• Question: How many and which schools are you planning to run your workshop in?

    Asked by kirstaurel to Sarah on 12 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 12 Mar 2011:

      Hi there!

      I’m so excited today because tomorrow I am going to Dunbar Science Festival to run my workshop for the very first time!! http://dunbarscifest.org.uk/

      It’s going to be brilliant!! I think it will mostly be younger children, probably primary school age. The workshop is called “Glowing Diagnosis”. The children will be given lab coats and glasses and gloves to wear and some fake blood samples. They will then have to dilute the blood samples and then add some of my special dye complex. They will then test the samples in a UV blacklight box. If any of the samples glow, this is a positive test for cancer. (And I have secretly added something to one of the samples so that one of them does glow to show how my test will work.) The children will then test some random things I found in my house that are fluorescent under the blacklight: such as milk, olive oil, ketchup and washing powder! It’s going to be a lot of fun!

      If my workshop is successful, I will be running it again at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/ which is a really massive festival that runs during the Easter holidays.

      After that, I will be going to some of the local schools in Edinburgh. I’ve been helping with science workshops in schools in Edinburgh for a year now so I’ve made friends with lots of schools and they have said they would like to trial my workshop. I will be trialing it in 3 different secondary schools with students aged 13-14. I will then be tailoring my workshop so that it can be modified for different age groups.

      I know that I’m not going to be able to travel far and run my workshop in schools all over the UK so I have decided that I want to make an online downloadable resource for teachers with a lesson plan and instructions on how to make up the fake blood samples and dye so that teachers can run my workshop themselves. I think this would be great and I would be so chuffed to hear from schools that have tried it themselves and how it worked!

      Right, I’m off to get ready for tomorrow! Please get in touch if you have any more questions!

      S

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