The STEM Student Journalist competition is now in its third year, and each year we receive more fantastic reports which showcase the talent of students from across the region. We are looking for STEM related reports in either a written, audio or film format. Full details of the competition can be found in the student section of our website.

The competition closing date is 4pm Wednesday 6 October 2010.  For full competition terms and conditions click here.

This year there are 3 competition categories:

Category 1: Audio & Film 

Best Under 16 Years Reporter

First Prize: iPod Touch

Runner up Prize: iPod Nano

Best Over 16 Years Reporter

First Prize: iPod Touch

Runner up Prize: iPod Nano

Category 2: Written 

Best Under 16 Years Reporter

First Prize: iPod Touch

Runner up Prize: iPod Nano

Best Over 16 Years Reporter

First Prize: iPod Touch

Runner up Prize: iPod Nano

To find out about reporting opportunities near you and to submit reports, please contact Hannah Benson on or call the office on 0115 984 7021

On Wednesday 17th March the East Midlands STEM Partnership hosted an event as part of National Science and Engineering Week. Students spent the afternoon at the National Space Centre and saw ‘Bridget’, the multi-million pound robot, part of the EXOMars project that will touch down on Mars in 2016 to study the biological environment. Students from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire participated in some of the 150 interactive master classes held at the National Space Centre

Prior to visiting the National Space Centre, the day began at Crown Hills Community College in Leicester, where students demonstrated inspiring creative science activities; including Lab 13, a dedicated science space in the school, managed by pupils, for the pupils. Students also experienced Kit in a Kase taking part in some fun, contextual science. The morning concluded with a Come Alive with Science demonstration. Students had the opportunity to design and make their own t-shirts using photochromic paints and LED lights.

The event supported National Science and Engineering Week (12-21 March) and this video was produced to promote some of the fantastic STEM activities taking place across the East Midlands, many of which are funded by the East Midlands Development Agency.

 

The National Science and Engineering Week STEM Student Journalist Competition deadline is only 10 days away... Friday 16 April!

Student Journalists can submit reports relating to events and activities which took place during National Science and Engineering Week (12 -21 March 2010). With the opportunity to win an iPod Nano for winning reports!

Further details about the competition and terms and conditions can be found at https://emstempartnership.org.uk/nsew . Please submit all reports to Hannah Benson at or 0115 984 7021, or contact Hannah with any questions you have.

.... There's still time to submit your reports, so get writing!!

Competition winners will be annouced week commencing 26 April.

On Wednesday 17th March the East Midlands STEM Partnership hosted an event as part of National Science and Engineering Week. Students spent the afternoon at the National Space Centre and saw ‘Bridget’, the multi-million pound robot, part of the EXOMars project that will touch down on Mars in 2016 to study the biological environment. Students from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire participated in some of the 150 interactive master classes held at the National Space Centre. A student from The Long Eaton School, Nottinghamshire, who attended the A-Level Physics master class said; "Today was an experience of a lifetime, most beneficial to further my studies in science".

Prior to visiting the National Space Centre, the day began at Crown Hills Community College in Leicester, where students demonstrated inspiring creative science activities; including Lab 13, a dedicated science space in the school, managed by pupils, for the pupils. Students also experienced Kit in a Kase taking part in some fun, contextual science. The morning concluded with a Come Alive with Science demonstration. Students had the opportunity to design and make their own t-shirts using photochromic paints and LED lights. A student from Crown Hills Community College said “Come Alive with Science is great fun, an enjoyable mixture of different lessons with maths, technology and science lessons".

The event supported National Science and Engineering Week (12-21 March) and was an opportunity to promote some of the fantastic STEM activities taking place across the East Midlands, many of which are funded by the East Midlands Development Agency. Other activities across the region included Lab in a Lorry, a mobile lab giving students the chance to explore science hands-on, which visited Montsaye School in Northamptonshire. Students at Montsaye, learnt how oil is extracted from its source and participated in experiments involving frequency and sound.  Year 9 students from Haven High Technology College, Lincolnshire hosted a screening of their film about climate change ‘Enter the Future’ as part of the Come Alive with Science programme.

