Public Health Wales

STEM Ambassadors Dr Tom Conor and Dr Catherine Moore are also involved as Public Health Wales step into this massive international challenge.

As scientists they are set to take a leading role in mapping the spread of coronavirus as part of a £20m project announced today by the UK’s chief scientific adviser.

The COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium brings together experts from across the NHS, academia and public health agencies for large-scale, rapid sequencing and analysis of the disease.
This information can then be quickly shared with hospitals, the NHS and the government to help inform their response to the pandemic.
The £20m funding will create Wales’s only COVID-19 sequencing centre, comprised of a team of Cardiff University and Public Health Wales (PHW) scientists.

Cardiff University’s Dr Tom Connor, will lead the Cardiff sequencing centre
“Genomic sequencing will help us to understand coronavirus and its spread. “By analysing samples from people who have had confirmed cases of COVID-19, scientists can monitor changes in the virus at a national scale to understand how the virus is spreading and whether different strains are emerging.
Having this information available will help in the clinical care of patients – and ultimately help to save lives. The Cardiff centre means that we will be able to help in the UK’s national effort against the virus. – Dr Thomas Connor
Ref: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/1821603-cardiff-scientists-to-help-track-uk-spread-of-coronavirus
 

COVID-19 support for schools and colleges from the Institute of Physics 
 

Materials to support the remote teaching and learning of physics during a time when most students, teachers and technicians are at home. They include advice and guidance for teachers on how to best use on​line tools to work with your students as well as recommended activities that you can do with your students whilst they are at home.These include:

1. Videos to support remote teaching and learning | Collection
2. Home experiments | Collection
3. Questions to check understanding | Collection 

• At home: Practical activities

• Online CPD events for teachers and technicians

Any additions to these pages are updated in the   weekly updates page.Follow the IOP on  twitter through @IOPTeaching.​
Join teachers of physics, technicians, and their supporters on our online community, TalkPhysics, and share your experiences, resources or questions today.

IOP Wales Physics Forum. Each Thursday night: 7pm - 8pm. 

Want to have an informal chat with other physics teachers online - learn some new ideas to inspire your pupils or ask questions?

Please use  Eventbrite to  book a place. Come along to this informal online meeting to share resources and ideas with others - can you share a good website, book, activity, app and talk to others about it? All welcome: students, teachers and NQTs.
Please book a place and we will then send you out a link to join the webinar. Details and booking here.
 

STEM Ambassadors Live 

On 7 May STEM Ambassadors presented a day of live streamed activities for schools and students at home. Future events will be planned.
A series of half hour sessions from STEM Ambassadors covering a range of subjects from building Chocolate Bridges, rockets, off grid homes and more.
3 Ambassadors from Wales took part. All sessions are available on https://www.youtube.com/user/MyScienceLearning

STEM Ambassadors are also presenting masterclasses each week - for a full list contact sian.ashton@see-science.co.uk
STEM Ambassador Masterclass:  Managing our Waterways: Adventures of an Apprentice Engineer Friday 12^th June 2pm – 3pm
ICE Cymru STEM Ambassador Winner Alex Prance is well known for his school sessions on Engineering careers Pathways and Waste Water industry. Alex will introduce us to the challenges of managing his different Flooding project work alongside completing his Part Time degree. Also his experience engaging pupils with practical Engineering activities.

STEM Ambassadors are still keeping active in this lockdown! Though unable to make school visits in person they are making great progress with online and virtual support.Teachers can still connect with Ambassadors for a variety of opportunities.

STEM Ambassadors have been mentoring student projects through Microsoft Teams, Skype and similar secure platforms. One of these projects is the Longitude Explorer Prize challenge where 2 schools from Wales are in the finals.

STEM Ambassadors present regular ‘Masterclasses’ on a wide range of topics. More information and to book please contact sian.ashton@see-science.co.uk
Topics range from Electronics, Energy, Bioextraction and Geology to more advanced sessions on Computer Programming.
Teachers who can offer a secure platform are welcome to invite a STEM Ambassador to virtually visit a STEM Club or class session. This will be undertaken with the usual safeguarding measures that apply to all STEM Ambassador engagements.

Join  the SWANSEA PARTICLE PHYSICS MASTERCLASS
Monday 8^thJune 2020 from 9.30am on Zoom
The Masterclass in Particle Physics run by the Physics Department at Swansea University is the only one of its kind held in Wales.
It is free of charge, and is open to years 11, 12 & 13 A-level physics students and their teachers.
The National Particle Physics Masterclass is held at Swansea every year.  We introduce you to the world of Particle Physicsthrough lectures by local experts and a hands-on particle identification practical session. The practical session involves the Atlantisevent display for the ATLAS experiment at CERN.
Register on the link below to reserve your place
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IeUUZjCNT9ya_v0xIiSoGA
 

