Manchester Academy Science Partnership 2022
Our Young Science Communicators was born out of the Young Chemistry Communicators programme and begins with a full day session on Science Communication delivered by Techniquest Glyndwr. This partnership falls under the umbrella group of our Science Communicators Programme.
9 Year 12 pupils at WGS devised and delivered sessions for 30 Year 11 Manchester Academy pupils with a view to recapping on the required practicals that were released in the exam board Additional Information for the Summer 2022 exams. Each Year 11 pupil had a 90 mins session in Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Topics undertaken were IV graphs, Electrolysis and Food Tests. The Sixth Form students were supported during their preparation by staff members who ensured the educational resources, equipment and risk assessments were appropriate. The year 12 students will also deliver a whole school assembly to share their venture and experience with the whole school.
Aims
· To allow pupils to carry out the required practicals, following methods, taking results and analysing data. Due to lockdown and Covid Isolations the pupils may have missed these.
· To provide specialist teaching in small groups (each group only had ten pupils, two staff and 3 year 12 pupils) to allow pupils to expand their knowledge and become more confident in the material prior to their internal mock examinations.
· To allow the year 12 pupils to develop their leadership, team working, organisation and communication skills and hopefully submit a report on the experience allowing them to apply for a Gold Crest Award.
Background
WGS established a partnership with Manchester Academy in early 2021. Following from making contact via the Faraday Challenge in School the Head of Science at Withington approached the Head of Science at Manchester with the idea.
Resources
WGS is well resourced and during the day we used our state-of-the-art Physics, Chemistry and Biology Labs to host the three groups. WGS provide practical equipment, stationary, teaching resources, three teaching staff, nine year 12 pupils and 3 technicians. Between each session the labs were cleared down and prepared for the next lesson. Pupils worked in pairs to complete three required practicals. At lunch time and break the pupils had an opportunity to relax in our Hub and were provided with refreshments. Our Year 12 pupils will make a small contribution to the cost of the Gold Crest Award fee.
Impact
The expertise and enthusiasm of the Sixth form pupils and staff, combined with Withington’s facilities, created a purposeful learning environment where the Year 11 students could get hands on experience of experiments and an opportunity to revisit material taught in lockdown. Over 90% of visiting pupils thought that the day was beneficial and had made them feel more confident in science. The visiting staff were also delighted that the students had an opportunity to complete experiments that they did not always have equipment for in school.
The programme also offers the Sixth Form volunteers the chance to develop their communication skills, whilst compounding their knowledge of and passion for science.
All Sixth form pupils taking part also will be applying for a gold crest award from the British Science Association upon completion of the project and writing a complete scientific report.
Pupil Involvement
WGS – 9 Year 12, 3 Teaching staff, 3 Technicians,
Manchester Academy – 30 Year 11 and 3 staff
Frequency
This is the first year of this project, but we are hoping to repeat something similar in the future.