This summer, the Physics Mentoring Project hosted two one-day STEM Summer Schools for schools who were unable to take part in the project in the first cycle. These events included interactive Physics themed workshops for Year 10 students and for their physics teachers. 

The Wrexham event, at Glyndwr University in June, invited students from Ysgol Y Grango, Ysgol Bryn Alyn and Ysgol Rhosnesni to take part in electrical engineering and spectrometry workshops. Luckily, it was a beautiful day, and so students were also able to explore Glyndwr’s University campus. Teachers in attendance were introduced to a variety of interactive tools for use in the classroom by colleagues from the IOP’s Stimulating Physics Network.

At the University of South Wales, in July, students from Lliswerry High School explored spectrometry and robotics before project managing their own space telescope mission. Their teachers learnt more about using astronomy to teach physics, as well as the careers that Physics qualifications can lead to from the Physics Mentoring project team.

When asked what they had learnt at the day, students came back with “Physics is fun”, “that I actually like physics and that rainbows are really cool” and “how to create my own generator, it was extremely fun”.

In the future, our aim is that the Physics Mentoring Project can create more CPD (continuing professional development) opportunities for Physics teachers interacting with the project. The STEM days were an invaluable opportunity to find out more about what teachers want and need when it comes to CPD, with the help of our evaluators, OnData. Watch this space!

The project team would like to thank those who made the summer school events possible:

  • Keith Jones and Graham Perrin from IOP Wales,
  • Dr Suzy Kean, Dr Leshan Uggalla and Teresa Perry from University of South Wales,
  • Dr Iestyn Pierce from Bangor University,
  • Iwan Pullen and Alex Loader, Physics Mentors from Cardiff University and,
  • Staff and students from Lliswerry High School, Ysgol Bryn Alyn, Ysgol Rhosnesni and Ysgol Y Grango.