Screaming straws, exploding water and paper cutting are just a few of the novel ideas to help make science and maths more interesting that will be presented on stand G5 .
The free Science and Maths Alive presentations, suitable for teachers of young scientists from three years upwards and young mathematicians from five years, are new for this year and bound to create quite a stir.
The sessions will be held by Mark Biddiss and Jasmine Prodissitto from ProEducation, a growing education consultancy that takes a colourful approach to science and maths education. Mark said, 'We wanted to complement and enhance what teachers currently do. The Government has only just realised that they should encourage thinking skills in children, but we have been motivating children for seven years now.'
ProEducation's aim is to inspire both adults and children to fully observe and explore the world around them. Consultants do this by amazing and amusing them with tricks, experiments and illusions, all of which demonstrate sound scientific or mathematical principles. Adults and children are encouraged to develop investigative and experimental methods, but at the same time, to have fun. So far ProEducation has visited more than 700 schools and the demand is growing.
One of the science experiments on show will be 'screaming straws'. This involves cutting a straw in a certain way and blowing into it to make a screaming noise. The straw is then cut in a different way to see if it affects the sound made. Mark comments, 'Luckily I'm not the one that has to listen to a class full of kids making screaming noises with the straws!'
On a more serious note he adds, 'We want the kids to think about what is going on. We try to get them to solve problems in a fun and whacky way. We believe in giving them the time to develop their thinking skills as opposed to them simply acquiring knowledge.
'We don't want the ideas to just zoom over their heads. I am always pointing out that nursery children are already thinking the way you want them to - like scientists.'
Maths Alive will provide fun ways of exercising pupils' problem-solving and reasoning skills with activities and games involving numbers, shape, space, measures and data handling that are guaranteed to amaze. This presentation will only be on show on Friday and Saturday and is better suited to Key Stage 1 children upwards.
This is the first time Mark and Jasmine have attended the London show, but their presentations and workshops have gone down really well all over the country. Mark said 'A popular phrase for those who attend our presentations is "Oh wowII can't wait to go and try it!". It's nice to see people go away smiling, knowing that they have enjoyed themselves.'
Mark's book, Dr Mark's Magical Science - Book 1, will be available at the exhibition for the special price of 10.
