Looking out for the wobbly middle!

No, this isn't a reflection on my post-christmas likely state.

Earlier this year I took a new job at Northumbria University working on a project to encourage young people to see science (particularly physics) as a springboard to interesting things.  There has been a lot of work recently (see the ASPIRES project) about why students don't study science.  A lot of the findings appear to support the idea that students like science in primary and early secondary school, but don't see themselves 'doing science'.  They have an (incorrect) idea of what a scientist is, and know that they don't want to do it.

Of course, I know that scientists don't look like this:

 

Image search results for 'scientist'

But children and young people don't.  This is what scientist is according to popular culture, and on the whole this is what they DON'T want to be.

Part of the work of my project is to try to develop more of an understanding of what doing science (and STEM) might look like as a career path.  We are developing case studies and careers materials showcasing people who have studied Physics to A-level and finding out where they are now, and how they got there. [Ad] These will be available on our website thinkphysics.org [End Ad].

However, one of the other things we're trying to do is to target some of our interventions at what I'm calling the 'wobbly middle'.  The middle-set kids who are doing okay in science, probably going to get an A or a B.  They could do sciences at A-level, but they often don't.  We want them to have a successful experience of doing science so that it becomes something that they can see themselves doing.  It's not that we don't want to work with the kids the school identifies as 'Gifted and Talented'* but in many ways, we feel we can have more of an effect with those wobbly middles.  We're helping our partner schools to think about how they can support these students, rather than focusing exclusively on the top or bottom of the cohort*.

It's not that I want every student to study science and go into a STEM career - but I do want them to have the opportunity to do so.

* I'm hopeful that the progress-8 measure will help in some ways.  It will ensure that there is a reason for the school to think about how to work with every child to improve their results, not just around the borders.

A long way to go.

For my birthday I was given a voucher for a back massage and a manicure.  So this morning, I went to have both. 

The young woman, Rachel*, who was doing the back massage looked vaguely familiar.  However, as I still live in the town where I taught, there are a large number of young people that I think that about.  Either I’ve taught them, or I saw them around the school.  I’ve tried to stop looking quizzically at older teenagers and twenty-somethings though, because it does get me some funny looks.

Anyway, after my back massage, I had my nails done.  This was a whole new experience.  My nailcare routine consists of trying , and failing, not to bite my nails when they inevitably snag.  (A fact that was quite obvious, and my lack of nail care routine caused a look of horror to flit across Rachel’s face.) 

It turns out that, like having your hair done, having your nails done is quite a social thing where you discuss the inevitable questions such as the weather, weekend plans and what you do for a living.

Rachel and I discussed my job, and my current commute and also my new job which I’ll be starting at the end of June.  The aim of my new role will be to encourage kids to see that doing science is worthwhile and attainable.

Which led onto a discussion about what Rachel did at school (and it turns out that I did know her) and how she had enjoyed science, particularly Biology.   In fact, she said that if she wasn’t a beauty  therapist she would do something with biology.  Then she asked a question that knocked me for six.

‘But,’ she asked, ‘what can you do in science apart from work in a lab or teach?’

Gosh.  We have a long way to go.  Here was a young woman who, to do her job, requires an in depth knowledge of anatomy and physiology, who thought that science was only used in a lab.

I pointed this out to her, and she agreed that she did use a knowledge of biology in her job.

This anecdotal evidence about lack of careers knowledge backs up the findings of a number of reports published in the last 18 months.  Ofsted, ASPIRES (pdf), the PearsonThinktank, and Gatsby have all looked at the quality of careers provision and made recommendations about how it can be improved.

The ASPIRES project at Kings College London give the following recommendations amongst others:

o         earlier intervention – from primary school

o         break the ‘science = scientist’ link

o         embed STEM careers awareness in science lessons

The Gatsby Good Careers guidance report also mentions this link between curriculum and careers and recommend that:

“All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths.”

When I am running courses, I try to include a session about the importance of science teachers in linking school science to the world of work.  The current state of specialist careers advice is very poor in many schools and if teachers don’t tell kids what they can do with a science qualification then they won’t ever find out. 

I’m not suggesting a hard sell, but if you’re teaching neutralisation reactions, then highlight that these practical skills are needed in the pharmaceutical industry.  If you’re teaching balanced forces, highlight that structural engineers use the same theory to carry out calculations to ensure that buildings don’t fall down.  If you’re teaching about the body in primary school, then you could ask a beauty therapist to come in and talk to the children about their job and how they need to know all about the skeleton and muscles.

If teachers don’t know what jobs are available with a science qualification then these websites might be useful:

Futuremorph

Talent 2030

NHS Careers

National STEM centre careers collection

RCUK Careers in research

National Careers service

So, if you are a teacher highlight links between the curriculum and possible careers.  If you don’t, who will? 

*not her real name.

Teach them well...

Our visit to CERN proper started in a crowded lecture room.  As well as the 51 UK teachers, there were around 40 Israeli students and their teachers.  Israel has just become a full member state of CERN, and these students were the first visitors since that event.  Over the three days, it was fascinating to watch these young people sit through some fairly tricky lectures on cosmology, the Higgs Boson and medical applications of particle physics amongst others.  And not only did they sit through the lectures, they listened and asked intelligent questions at the end.

Each year CERN hosts tens of thousands of visitors.  Amongst these are teachers from all the member states of CERN, as well as other friendly states.  The teacher programmes typically last a week (our UK programme is a little shorter than most), and is hosted where possible by a researcher from the visiting teacher’s home country. 

The education and visits programme is a massive endeavour for CERN, and so it is reasonable to ask ‘Why?’.  What is the benefit to CERN of inviting teachers and others to wander round the facilities, taking photos, getting in the way and filling the restaurant?

Indeed, one could also ask why the National Science Learning Centre, and STFC (who provide financial support for our study visits) take teachers to CERN.

The answer, said in a slightly misty eyed way way, is that it is for the kids.  We, in the words of a song, believe that children are our future.  

The future?

More prosaically, without kids taking STEM subjects, there won’t be big science and technology undertakings in the future.  Somewhere like CERN is the work of a LOT of people – people who studied sciences, engineering, architecture, and other STEM subjects.  And at some point, those people were in all likelihood taught science by enthusiastic teachers who made them think that science was a subject worth studying.

So CERN (and NSLC) want to work with the teachers because they are the multipliers.  If a single student, such as one of our Israeli companions, comes to CERN then that is one person who will (in all probability) be enthused about science.  However, if one teacher comes, then that teacher will go back into school or college with a renewed interest and, dare I say it, excitement about science.  One teacher may teach 200 to 300 students each year.  As the teacher says ‘when I was in CERN….’ and shares the excitement of standing just in front of a 15m wide particle detector 100m below the French countryside, then their interest can be contagious and spread to some of their students.  So one person’s visit will hopefully inspires classrooms full of students.

Up close and personal with a beam pipe

And it’s not just seeing the scale of the undertaking.  The guides who show the teachers round are often researchers, who volunteer to show people round CERN.  Meeting the researchers, chatting to them and asking about how they ended up working in CERN, provides real examples to teachers of possible career paths that their own students might take.  Career paths which the (non-specialist) science teacher might not have realised were possible.

Konrad, explaining why there is more than one particle accelerator at CERN

So to CERN, the cost and disruption, of hosting teacher programmes is worth it.  In fact, it is part of their core mission to the future.