Diary Entry - May

 

“Who Do We Trust?” Science in the Media Project

 

The main event this month has been making the final news report for the school website.
A group of year nine chose 5 recent scientific developments to research ranging from the use of satellites to track the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to the use of peppers to help weight loss.  They wrote scripts which were performed and filmed by other members of the group.  We may not have produced any budding news readers but we found out some interesting scientific developments and really appreciated how difficult it is to include scientific evidence in a report but keep it short and entertaining.

The rest of the time we have been surveying and interviewing year nine groups to assess whether our project has had any impact on the students and whether they thought the skills learned would be useful.  We have had a very positive response. Many of the students feel able to use criteria to analyse news reports and could appreciate the usefulness of the skills in science and other subjects.  They could also see that these skills could be useful in later life both in decision making at work and at home.

As our project draws to a close the members of staff involved have commented on how it has enabled them to try out new ideas in the classroom, how many new skills they have learned and the positive attitude towards science it has fostered in the students.

Although I won’t miss the stress of looming video deadlines, I hope I will remember how successful this year has been along with the enthusiasm of the staff and students to try new things and that I will have renewed energy to try out even more ideas next year.

  

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