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National Science and Engineering Week Event Awards 2012

Every year in March we have a National Science and Engineering Week (NCEW). Schools and communities across the UK organise STEM related activities to talk, discuss, show, feel, touch STEM… British Science Association coordinates the Week nationally and offers some cash prizes for best events!

NSEW Event Awards aim to reward the passion of event and activity organisers and showcase the very best in public engagement during NSEW.

Any organisation can nominate for an award, whether you are a school running a day of activities or a theatre launching a new production – as long as it takes place during NSEW: 9–18 March 2012.

Prizes

• £600 cash prize to the winner in each category.
• £200 cash prize to one runner-up in each category.

Categories

• Best Primary School Event: for events or activities organised by primary schools.
• Best Secondary School Event: for events or activities organised by secondary schools.
• Best STEM Institution Event: For events by those organisations (non schools) participating in STEM engagement on a regular basis.
• Best Community Event: For events and activities that include the local community and/or family audiences.
• Best Engineering-themed Event: For events and activities that are predominantly engineering themed.

Fore more details please check British Science Association website: www.britishscienceassociation.org

Source: www.britishscienceassociation.org

Christmas event

STEM Outreach and Institute of Physics (IOP) would like to invite you to our Christmas event. This will feature a lecture entitled “How Round is an Electron?” delivered by Dr Tarbutt from Imperial College, London. There will also be an opportunity to meet STEM ambassadors, teachers and members of the scientific community whilst enjoying free wine and mince pies!

Date: Thursday, 15 December 2011
Time: 6.15pm – 8.00pm
Location: Rutherford Hall (B005), Ellison Building, University of Northumbria, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST

6.15pm – 7.00pm – Complimentary Mince Pies and Wine: STEM Ambassadors and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) teachers from Tyne and Wear and Northumberland schools, members of the IoP, and anyone with an interest in Science and Physics
are invited to join in our networking event. You will have a chance to share STEM experiences, talk about activities happening in schools and the local area, and perhaps even plan some events for 2012!
7.00pm – 8.00pm – Lecture: How Round is an Electron? Perhaps the electron is more easily grasped as a concept – but are we correct in imagining it to be a tiny round ball? Dr Tarbutt of Imperial College will be stretching our minds around this little considered matter.
The shape of an electron is important in physics because it is connected to the basic symmetries of nature. The first is the symmetry between the forward and backward flow of time. The second is the symmetry between matter and anti-matter. The talk will explore these connections, showing how extremely precise measurements, made in a small laboratory experiment, can answer some of the big physics questions.

Please let us know if you are planning to attend this event by emailing your name and organisation to: anna.fraszczyk@ncl-coll.ac.uk

Organisers:

Teacher Coordinator Posts at The Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering coordinates ‘Connecting Teachers’, an education project which aims to establish a network of STEM teachers across the UK. The network will provide opportunities to engage in peer support and allow teachers across STEM subject areas to offer solutions on how to widen participation in STEM at KS3 and beyond.

A number of Teacher Coordinators (TCs) will be employed on a consultancy basis around the UK with the task of building up a local network of schools and teachers and linking in with other similar active STEM teacher networks e.g. Physics Teacher Network. The TCs will work with teachers to provide them with the tools to help illustrate to students the role of engineering in society and how engineers help shape our world and improve our lives.

The Academy are looking for teachers from across the UK who have a strong D&T, engineering or ICT background and would like to get involved in this role.

The TCs will not be expected to leave their current teaching role, the TC role would typically be ½ day a week in addition to their current teaching role.

For more information on the post and to download an application form, click here

£5000 awards available from the IET

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is committed to promoting enthusiasm and understanding of STEM subjects in young people and, as part of this commitment, offers funding to support local education projects.

The IET Education Fund is an annual fund, and will be accepting bids for funding from 1 January 2012 to 9 March 2012 for projects taking place 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2013. Awards of up to £5000 can be offered. Eligible projects must help to engage UK-based students aged 5-19 with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects, and projects must involve more than one educational establishment. For more information and an application pack, please go to http://www.theiet.org/fund

Open tender for IET Faraday programme

Request for Expressions of Interest in Tendering for IET Faraday programme elements for the period 2012 to 2014

Expressions of Interest to Tender are invited from organisations who would be interested in tendering for individual elements of the IET Faraday programme or for the delivery of all elements. Expressions of Interest are invited from individual companies or consortia.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (The IET) is a world-leading professional members’ organisation for the engineering and technology sectors. The IET Faraday programme is a major part of the Education for Schools and Colleges programme which includes print resources; online, curriculum-linked engineering case studies, engineer profiles and accompanying teaching and learning resources; and, the annual IET Faraday Challenge Day competition.

The elements of the IET Faraday programme that are being offered out to contract are:

• IET Faraday Challenge Day competition – an annual competition currently consisting of 45 in-school, contractor-led, engineering-themed competition days for children aged 12 and 13, plus 12 similar events held at university venues for their linked schools. The contractors will be required to:
• develop the competition in collaboration with IET staff;
• manage and deliver the events at venues across the UK selected by the IET; and,
• produce a version of the competition that can be self-delivered by teachers (IET Faraday Challenge Day in a Box) for those schools who have not been selected for the main competition
• IET Faraday teaching resources – a collection of web-based engineering case studies that highlight cutting-edge examples of modern engineering and the engineers behind them. These are accompanied by on-line games for students and a range of lesson activities that are linked to the secondary curricular for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for Science, Maths, D&T, ICT and Engineering Diploma.

Those submitting an Expression of Interest will be sent the Invitation to Tender document and examples of how the IET Faraday resources are presented. Expressions of Interest may be submitted, and we will continue to send out the documents up until the day before the deadline for tender submissions.

Expression of Interest should be submitted to Dee Halil dhalil@theiet.org and Gareth James gjames@theiet.org

The deadline for receipt of the final tender submissions will be 09:00 on 20 December 2012. The tender submissions will be reviewed and short-listing will take place. Those short-listed will be informed by 17:00 on 22 December. They will then be required to undertake a presentation to IET staff and advisors on Thursday 12 or Friday 13 January 2012.