Thanks to a bursary which I received from the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI), on Thursday 7^th January I travelled to Nottingham to attend the Association of Science Education’s Annual Conference at Nottingham University.  The conference offered a myriad of events: lectures, workshops with hands-on practical sessions, cutting edge science sessions, displays and exhibitions. 

 I had the opportunity to meet with and discuss how Science is taught in different countries in Europe, including representatives from Norway, Denmark and Romania.  I attended various workshops during my two days, including ‘Sweetie Science’, ‘Thunder and Lightning’, ‘New Ideas for Physics Lessons’ and ‘My Job is Murder’, a workshop looking at Forensic Science.

The thunder and lightning lecture was taken by the staff at Nottingham University’s School of Chemistry and focused on chemical energy, with plenty of it!  Both in the form of light and sound, there were lots of chemical colours and energetic explosions.  The sweetie science workshop was full of hands-on activities looking at how sweets can be used for practical work and investigations in school. – plus I got a free bag of sweets to take home! 

Sweetie Science - which worm is strongest?

In between the workshops I was able to gather resources and ideas that can be used back at school from the many companies that were exhibiting in the conference, with all the Science teachers getting a free pen as a present when I came back.

Miss K Wightman