Ignition Newsletter Autumn 2009

Sci-Art Fusions

There seems to be lots happening within the world of Sci Art fusions. We are looking forward to the premiere of the three Darwin 200 films commissioned by Ignition* and created by local students and three film makers. The premiere will be held in Nottingham in mid-October. We have seen some fantastic achievements come from the Sci Art fusions films. The film created by the students at St Thomas More School was awarded Best Instruction/Training Film at the recent DAFTA awards (Derbyshire’s own BAFTA’s!). In addition to this, one of the film makers involved, Martin Tempest has also had great personal success with his film Treasure Camp at the International Youth Film Festival UK, winning best Feature Film, and also Best in Festival. For more information go to www.amritsa.com.

Students from St Thomas More at the DAFTA Awards Ceremony

Attention Teachers!

We will be hosting a twilight session for regional teachers to introduce Planet Sci-Cast prior to the Sci Art fusions premiere. This event will be held on October 8th in Nottingham, and is open to all East Midlands teachers. Led by Jonathan Sanderson from Planet Sci Cast, the workshop will be a practical, entertaining evening, demonstrating new and exciting film making techniques, and ways that it can be incorporated into the classroom to enhance STEM learning. If you would like to attend this twilight session, which will bring together STEM subjects and film making in a very innovative and creative way, e-mail amy@ignitefutures.org.uk for more information.

New Suburban Life Forms

A team of Year 10 (aged 14-15 year olds) and their teacher, Alice King, from Robert Smyth School in Leicestershire worked with Joanna Buerling and the staff at Twycross Zoo and Nottinghamshire-based artist, Rachel Scanlon to learn all about evolution, natural selection and Charles Darwin. They designed and produced models of the animals they believed would be roaming the Earth in 100 million years’ time. As environments change, so do creatures, some survive, others thrive and new species may start to colonise. The students, with the help of film producers from video production company, VPointTV, Rebecca Lawson and Danny Franklin, produced a natural history documentary with their creatures taking centre stage.

On the 10th September Ignition* hosted a Sci-Art Fusions event, New Suburban Life Forms, as part of the British Science Festival at Farnham Maltings, Surrey. On the day, the film was premiered (very exciting for all involved, with whispers of ‘do I really sound like that?’) and Rachel Scanlon conducted a hands-on workshop, where plants of the future were created. Their film will also be shown at the Sci Art premiere.

STEM Fluency Lab 2009 – Places still available!

As we launch into the new academic year, the STEM Fluency Lab creeps ever closer. This years Lab will be held from November 20th to 24th, in Rutland. Bringing together creativity and teaching practises enables Lab attendees to explore new teaching methods, and ways to engage their students and encourage STEM subjects. We have 20 places on the Lab, which are open to both primary and secondary teachers from the East Midlands region. If you are interested in our Lab, please find out more on the website by clicking here, where you will also find application forms to register your interest.

A grand day out

The winners of this years Invent!, Keyworth Primary School, will soon be heading off on their Grand Day Out. Included in the prize was entry to the Wallace and Gromit Cracking Ideas exhibition at the Science Museum, and the young inventors will also have the chance to see the ancestors of the tadpoles their invention saved: the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum!

Lab 13

Over the summer holidays Lab_13 opened its doors to the children of Dovecote School. ‘Summer Lab’ was open for a week during August where children had the opportunity to experiment, investigate, explore and discover new things. Activities included, making a kaleidoscope, crime scene investigations, chemical rockets, foaming monsters, balloon buggies, kitchen science and much more. Summer Lab proved a success and the Management Team are looking forward to planning more new and exciting activities next year!

As it is the start of a new academic year nearly all off the original management team have now left to go to secondary school. However, before they left they interviewed around 15 year 4 & 5 children who where interested in filling their managerial shoes (hard shoes to fill!). They whittled the 15 children down to 7 and are currently in the process of choosing their new managerial roles. In total this year their will be 9 children on the Lab_13 Management Team.

Come Alive with Science

Come Alive with Science aims to showcase that STEM subjects are innately creative and are based on inquiry, experimentation and curiosity. We are now recruiting both practitioners and schools for our second year of Come Alive with Science as part of the Ignition* programme, promoting and developing creativity in the teaching and learning of STEM subjects across the East Midlands, which will involve us working with even more schools than last year!

Come Alive with Science 2010 matches up STEM professionals and creative practitioners to collaborate with young people and teachers in the East Midlands. These collaborations will develop creative STEM activities in the run up to and during National Science and Engineering Week in March for feeder primary schools and parents. We are currently recruiting an additional 10 new schools to take part in Come Alive with Science 2010. If you are either a practitioner or school and are interested to know more please contact Sarah at sarah@ignitefutures.org.uk for an application pack as soon as possible.