On Wednesday 3 March over 60 partners came together for the sixth East Midlands STEM Partnership Forum Event, ‘STEM From Every Angle’, to look at how problem solving activities are essential for today's science, technology and engineering advancements. The event was sponsored by 3M Health Care Limited and took place at their Morley Street site in Loughborough.

Problem solving skills were explored in the context of the regions priority sectors - Transport Equipment, Food and Drink, Sustainable Construction and Healthcare and Bioscience. Barbara Linton from the National Centre for Excellence In the Teaching of Mathematics presented on how changes to the National Curriculum will try to address these skills. Dr Bryan Jackson, Chairman of emda gave the keynote address on just how important these skills are in today’s society, particularly in today’s’ economic climate.

If you missed out – presentations from the workshop can be viewed on the Forum Event page on the website.  Pictures from the day will be uploaded shortly. 

The fifth regional East Midlands STEM Student Journalist Workshop took place last Thursday 11 February.  Hosted at the Roundhouse, part of Derby College, the half day interactive workshop was led by BBC Business Correspondent Rob Pittam and BBC News Camerawoman Sara Shepherd.  The event was a great success with Rob and Sara giving students an insight into their jobs and the world of journalism.

Later in the day, students enthusiastically took part in a news room simulation activity where they adopted the roles of editors, sub editors and reporters, looking at STEM related press releases on topics such as climate change, developments in sports science, the ‘toyota’ issue in the world of engineering and technological advancements at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, giving students a taste of what it is like to come up with a news agenda and cope with a running story. The day concluded with the opportunity for students to ask Rob and Sara questions.

The workshop was attended by over 60 students, primarily from Derbyshire, but also from Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. Analysis of the workshop evaluation saw 85% of students rate the day as useful, with 89% finding the sessions run by Rob and Sara interesting and helpful. Rob and Sara said they “enjoyed meeting STEM reporters, being able to pass on tips and share our experiences with the next generation of journalists...."

Students commented on the event saying that it gave them “a valuable insight into the world of journalism”, and teachers attending on the day said they were “impressed by the quality of their students work during the news room simulation activity”.

The forthcoming National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW), 12-21 March, will be an ideal platform for the students who attended the workshop to put their new STEM reporting skills into action and enter the NSEW STEM Student Journalist Competition to win an iPod Nano. For more details click here.   

National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW) is just over 1 month away!

NSEW is a programme of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) events and activities taking place between 12 – 21 March 2010.  

The East Midlands STEM Partnership is helping promote NSEW by encouraging organisers to register their events on the national database, training more students to report on news happening in their county and inviting VIPs to come and see for themselves STEM in action in the East Midlands. As part of this promotion, the partnership has developed a bespoke microsite for the week to increase event registrations on the NSEW site, and to encourage students to enter the NSEW STEM Student Journalist Competition, with the opportunity to win an iPod Nano for reporting on NSEW events and activities.

To find out more about NSEW in the East Midlands and how you can get involved visit the microsite now! https://emstempartnership.org.uk/nsew

 

A new report (.pdf) commissioned by the U.K. government and conducted by Fast Future asked a select group of futurists and thinkers to list what science and technology jobs they think would be most popular by the year 2030.

The group came up with over 100 roles, 20 of these were selected for the study. 

These roles could see trips into space no longer being just for astronauts, with future jobs as space pilots, tour guides and astro architects! Computers and robots are expected to transform the fields of medicine and farming. The world of medicine will see advances in nanotechnology, enabling scientists to treat cancer and other resistant diseases at the cellular level.

