Plates for Education - UK
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The 'Plates for Education - UK' project aims to inspire secondary Physics teachers and their pupils by providing them with a genuine piece of research equipment (an optical-fibre 'plug plate' from the Sloan Telescope in New Mexico) for them to work with, and resources for them to investigate cutting-edge astronomical survey data.
By providing teachers with career-long professional learning sessions (CLPL in Scotland, better known as continuing professional development, CPD, in England and Wales), the project aims to engage at least 200 teachers of Physics and through them at least 6,000 secondary school pupils, to:
- Increase teachers' subject-specific confidence
- Enable teachers to bring more real-world science research into the classroom
- Improve the self-efficacy of teachers of Physics, their sense of identity as physicists, and their well-being, thus contributing to an improved rate of staff-retention in this career
- Engage secondary pupils with a unique research artefact and create a sense of ownership over their school's "patch of sky"
- Increase pupils' awareness of research science and improve their attitudes towards science
Our target audience is composed of secondary school teachers of Physics (S1-S6 in Scotland, Year 7-13 in England) and their pupils. Secondary Physics teachers tend to teach at different levels throughout their career, and the resources are not aimed at a specific curriculum level. Rather, they aim to contextualise curriculum items (such as blackbody radiation law, inverse-square law, plotting and graphing, redshift, Hubble law, storytelling, and more) with real research data and a scientific apparatus that is unique to each school. Once a teacher is comfortable with the plate and the resources, it is hoped the resources will become imbedded in their practice, and resorted to multiple times throughout the teacher's career. Our preliminary evaluation suggests that is the intention of teachers too - e.g. one teacher in one of our 2019 evaluations stated "Overall a fantastic event which has energised me to include this in as many stages of L&T as possible".
Recruitment of teachers and schools will prioritise socioeconomically deprived areas as well as geographically remote areas, both of which are underrepresented in science.
The project aims for the teachers to embed the methods and ideas of this work into their practice, so that the legacy of the project beyond the initial audience of pupils will include:
- Teachers trained, motivated and confident to bring research science into the classroom throughout their career
- Plates in secondary school Physics departments, being regularly used for classroom learning
- Resources shared publicly for any Physics teachers to use.
By providing teachers with career-long professional learning sessions (CLPL in Scotland, better known as continuing professional development, CPD, in England and Wales), the project aims to engage at least 200 teachers of Physics and through them at least 6,000 secondary school pupils, to:
- Increase teachers' subject-specific confidence
- Enable teachers to bring more real-world science research into the classroom
- Improve the self-efficacy of teachers of Physics, their sense of identity as physicists, and their well-being, thus contributing to an improved rate of staff-retention in this career
- Engage secondary pupils with a unique research artefact and create a sense of ownership over their school's "patch of sky"
- Increase pupils' awareness of research science and improve their attitudes towards science
Our target audience is composed of secondary school teachers of Physics (S1-S6 in Scotland, Year 7-13 in England) and their pupils. Secondary Physics teachers tend to teach at different levels throughout their career, and the resources are not aimed at a specific curriculum level. Rather, they aim to contextualise curriculum items (such as blackbody radiation law, inverse-square law, plotting and graphing, redshift, Hubble law, storytelling, and more) with real research data and a scientific apparatus that is unique to each school. Once a teacher is comfortable with the plate and the resources, it is hoped the resources will become imbedded in their practice, and resorted to multiple times throughout the teacher's career. Our preliminary evaluation suggests that is the intention of teachers too - e.g. one teacher in one of our 2019 evaluations stated "Overall a fantastic event which has energised me to include this in as many stages of L&T as possible".
Recruitment of teachers and schools will prioritise socioeconomically deprived areas as well as geographically remote areas, both of which are underrepresented in science.
The project aims for the teachers to embed the methods and ideas of this work into their practice, so that the legacy of the project beyond the initial audience of pupils will include:
- Teachers trained, motivated and confident to bring research science into the classroom throughout their career
- Plates in secondary school Physics departments, being regularly used for classroom learning
- Resources shared publicly for any Physics teachers to use.
Planned Impact
New resources developed during the programme by teachers, outreach officers or other partners, will be shared both across the network of participants, and publicly through the SDSS Voyages portal. The pilot programme, Plates for Education Scotland, showed that teachers and other partners always come up with unexpected ways to adapt resources and develop new activities. The legacy of the pilot programme includes two classroom activities that are now available on Voyages and being used worldwide, and new resources will be shared the same way to build on the legacy of the 'Plates for Education - UK' project.
Some resources will require a plate, and can be used by any teachers or partners worldwide with one of the thousands of Sloan plates. Other resources (e.g. those using the publicly available SDSS data online) will be suitable for any Physics teachers to use.
Alongside social media promotion of activities (e.g. with an international audience through SDSS's global public engagement work), this project is specifically designed to expand the reach of the 'Plates for Education' work by bringing in new partners such as the Ogden Trust and the universities of their outreach officers, which will be utilised to raise awareness and disseminate work across a much broader audience of UK Physics teachers.
Some resources will require a plate, and can be used by any teachers or partners worldwide with one of the thousands of Sloan plates. Other resources (e.g. those using the publicly available SDSS data online) will be suitable for any Physics teachers to use.
Alongside social media promotion of activities (e.g. with an international audience through SDSS's global public engagement work), this project is specifically designed to expand the reach of the 'Plates for Education' work by bringing in new partners such as the Ogden Trust and the universities of their outreach officers, which will be utilised to raise awareness and disseminate work across a much broader audience of UK Physics teachers.
| Description | IoP Scotland |
| Organisation | Institute of Physics in Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have provided expertise and materials to help IOP Scotland Physics Teachers Coaches organise their own professional development sessions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They are widening our network and audience of Physics teachers in Scotland. |
| Impact | None yet. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | SSERC |
| Organisation | Scottish Schools Education Research Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Our team provided expertise in Astronomy research data, so that together we could provide high-quality educational materials underpin by real data. |
| Collaborator Contribution | SSERC provided facilities and access to a network of Physics teachers in Scotland. |
| Impact | Delivered a professional development session together, for Physics teachers in Scotland (Nov 2022). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Plates for Education professional development sessions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Teachers attended our workshops and received resources to use in their classroom. Feedback was positive, with 88% of reporting teachers stating they have already used our resources in their classroom, reaching a total of 657 pupils, and 94.3% agreeing that participating in our training was beneficial to them, to their pupils, and that they would recommend the programme to their colleagues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |