrew Pollard of the Oxford Vaccine Group and more. 
Tickets (from £35+VAT for ASE members and £60+VAT for non-members) are now bookable. Zoom Links to virtual rooms will be circulated on the evening prior to each day, to the emails of those registered on Eventbrite. For queries please email conferences@ase.org.uk. The live online timetable Sched is available for viewing at https://ase2021annualconferenceonline.sched.com/
 

Start planning now for British Science Week 2021!

The British Science Association (BSA) have issued their popular 'sneak peek' packs for British Science Week 2021 - from the 5^thto the 14^thof March - with the full versions due in January. There are 3 separate packs with one each for Early Years, Primary and Secondary. The theme for the British Science Week 2021 activity packs and poster competition is ‘Innovating for the future’ and they are full of tips to help you organise events and activities for British Science Week.

The packs also give suggestions on how to engage remotely with STEM Ambassadors and other volunteers who can really bring your Science Week to life. 

Many of the activities are CREST accredited, so why not think about running a CREST Award during British Science Week? CREST Awards give students real-life experience of being a scientist while getting introduced to STEM project work. They are nationally accredited and are a fun, yet educational way to get your children involved in STEM subjects. And Discovery, Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards are all free in Wales!

Don't forget the Poster Competition The theme for the 2021 poster competition is Innovating for the future. Entrants can be teams or individuals. Each school/youth group can enter a maximum of five entries. We encourage you to run the competition with larger groups, but to select the top five to enter from your school. Entries must be one page of A4 or A3 paper only and you will need to take a photo or scan of it to send electronically. You can also get inspired by looking at last year’s competition winners here.

The Great Science Share for Schools is the award-winning campaign that invites 5-14 year olds to share theirown scientific questions and investigations, to raise the profile of science in schools and communities, and inspire young people into science and engineering. 

So much preparation is already underway to make 2021 even more successful. Keep up to date with what’s on whenby registering your interest. They’ll be monthly announcements and activities culminating on the 15th June 2021. 

The Question Makers to inspire young people to discuss and ask questions together on the issue of Climate Change are very popular. 
You could use a video clip, book or newspaper to start a conversation. Develop some questions into science enquiries so that they take the lead in making a change in their own homes, classrooms, schools and communities. 
 More details will follow in the next newsletter

Cardiff Science Festival online - Feb 18-21

Cardiff Science Festival takes over Wales’ capital to inspire and educate between February 18th-21st. The Festival will showcase science, technology, engineering and maths, integrating them into the capital city of Wales. The four-day festival usually spreads throughout Cardiff’s libraries, cafes, bars and streets, with hidden events for your to discover - this year the online provision will be even better!

Our aim is to celebrate science, technology, engineering and maths, and how they affect our every day lives. We bring science to you, with a range of events that are guaranteed to captivate and teach you something new.

Cardiff is a hub for science research and world-renowned science communicators. By following our map around the city, you can learn something new from the best researchers and communicators, right on your doorstep.

To find out more about the Festival visit https://www.cardiffsciencefestival.co.uk

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FREE Facilitated Chemistry Workshops (Funded by the RSC)

From early March through to the end of the summer term, See Science will be offering a variety of FREE workshops to schools across Wales. We will be flexible in how we deliver these workshops, depending on COVID restrictions - delivering face to face in schools or virtually via live links on platforms to suit the schools.

Chemistry in a Pandemic Workshop (Yrs 5 to 9)

This will be a brand new workshop looking at Chemistry and the role of Chemists in fighting a global pandemic.

For more information or to register your interest, contact Llinos at See Science 

FREE Facilitated CREST Discovery Workshops -
Machines of the Future  for yrs 5 and 6 

From mid February through to the end of the summer term, See Science will be offering a variety of FREE workshops to schools across Wales. We will be flexible in how we deliver these workshops, depending on COVID restrictions - delivering face to face in schools or virtually via live links on platforms to suit the schools. The newest suite of CREST project activities is centred around Machines of the Future and the Discovery Award activity is based on Machine Learning.
In the 5 hour project, pupils work in teams to find out about machine learning and come up with an idea for using it in a home environment. The project can be run as a whole day activity or over 5 separate 1 hour sessions to suit the teacher and school. More information available here. 

Farmvention Competition - NFU Education

Farmvention (when farming meets invention) is a national STEM competition run by NFU Education and aimed at children aged 5 – 14 (school years 1 -9) in England and Wales.

This year, the challenge is all about the problems that climate change creates for British farmers and how they are fighting it to become Climate Superheroes.There are four themed inspiration hubs to get you thinking and each one is full of investigations to complete at home or school, alongside some exciting tours of our climate superheroes’ farms to inspire you.

You can enter the competition individually or as part of a team or class and there is a host of amazing prizes for the winning schools. Winners will present their ideas at a prestigious event at the Houses of Parliament and win £1000 for their school to spend on STEM or Outdoor Learning equipment! All entrants will become certified ‘farmventors’ and receive a reward pack including a certificate and mini prize. Entries close on 31 May 2021.  Details here.

First Lego League Challenge

An online competition for teams of young people, to encourage an interest in real-world themes and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers.

 Registration is now open for 2020-2021 FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge season. Get your team together and think about the ways we can get people moving. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is a global STEM programme for teams of young people, to encourage an interest in real world themes and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers. Young people work together to explore a given topic and to design, build and program an autonomous LEGO® robot to solve a series of missions. For more information click here. In Wales we are offering three online tournaments – March 19(Welsh Medium) , April 16 – West Wales. April 23- SE Wales. Click here to register and here to contact for more information