Welcome to the latest STEM newsletter  for Secondary Schools from your local STEM Ambassador Hub. 

See Science  have a facebook page - please like or follow the page
Please don't hesitate to contact us if we can support the teaching of STEM subjects in your school or college. 
With best wishes 
The See ScienceTeam

The newsletter that's an essential source of information and inspiration for teachers and anyone with an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) engagement in Wales.

CONTENTS

STEM news
 

Local events and competitions
 
 

Funding opportunities
 

Biochemical Society scientific outreach grants

Society for Microbiology Grants

Feedback 
 

The New Curriculum
 


Ask a STEM Ambassador to visit your school

A STEM Ambassador's involvement can engage and enthuse both students and teachers. If you are interested in asking a STEM Ambassador to visit your school you can make your request here. We’ve created brief guides to encourage both STEM Ambassadors and educators to use the self-service. 

The  video guide outlines how to use the web platform  and  helps teachers and group leaders find the right STEM Ambassador for their activity.

Give us your Ambassador feedback

If an Ambassador has visited your school, or if you have met an Ambassador at an enrichment activity, we would be very grateful if you could fill in our teacher feedback form. Please encourage colleagues to respond.
 

LATEST STEM NEWS
 

STEP into STEM Day at Dwr Y Felin Comprehensive Neath

 

Teacher Adam Rayson organised a full day of STEM activities for Yr 9 pupils. The day was planned around 4 workshops from different areas of STEM.
Each workshop was 45 minutes repeated 4 times during the day. Part of his aims was to include gender balance with the showcase of diversity in STEM employment.
Attending were STEM Ambassadors Chris Evans and Stacey Green, (AECOM) Sara Davies (Nursing careers) Paul Bulmer (Computer Science and Robotics) and Lisa McAteer (Risk manager Balfour Beatty) AECOM Chris Evans (Senior Electrical Design Engineer) and Stacey Green (Graduate Engineer) produced a superb activity. Chris was a former pupil at Dwyr Y Felin adding an extra interest for pupils.
AECOM’s company develops infrastructure, protects environment, and works to solves problems of clean water and energy.

Chris and Stacey had a full day with great comments on their first activity at a school!
‘Thank you for yesterday’s opportunity in presenting to the year 9s at Dwr-y-felin Comprehensive. I hope they enjoyed the 5 presentations and the day overall.
Myself and Stacey really enjoyed the experience of the day. It gave us an organised platform to share our knowledge, our route into engineering and our company values Look forward to working with yourself and the school in the future..’ Chris
This was brilliant. I love how you are incorporating the school design and making it very relevant.
Thank you for your time and help in helping make tomorrow happen.’ Adam Rayson
‘I attended Dwr y felin yesterday and staying all day giving five talks to Year 9 pupils. It was quite
enjoyable and hopefully the students gleaned new information from the sessions. I hope to return to
the school in the future.’ Sara Davies
Read more

Chemistry at Work - 4th July 2019 

In January Professor Simon Bott, along with staff and students from the Chemistry Department at Swansea University hosted another very successful ‘Chemistry at Work Day’ for over 150 Year 9 pupils from 5 secondary schools in South Wales. The aim of Chemistry at Work days, funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, is to provide pupils with a better understanding and awareness of the importance of chemistry in our everyday lives and to highlight the varied chemical science careers available.
Read more about the January event in our previous newsletter here 

See Science will be hosting another Chemistry at Work Day on July 4th 2019.
Pupils will take part in 4 different hands-on workshops throughout the day where they have the opportunity to carry out practical chemistry activities in the departmen's state of the art labs.
There are a limited number of places still available so if you would like to bring a group of up to 30 year 9 pupils along or for  more  information about the day please contact Llinos at llinos.misra@see-science.co.uk

Swansea University offer huge outreach opportunities for schools in the South Wales area - click here to see some of the available courses on offer in their state of the art University Labs 
Read more

Gwyddonle - Urdd National Eisteddfod

The Urdd National Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay over the May half term proved to be the ideal testing ground for our new suite of table-top Busking activities for our Community Chemistry programme, Chemistry of the High Street – What’s in your Shopping Basket? As part of the Science Pavilion – Y Gwyddonle – at the Eisteddfod the See Science stand was busy from the Monday morning right through to the Saturday afternoon. Amongst the most popular activities were ‘Pot luck’ where children and adults alike enjoyed stimulating their olfactory bulbs with mystery aromas. Matching pairs of pots with the same scents wasn’t easy and identifying the scents was often even more difficult. Audiences were therefore amazed to learn that the human sense of smell can distinguish between thousands of different scents!
Other Busking activities include ‘Mallow Man’ where participants are asked to predict what happens to marshmallows in a vacuum; ‘Stacking Tower’ where liquids of varying densities are poured into the same container and ‘Does the Bag Leak’ where pencils are poked through polythene bags full of water with amazing results.
Funding for the Community Chemistry project has come from the Royal Society of Chemistry and all the Busking activities, as well as a workshop, will be available to download from the See Science website before September.
 
