With a focus on plant and microbial science, we joined the John Innes Centre and the Teachers Scientist Network for a brand-new half day conference for Norfolk primary and secondary teachers to help inspire, empower and enable the teachers to integrate more plant science in their classrooms.
We were pleased to welcome 34 teachers in total, with thanks to the John Innes Foundation who not only funded the conference but also generously offered supply cover grants to schools, enabling more teachers to attend.
The conference included 4 workshops and an opportunity to network and access free resources plus a request station where teachers could post details of things they’d like to see at a future event that would be useful for their teaching. There was also a keynote address from John Innes Centre PhD student Rose McNelly,
Rose McNelly grew up in Norfolk, attending East Norfolk Sixth Form College and took part in the Year 10 Science Camp at JIC in 2014. Rose shared her experiences and explained how it had motivated her to consider a career in science. This was an inspiring case study for teachers to hear, demonstrating the importance of school years on future career choices.
As well as our educational robot RNA Ruth joining us for the day to showcase a wide range of SAW resources on our stall, we were also lucky enough to be joined by friends Dr Paolo Bombelli and Lucia Giron from the University of Cambridge to present a new project.
Paolo and Lucia led one of the workshops for secondary school teachers to introduce green energy research and explore using algae to power BioBatteries. You can find out more about how to make you own biobattery in our SynBio 4 Schools guide (head over to our resources page! here) which Paolo helped us create.
Other things on offer were CPD workshops by educational consultants Claire Seeley and Alan Denton. Claire’s session focussed on Climate Change, whilst Alan covered proportionality in science. Phil Smith from TSN also delivered a workshop using their plant science kits. organisations for the event. Colleagues from the Sainsbury Laboratory, Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS), the Youth STEMM Award and the Food & Farming Discovery Trust also provided ideas and resources for teachers to take away.
Teachers rated all the workshops highly and 100% stated that the day gave them new ideas, resources and contexts that they could use in their teaching.
The event will take place again next year so keep an eye out on the JIC Education page for the announcement.