UN celebrates two years of Lab_13 at Irchester Primary School

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/un-celebrates-two-years-of-lab-13-at-irchester-primary-school

​​​The events focussed on science and technology as part of the celebration of two years of the primary school’s Lab_13 (@Lab_13Irchester). The lab is a dedicated science space in the School which is aimed to drive the imagination and curiosity of the students with a Scientist-in-Residence, Jennifer Hogan, in support.

Tricia Goodchild, STEM Diversity Co-Ordinator at the University of Northampton said; “The children are wonderful, really interested in STEM subjects, enthusiastic and work hard to sustain this area not only with their peers but throughout the school.”

The University has been supported Lab_13 for the past two years in various ways and this was a culmination of all the activities that have taken place. 

The workshops that took place by members of the University included investigating the hidden world through a Thermal Imaging camera; wind-power experiments; building towers with spaghetti and marshmallows; leather as a material; 3D imaging; drawing ‘bots’ and investigating germs.

Dr Scott Turner, the School of Science and Technology’s Widening Participation and Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator said; “Lab_13 is a great idea, and always a positive experience working with them.

Dr Gemma Marsden, Lecturer in Molecular Bioscience conducted scientific experiments with the children in order to see how clean or unclean their room was.

She said; “I had a wonderful experience working with Lab_13.  It was great to be met with such overwhelming enthusiasm about science and I hope the students enjoyed finding out how clean their class room was.”

Rubbish – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle into toys!

Taken directly from http://lab13network.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/rubbish-reduce-reuse-recycle-into-toys/  Rubbish – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle into toys!  Lab13 at Irchester (@Lab_13Irchester)

by lab13network

Waleed and Jacob searching for goodies!

Year 5 students at Irchester have been working on a very exciting project with the Dept. of Waste Management, University of Northampton. Dr. Waleed Montasser and Louise Maxwell, and Bianca, Evie and Livia (Brazilian visiting students) work alongside our Year 5s to design, plan, resource and make different Science Takeaways all using reusable and recycled materials.

Science Takeaways will be a set of four science kits with different experiments for children to borrow for the weekend and try at home. They will collect data or test hypotheses and add to the kit if they think of some new way of using it.

However, we wanted to keep these takeaways as reusable and “green” as possible and didn’t want to spend a lot of money making them! Waleed had the great idea of using Phoenix Resource Centre in Raunds.

They collect clean usable waste (including off-cuts of material, wood, card),  surplus stocks, end of lines and unwanted goods / returns from industry and local businesses. Anything that can be re-used then gets put onto shelves for people to reuse. As you can see we did a great job of finding just the right things we needed!
Today, we have visited the site for the first time to collect and resource our projects. It was a  freezing but really cool place and John on of the trustees helped us fill our trolleys! What they are doing there is very good for the environment even the actor who plays Ron Weasly think so and have visited them!

Aimee and Livia are happy with what they have found!

Aimee, age 9, says “I think that this is a good place because it stops all the materials from going into landfill. It makes people reduce waste and reuse things so that we can have a nice county instead of a big smelly dump in the ground!

URB@N Project: Evaluation of the barriers and opportunities for wastes management distance learning courses

The School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton has funding from URB@N for three projects. URB@N stands for ‘Undergraduate Research Bursaries at Northampton’. It is a bursary scheme offering opportunities for current undergraduate students to participate in a pedagogic research project taking place at the university. Details of one of these projects is included here.

Evaluation of the barriers and opportunities for wastes management distance learning courses

Staff Involved:

Terry Tudor

Paul Cox

Nigel Freestone

Louise Maxwell

Ruth Copeland-Phillips

Margaret Bates

Overview:

In recent years there has been increasing emphasis globally on managing the

environment, particularly wastes, in a more sustainable manner. Linked to

this has been a desire to increase the competencies and skills of individuals

in the field of environmental management and more specifically wastes

management. The Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences,

at the University currently offers a range of environmental management

courses, with a growing provision of distance learning. Indeed, within the

past few months, the Department has been approached by universities in

India, Kenya, Nigeria, Iraq and China, with requests for provision of waste

management course. However, it is not possible to deliver by traditional

classroom based methods in all interested institutions. The Wastes Team is

therefore looking at a range of alternative delivery methods including, but not

limited to, blended learning, flying faculty and distance learning. We wish to

undertake research into the perception and logistics of wastes management

course delivery by distance learning so that we can better meet the student

expectations and enhance their learning experiences. The project’s main

objectives are to:

Examine the key socio-economic, cultural and logistical factors that

might influence the successful uptake of alternative delivery methods in

waste management courses

Identify possible strategies to overcome these factors which would

facilitate an enhanced student experience.

For more information about this project go to Evaluation of the barriers and opportunities for wastes management distance learning courses

More details about URB@N can be found at: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/urban

Technology for Transition

Re-blogged from: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2012/02/28/technology-for-transition/ by Julie Usher

Staff in the School of Science and technology have been looking at ways in which technology can help to widen participation and ’increase support and retention on non-full-time programmes’. This began with a project to develop online introductory materials, for applicants to Waste Management courses to use before their taught course started.

The team used a range of tools, including NILE and Wimba Create, to build an informative, interactive site for incoming students to use. The resources were based on the team’s previous research into induction of distance learners. These materials can be seen in the guest access NILE site for the course.


The project was a success and led to the project team – Ruth Copeland-Phillips, Paul Cox and Louise Maxwell  – gaining a Teaching Fellowship award. It has also led to the development of further online materials, aimed at helping distance learning overseas students ‘make a successful transtion to the University of Northampton academically, socially and culturally’.


Read the full project report for more information.

Double the Teaching Fellows!

The School of Science and Technology is going to double the number of Teaching Fellows to six (joining Jonathan Adams, Greg Spellman and Scott Turner). Three colleagues were successful in their application for Teaching Fellowship (one of only four to be awarded). 


Ruth Copeland-Philips, Louise Maxwell and Paul Cox will be awarded their fellowships for their work on Technology to help with the transistion into Higher Education of distance learning students.


Details of their work can be found at:

• The University of Northampton Teaching and Learning Conference (May 2009), Piloting Induction Strategies for Distance Learners. Poster presentation and conference paper.
• The University of Northampton Teaching and Learning Conference (May 2011) Technology Enhanced Transition Programme for Distance Learners, Poster presentation
• Widening Participation Seminar at The University of Northampton, (September 2011), Technology Enhanced Transition Programme for Distance Learners, Poster presentation and conference paper.

• Poster presentation available in Park Library atrium (24^th October - 4^th November 2011) .
• Widening participation web pages: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/200284/widening-participation/1132/projects
• School of Science and Technology blog (18 September 2011) Technology Enhanced Transition Programme:http://apslandt.blogspot.com/

Technology Enhanced Transition Programme

A recent present poster on work in progress on a steps to help distance learning students make the transition into Higher Education.

STRiPE grows

Further members of STRiPE


Professor Kamal Bechkoum
Selected related publications:

• Bechkoum K, Staughhan K, Scobell K(2011) "Towards a Sustainable Computing Education " The 7th China - Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Oriented Education (CEISIE 2011), University of Northampton 23-24th May 2011
• K. Bechkoum (2009). "On Intelligent Arabic Learning Environments", Key Note at the International Arab Conference on Information Technology (ACIT09), Sana'a, 15-17 December, 2009.
• Bechkoum, K. (2008). “Challenges Facing Higher Education Computing and IT Departments””. Proceedings of the 4th China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry-Oriented Education, Guangzhou, China, January 2008, pp 137-141, ISSN 0529-6579.
• Gutowska, A. and Bechkoum, K. (2007). “The Issue of Online Trust and its Impact on International Curriculum Design””. Proceedings of the 3rd China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry-Oriented Education, Dublin, 6-7 February 2007, pp 134-140, ISBN 978-1-84218-122-5.
• Bechkoum, K. (2006). “Towards an Efficacious Global Computing Curriculum: Challenges, Opportunities & Risks”. Keynote Lecture, 2nd China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry-Oriented Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, January 2006.
• O’Leary, C., Lawless D., Gordon D., Haifeng, L., and Bechkoum, K (2006). “Developing a Software Engineering Curriculum for the Emerging Software Industry in China”. 19th International Conference on Software Engineering for Training and Education, Hawaii, April 19-21, 2006, pp 115-122, ISBN 0-7695-255.
• Bechkoum, K. (2005). “Using a VLE in an e-Learning Approach to Software Education”. Keynote Lecture, 1st China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry-Oriented Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, January 2005.
• Lawless, D. Wu, B. Xu, X. Yuan C and Bechkoum K. (2004),"Requirements For An Industry-Oriented IT Education Model To Support The Emerging Knowledge Economy in China", Second International Conference on Knowledge Economy and Development of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University Press, Chin September 2004, pp.403 – 409

Paul Cox
Selected related publications:

• Copeland-Phillips R, Cox P & Maxwell L (2011) "Technology Enhanced Transition Programme for Distance Learners" Learning Global,University of Northampton  11th May 2011

Louise Maxwell
Selected related publications:

• Copeland-Phillips R, Cox P & Maxwell L (2011) "Technology Enhanced Transition Programme for Distance Learners" Learning Global,University of Northampton  11th May 2011