The School’s Science Conference and website Objectives
- Inspire students to study science
- Demonstrate the importance of science in health and everyday life
- Showcase some of the myriad careers open to those who study science.
The project
Science in Health and Life is a series of annual conferences, presented by Professional Scientists and Healthcare Professionals to showcase a wide range of exciting and rewarding careers open to those who study science. Up to 400 secondary-school and further-education-college students (years 9-13) attend with their teachers (40-60). Some 80-100 professional volunteer scientists from the NHS and other public sectors, industry and commerce provide the backbone of the conference and hands-on interactive displays.
Conference format
The Conference takes the format of lectures, interactive hands-on demonstrations, interactive workshops, “A Day in the Life of…” sessions and interactive focus groups. Following the opening session, students with their teachers tour the interactive displays, educational stands, workshops, sessions, lectures and focus groups. They are in groups phased to specific areas to maximise time spent in each part. The demonstrations are visually stimulating, interactive and interesting with quizzes and questions & answers with rewards (prizes, sweets) to be “won” to maintain attention. There are two workshop formats. One type based on a healthcare scenario demonstrating the breadth of scientific professions involved and highlighting the necessity for multidisciplinary interaction. The second are shorter workshops describing a day-in-the-life-of a professional scientist telling the students about what excites him/her about his/her profession and allowing the students to question him/her. To close the conference, the participants assemble in the lecture theatre for the round-up, prize giving, and inspirational talk.
Conference theme
For 2008, the Conference theme was Science in Health and Life. Presentations are built around the conference theme, and highlight school-curriculum related aspects.
Conference brief
The Conference brief is to be as stimulating, exciting and hands-on as possible. The enthusiasm of the presenters and the insight into the varied applications of science and extensive career options hopefully will stimulate the students to study science. Presenters are encouraged to include curriculum related topics in their demonstrations and to discuss what excites them about science and their chosen profession with the students. Careers leaflets and advice are available.
Parallel activities
Volunteer school reporters write up their impressions of the conference for the science4u.info website and for their School Newspaper.
The Virtual Laboratory tour is demonstrated. This is an on-going project growing with the addition of different kinds of laboratories.
Following the conference the students and their teachers are encouraged to Ask the Scientist questions to help with course work and to clarify misunderstandings. The questions are posted on the science4u.info website and fielded to the most appropriate scientist who will post the reply on the website.
Careers information from various professional bodies is on display with leaflets for collection. In addition various higher education institutes are represented, including Imperial College London, Kingston University and University of Westminster.
A Conference workbook is posted on the website for students to test and to record their participation in the day’s activities. The workbook contains questions and answers used by the presenters to illustrate their display.
At the end of the day, Conference evaluation forms completed by the students, teachers and volunteer scientists are collected and used as the basis of the Conference Report and lessons learnt to be used in the planning of future events.
The Students
The students invited to attend come mainly from schools in the North West London sector aiming to attract students from all ethnic backgrounds into science. Many of these schools work in partnership with Aim Higher, and Capital Skills.
Conference website
The Conference website science4u.info contains the evaluations of the Schools’ Science Conferences, and other useful information, including photographs, student reports, Virtual Tour of the Immunology Laboratory and Ask the Scientist questions and answers.