Read more

Youth Industrial Strategy Competition

 

Get involved with the Youth Industrial Strategy Competition. The Youth Industrial Strategy Competition is a new national STEM initiative that aims to inspire and challenge young people aged 11 to 19
 

It provides real-world opportunities for young people to engage with cutting-edge research and product design ideas around the four areas of the Industrial Strategy: Artificial Intelligence & Data, Ageing Society, Clean Growth, and the Future of Mobility.
We are calling on young people to enter the Competition with innovative solutions that have the potential to change our future industries, society and the environment. Finalists for the Competition will attend the national finals of the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham in March 2020 and be judged for both. 
Students can work on their own or as part of a team to create their own science or technology project based on the Grand Challenges.

See Science will be able to offer some schools a free Discovery Day between July and October. If you are interested in hosting a Discovery Day please contact Llinos.Misra@see-science.co.uk in order to discuss further.

Entries which meet the Youth Industrial Strategy Competition criteria will also be eligible for a CREST Award, the British Science Association's award scheme for STEM project work that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers.
Entries for the competition need to be submitted by November 2019
 

Local events

Chemistry in the Community - free chemistry workshops

 
See Science  will be offering Community Groups such as Brownies, Guides, Scouts, Urdd, and Youth Clubs the opportunity to take part in a free Chemistry workshop funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry until 20 July.

The workshop will offer a carousel of 4 different activities which will focus on the Chemistry of the High Street and will also provide an opportunity for leaders to encourage young people to participate in a CREST Award if they wish. All materials  will be provided free of charge. For more  information about booking a Chemistry in the Community workshop please contact Llinos at llinos.misra@see-science.co.uk
Read more

Great Science Share - National Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne, Camarthen

 

Tuesday 18th June 6.30pm - 8.00pm. Price £3 per person

Join us for the Great Science Share evening with presentations from Dr Helen Mason OBE, Dr John Dudeney OBE , Emma Wride, Astro Cymru will host a space cinema and D2E and Paul Smith, National Botanic Garden of Wales will help you search for micrometeorites


For more details contact  the National Botanic Garden of Wales or go to events in the See Science Website


 
Read more

Join the Girls who Code movement


Girls Who Code is an international non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Our Clubs are FREE programs that get girls ages 11-18 excited about coding and computer science. 
 
Our Clubs encourage girls to impact their community in a positive way through code. Girls engage in fun and simple online coding tutorials, build community through interactive activities, and learn about inspiring role models in the technology industry. 

APPLY NOW!
Apply to start a Club today by signing up for a Girls Who Code Club Application Fluid Review account. In the application, please be prepared to answer questions about your host site, target age group, and other safeguarding questions.

We at Girls Who Code are committed to ensuring that applicants are supported throughout the application process so please do not hesitate in reaching out to us at international@girlswhocode.com.

First Tech Challenge: To make STEM less intimidating, more accessible and diverse - using robots and inspirational role models from industry to fuel a talent pipeline of future innovators.


Take part in a galactic robotics competition for ages 12-18 powered by Star Wars: Force for Change. In teams, students design, build and programme a robot to take on the global FIRST® Tech Challenge.
Adopt real-world roles with support from an industry mentor and develop the skills to become tomorrow's STEM innovators. Rise to the challenge. Learn more at morethanrobots.uk
 

It's more than robots. Working in teams, students embark on a 6-month challenge to build a metropolis that's out of this world. Adopting real-world roles and an industry mentor, teams design, build and programme a robot to compete in tournaments.


 

Funding opportunities and feedback

Biochemical Society scientific outreach grants (UK)


The Biochemical Society outreach grants programme is now open for applications. Grants of up to £1,000 are available to increase participation in the molecular biosciences at school level and beyond through engagement activities.
Applications for funding are invited to assist with the direct costs associated with an event and expenses incurred. The type of events funded could include:
 
  • Activities for a science club
  • Workshops for students or teachers
  • Lectures from research scientists
The next round will open on June 13th. - more details can be found here

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation.

Read more

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation.
Society for Microbiology Education and Outreach grants

Grants of up to £1,000 are available to support relevant science teaching or promotion initiatives, or to support developments ​ to lead improvement in the teaching of any aspect of microbiology .
The deadline for applications is 1st October 2019.

For more information and to apply online go here 

Read more
 

Designed by teachers , built for pupils - it's time for your say on the draft curriculum for Wales
The journey towards the rollout of Wales’ new curriculum in 2022 reaches a major milestone with  the publication of a draft designed by teachers and shaped by experts from Wales and around the world. To find out more or to contribute to the discussion go to https://hwb.gov.wales/draft-curriculum-for-wales-2022

The new curriculum aims to rethink what and how young people should be taught, and introduces six broad areas of learning and experience (AOLE).
It will be introduced in primary and Year 7 classrooms from September 2022 before being rolled out to all year groups. Universities, employers, teachers and parents are now being asked to give their views before the final version is published next year.
 

Latest CPD from your Science Learning Partnership

To find out more about the latest CPD from your Science Learning  Partnership click here

Follow us on facebook - See Science  have a facebook page 
Please like or follow the page