Here’s the complete list of all 20, with summarized descriptions:

• Body part maker: Create living body parts for athletes and soldiers.
• Nano-medic: Nanotechnology advances mean sub-atomic treatments could transform healthcare.
• GM or recombinant farmer: That’s “GM” as in “genetically modified” or engineered crops and livestock.
• Elderly wellness consultant: As an aging population increases in size, we’ll need folks to tend to their physical and mental needs.
• Memory augmentation surgeon: Like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, surgeons could boost patients’ memory when it hits capacity.
• ‘New science’ ethicist: With the rise of cloning and other ethically-dubious practices, ethicists will be needed to ford the river of progress.
• Space pilots, tour guides and architects: Space tourism will allow for space pilots, tour guides and the architects that will allow them to live in lunar outposts.
• Vertical farmers: The future of farming is straight up. Vertical farms in urban areas could significantly increase food supply.
• Climate change reversal specialist: Regardless of what you think about human-induced climate change, it’s clear we’ll need scientists who specialize in altering it.
• Quarantine enforcer: When a deadly virus spreads rapidly, quarantine enforcers will “guard the gates.”
• Weather modification police: If weather patterns can be altered and adversely affect other parts of the world, law enforcement will be needed to keep things legal.
• Virtual lawyer: As international law grows to supercede national law, lawyers will be needed to handle cases that involve people living in several nations with different laws.
• Classroom avatar manager: Intelligent avatars will replace classroom teachers, but the human touch will be needed to properly match teacher to student.
• Alternative vehicle developers: Goodbye, internal combustion engine. Zero-emission cars will need smart people to design and manufacture them.
• Narrowcasters: As in, the opposite of “broadcaster.” Media will grow increasingly personalized, and we’ll need people to handle all those streams.
• Waste data handler: Think of it as an “IT axe man”… for information. Waste data handlers will destroy data for security purposes.
• Virtual clutter organizer: Now that your electronic life is more cluttered than your physical one, you’ll need someone to clean things up — including your e-mail, desktop and user accounts.
• Time broker/Time bank trader: What’s more valuable than precious metals, stones or cold, hard cash? Your time.
• Social ‘networking’ worker: A social worker for the Web generation.
• Branding managers: These already exist for celebrities, but now everyone needs a “personal brand” so others can easily digest who you are and what you stand for.

For complete descriptions and resources for these jobs see the original article

 

Division by Chunking, The Grid Method and Number Bonds are just a few of the mathematical techniques which are now a feature of primary school maths, yet in a survey of 1000 UK parents published today, over 50% admitted that they would be unable to explain these to their children.  It shows that there is a worrying gap between the maths parents learnt when they were at school and that which their children are taught in classrooms today.

The survey was commissioned by Random House Group in advance of tomorrow’s publication (07.01.10) of ‘Maths for Mums and Dads,’ by Rob Eastaway and Mike Askew.

A staggering 79% of parents revealed that maths homework frequently leads to conflict and arguments in the household, perhaps explaining why a third of those surveyed admitted that they avoid helping their children with their maths homework.

The survey further revealed that 41% of parents were unable to provide the correct answer to a question that a 10-year-old might be expected to solve in a national test*.

With a third of parents admitting that they struggle with the maths that they no longer use in everyday life, many parents are finding it difficult to support their children in this vital subject. 

Maths plays a central role in the UK curriculum and is, alongside English, one of only two compulsory subjects at GCSE. A sound start to maths in primary school lays the foundations for later success and many parents are anxious to get to grips with their children’s maths studies at this earlier stage; new release ‘Maths for Mums and Dads’ prepares them to tackle this challenge.

Maths for Mums and Dads co-author, Rob Eastaway said: “Our book is designed to take the pain out of maths homework, by explaining the techniques children are now taught at school and by giving parents an insight into why children make mistakes.  We want to inject more enjoyment into maths at home, so that parents no longer dread hearing the phrase ‘can I have some help with my maths homework?’ ”

Maths for Mums and Dads is published in Square Peg hardback on 7 January 2010, priced £9.99

 

The East Midlands STEM Partnership is supporting The NSEW Team to encourage organisers to register their events on the national database – this is a great opportunity to celebrate the fantastic work taking place here in the region.

We are interested in all your events – big and small! Do you have an event or activity planned for NSEW here in the East Midlands? If so, add your event to the online national database by registering here, then fill in the online form by selecting ‘Add an event’ from the left-hand menu.

Thousands of people across the UK take part in NSEW events and activities every year and join the celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and its importance in our lives…this year, why not be one of them!