Careers in Chemistry Virtual Sessions

See Science, in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry, have recently developed a Careers in Chemistry workshop for STEM Ambassadors to present in schools. Unfortunately, under the current circumstances this is unlikely to happen for quite some time. We are, therefore, keen to offer teachers the opportunity of virtually inviting STEM Ambassadors to speak to their pupils on careers in Chemistry. We realise that all schools aren’t following the same online or virtual teaching methods so we are open to suggestions from teachers as to how this would work in their particular situations. We can arrange up to 3 STEM Ambassadors to speak in any one session. If this would be of interest to you, please contact Llinos at llinos.misra@see-science.co.uk
 

STEM Clubs week  22-26 June
 

Exciting news! STEM Learning have confirmed that STEM Clubs Week will take place this year from the 22nd to the 26th of June.
 See Science will be sharing an activity every day on their facebook page during STEM Clubs week  -

There will be a different daily theme throughout STEM Clubs Week with activities, challenges and prizes to be won!
The focus of this year’s STEM Clubs Week is UKRI’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and STEM Learning will be covering four target areas throughout the week; clean air, water and sanitation, sustainable energy, sustainable communities and, sustainable production and consumptio

STEM Clubs are out-of-timetable sessions that provide young people with the chance to explore aspects of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) in less formal settings. They aim to enrich, rather than deliver, the curriculum. Clubs are an important outlet to ignite new interest or raise attainment in STEM subjects through more imaginative and inventive teaching methods.

Here's a helping hand from the Eden Project Schools Team 

We’re full of admiration for the unprecedented work that you and your schools are doing to support your children and young people’s health and education during this most difficult of times. Thank you.

To support you we’ve gathered all of our resources for learners at home, and for teachers supporting learners at home, in one place – in our new Eden at home section.

Details here.

Practical Action

Their  STEM challenges make ideal home learning and/or school-based activities for primary and secondary aged children. Each challenge is easy to navigate as includes a Teacher’s and separate Parent’s/Carer’s guide to running the challenge, activity sheets, a PowerPoint, a poster and certificates.
They have updated the popular Wind power challenge. Set in a mountainous region of Peru, pupils' explore how a community living without mains electricity can generate their own power from the wind before making a simple wind turbine.
With so many new and unfamiliar words being used to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic they have also added a Coronavirus word search and a crossword  which will help you and your pupils to discuss key words and terms.  
Whether your children are developing a floating garden, designing a hand-washing station or reusing plastic for enterprise, we assure you they will love developing their own ingenious solution to a real world problem.

FREE STEM, science, design and technology resources  engage children in real world issues including climate change, renewable energy, food security and disaster preparedness.

Teachers are able  to arrange online activities with a STEM Ambassador here. 
Any activity created now has an ‘online’ checkbox as well a place to enter a link to a video conferencing call if required. This means teachers now have access to 30,000+ STEM Ambassadors from across the UK, so think big with your online activity requests, maybe one of them can help.
This is designed to support schools who are currently open for children of key workers. STEM Ambassadors are a great way to bring a STEM professional into the classroom, demonstrating the real-world application of a subject or giving your students insight into a career. 
Ambassador Offers
We have also asked our STEM Ambassadors to think about what they could offer to schools remotely. This could be a video version of an activity they have delivered previously such as a Q&A, a careers talk or practical session. Or it could be something brand new from an Ambassador’s area of expertise which students would love engaging with.

Teachers and STEM Ambassadors with an existing website account can sign in to your dashboard to start using these new online activities now or you can register today to start using the resources

 

Our favourite Bronze resource for the home is Make Your Own Fizzy Drinkwhere pupils are challenged to find and follow an online recipe for a fizzy drink using yeast, then comparing their drink to a shop-bought one. Along the way they can learn about fermentation. 

Silver Awards are aimed at KS4 pupils and require 30+ hours of work overall. There is a good choice of type of project from practical ones such as ‘How does cooking change pasta?’, to Design and Make projects such as ‘The Ultimate Pizza Box’, and research or communication projects that don’t require any practical work such as ones found in the ‘Climate science resource pack’. See Science can put you in touch with STEM Ambassadors who could act as project mentors for Silver projects.

If you have any questions about CREST please get in touch with Llinos at llinos.misra@see-science.co.uk

The Tree Council Branching Out Fund – a grants fund to get communities and young people up to the age of 21 involved in tree and hedge planting and care.

• Free tree packs for schools supported by the Tree Angel Orchards Fund. You can register to hear when applications open here.

• Schools and Community groups within the UK can apply for grants of between £300 and £1,500 to get communities and young people up to the age of 21 involved in tree and hedge planting and care during National Tree Week – 28 November to 6 December 2020.

The funding is being made available through the Tree Council’s Branching Out Fund. Applications will be considered as they are received and applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application within four weeks.
In addition, free tree packs are available for schools supported by the Tree Angel Orchards Fund. Schools can register to hear when applications open.