13 December 2019
Terrific Tuesday was the most ambitious day of events yet scheduled by the ASP team, supported by everyone from our Student Ambassadors, technicians and teaching staff to the porters, cleaners and bus companies who help with smooth running of our events. During the day there were three science workshops for local, primary partners. Dunmore’s Year 6 experienced the Heart and Circulation workshop led by Dr Jeffreys, whilst coaches brought in Sunningwell’s Year 5 and 6 to carry out a CSI YSC investigation with Richard Fisher.
Wootton’s Year 1 and Reception looked at Light and Shadow with Jeremy Thomas. ASP Assistant, Megan Milarski, ran around between all three providing invaluable support wherever it was needed. After a brief rest, the ASP team was back in action with the Student Ambassadors running their last Primary Science Club session of the term, supervised by Dr Howe and Mr Goodman, and ending with a great send off for our longest serving Senior Ambassador, Lloyd Langley, who will be stepping down to focus on his A-levels next term after three years service to the Club.
Tuesday was not the only challenge of the week though, with a visit to Northbourne Primary School in Didcot on Wednesday to run three, consecutive sessions for the Year 4 classes on The Water Cycle. Wednesday also saw a practical observing session at the end of the day for GCSE Astronomy students from John Mason and Europa Schools, assessing the effects of light pollution on observing conditions around the YSC.
Thursday saw the second workshop in the growing collaboration between ASP and the STEM team at Oxfordshire Hospital School. This time the workshop took place at OHS’s Highfield Unit at Warneford Hospital, working with young people and the OHS staff on a CREST Discovery Award project to investigate the science and to raise awareness of ocean acidification. Several young people engaged with the project and enjoyed the investigations, working around appointments with their medical care team and other activities on offer during the day. All of them were interested in the topic and made valuable contributions to discussions and ideas covered.
The week ended with ASP’s first trip overseas, to deliver a workshop for the Isle of Wight’s Ogden Trust Primary Science Partnership, building on the experience of training members of our own Abingdon Primary Science Partnership in October. So 2019 has been as busy a year as ever for the ASP team who are looking forward to a well deserved break before returning to start afresh in 2020 with a special focus on an even bigger and better ATOM Festival of Science and Technology coming to venues all over Abingdon from 14 to 22 March.
