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From theory to practice
Using hands-on experience brought science to life for one Glasgow school, and hundreds of enthusiastic participants
Making an event like Williamwood High School's Science and Maths Fair a success requires a lot of hard work and a great deal of planning – but according to Sharan Tagore the benefits to student learning are well worth the effort.
Sharan's inspiration for the fair came after she and a colleague wrote a set of lessons that were designed to entice primary seven pupils to join the science club.
She said: "They enjoyed it so much that I thought – why not make it a science fair. We had a massive area in the school where we could hold it and I could get the rest of the teachers from the science department to host stalls, showing the real life appliance of scientific techniques."
Sharan successfully pitched her idea to head teacher John Fitzpatrick and received support from the senior management team to get other teachers involved.
CfE was in its early stages at the time Sharan came up with the idea – she found the two things complemented each other very well, meaning that whatever the children were taking part in they could see how it related back to their lessons.
"What I wanted to show the children was that there are real-life applications to what they learn in class and these are things they are interested in, such as MP3 players and gaming programs. It's about opening their eyes to that, broadening their horizons," she said.
The next step was to get more pupils on board from the upper years – Sharan was eager for the older students to take on a leadership role and represent the school at a high level.
She said: "I wanted them to become leaders of learning – to have others look up to them. It was a good way to get pupils from fifth and sixth year involved who may not be as academic at science but enjoy taking part in the stall work and working with the younger year groups."
In order to make the fair a success Sharan needed to devote a lot of her spare time to planning the event and making contacts with companies and universities to get them to host stalls on the night.
"On top of my own teaching commitment, planning the science fair has taken up a lot of my evenings and weekends working on the administrative things you need to organise," she said. "But it's really worthwhile to see it all come together on the night."
Applying science to the pupil's everyday lives through the fair has helped to engage them in their classes as well. The class uptake for science has increased to the point that Williamwood High School has nine full classes in Higher biology and has even had to make space for an increased interest in students opting to take Advanced Higher biology.
It is clear that the science fair was a resounding success, but it required a great deal of work on Sharan’s part to make it happen – so she has some advice for teachers who are interested in doing something similar.
"Do your homework on the planning. It's the basic things you don't think about that take the most time and effort, like where to hold it, how to get staff to give up their free time, who can you get to come along and how to manage your budget," she said.
"There are a lot of teachers who have enthusiasm for this type of thing, they just need to try to get a budget and support in order to make it happen."
Sam Wilson: I think the best thing from the night has to be seeing a real human brain up close.
Karen Barclay: Getting to see all the different stalls, with the contrasting aspects from blowing up marshmallows to seeing live dissections, was great.
Fezan Shah: It's been great getting to explain how things work to the younger ones and making it fun for them with things like role play.
Carla Verschueren: Most of the kids seemed really interested and enthusiastic about the whole thing, which was really good.
An experiment that paid off for all involved
Thinking of new and innovative ways to engage pupils in their subjects can be a challenge for teachers, but one teacher at Williamwood High School has managed to do that by getting her pupils all fired up about science.
Biology and Junior Science teacher Sharan Tagore set up a science fair – to show pupils how science relates to them in their everyday lives and how it can even be fun!
The 2009 fair was such a success that the school decided to make it a biennial event, and 2011's fair was an even bigger hit, with more than 800 people in attendance and the likes of the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow Science Centre hosting stalls on the night.
Pupils were given the chance to see live dissections, witness what would happen to our bodies in space, be a doctor for the night, and even see a real human brain.
They could also take part in competitions like "Who wants to be a Mathionnaire?" and sudoku, while primary seven pupils were challenged to build the best rocket.
Miss Tagore's goal for the evening was to help children understand that science is not all about textbooks – it can actually be fun. From the pupil feedback it seems that she achieved her goal.