Schools Outreach:

1
Schools Outreach

• The Manchester Experience
• Emma Lewis, School of Materials
• Manchester, UK

2
Schools Outreach at Manchester

• Including
• EPSRC Partnerships in Public Engagement (PPE)
  and Partnership for Public Awareness (PPA) awards
• Experience from PPA award holder
• Schools Liaison Activities
• Future plans

3
PPA Awards

• Several EPSRC PPA awards in Manchester including
• Bob Freer Why mobile phones depend upon
  ceramics (exhibition display)
• Stuart Lyon From the wee bang to the big crunch
  bursting boilers, sinking ships and the
  Potential that Stops Corrosion
• This talk includes experience gathered from the
  last project by Dr. Lyon who is unable to attend.

4
the potential that stops corrosion

• PPA award to Corrosion and Protection Centre,
  2004-2007.
• Concerned with teaching cathodic protection to
  students.
• Message - cathodic protection is the potential
  that stops corrosion
• Dr S. Lyons experience in this project

5
Cathodic protection for steel

• Sacrificial anode
• Use an active metal (e.g. zinc, aluminium or
  magnesium) to sacrificially corrode, thus
  protecting steel structures
• Invented by Humphrey Davy using zinc or scrap
  iron to protect copper sheathed hulls from copper
  corrosion worked but increased the fouling!
• Impressed current
• Same idea but use external power source instead
  of sacrificial anodes

6
Guadalajara gas explosion

• Explosion in Guadalajara, Mexico, killed over 100
  people and devastated about 12 km along a road.

• Caused by corroded fuel pipe releasing gasoline
  (petrol) into the sewers.
• Spark caused ignition of fuel-air mixture massive
  explosion

Devastation in Guadalajara
7
Interaction with schools

• Use Guadalajara explosion to teach about
  corrosion within context of PPA award

• Firstly, explosions grab school students
  attention
• Secondly, fuel leak was definitively caused by
  corrosion.
• Thirdly, corrosion could have been prevented by
  correct application of cathodic protection

Corroded pipe from Guadalajara explosion
8
Our teaching materials

• Build a battery from household materials
  (aluminium foil, washing soda and Brillo pads or
  iron wool)
• Edited video of Guadalajara explosion from the
  National Geographic Countdown to Disaster
  series
• Web-based demonstration of cathodic protection
• Hands-on demonstration of cathodic protection as
  a longer-term project.

9
Timing and Teachers

• Need in-school contacts
• SET Networks Excellent
• Contacts from previous events, WP office,
  Ex-students
• Timetables jam-packedexcept between Key Stages 3
  and 4 where KS3 ends about 4 weeks before summer
  term and KS4 is not usually started until the
  following autumn term
• For us this identified time of year and age range
  to target

10
Teaching materials

• Material has to grab the students teachers
  attention.
• For teachers
• Relevancy to National Curriculum is most
  important
• Topics in the new science GCSE Topic 8 How
  Fast? How Furious?
• Ever wondered?
• Why does my car rust?
• How can I make reactions happen faster?
• Explain the effect of, and describe experiments
  to investigate, changes in temperature,
  concentration and surface area of a solid on a
  given rate of reaction
• For school students
• Something disastrous, visual and hands-on is
  good (they get very little hands on stuff these
  days apparently)

11
Safety

• If using hands-on demonstrations or
  experiments, safety is paramount
• COSSH, and laboratory and experiment hazard
  assessments are essential
• However some teachers dont understand hazards
  well
• One school was quite happy to slosh around 10
  sulphuric acid but 0.5M sodium carbonate (washing
  soda) got them very worried indeed (in fact the
  hazard is much less in the latter case).

12
Our PPA project results

• We have trailed most of the materials in schools
  or at Science Week (or similar)
• Trailing is essential most of our initial ideas
  didnt work at all!
• We will (hopefully) present the materials in
  schools this summer to students at the KS3/4
  boundary.
• Use PG research students to do this.

13
Final words from Stuart Lyon

• Its very difficult getting stuff into schools
• Often annoying and frustrating especially when
  your carefully designed experiment, the one that
  worked perfectly yesterday, fails in the
  classroom
• Little kids (and bigger ones too) are more
  terrifying in the classroom than I thought
• Very satisfying when it all goes to plan
• Its the right thing to do.

14
PPE Awards

• So you think you can design a Jet Engine?!
• 3D Journey Through a Jet Engine
• Engine designer challenge
• Manchester Materials Master Cards
• Link with Manchester Science and Industry Museum
• Internet microscope (old PPA award)
• Schools Liaison Activity
• Curriculum tie-ins
• Educational Resources
• Materials box
• CD ROM

15
Journey Through a Jet Engine

• Royal Society Summer Science exhibition
• Glasgow Science Exhibition
• Buckingham Palace Science Day
• Manchester Science and Industry Museum
• Tool for showing materials choices and
  applications
• Innovative, engaging delivery

16
Selection of Current Schools Liaison Activities

• Science Week Sessions
• Nuffield Placements
• SetPoint Challenge
• Guest Lecture Series
• School tours

17
Future Plans

• Christmas Lectures
• SEM use
• Careers Advisors Sessions
• Careers guide
• Industrial Trust
• Teacher Information Events
• Materials taster sessions
• Curriculum tie-ins
• Forming, Joining and Finishing of materials for
  automotive applications

18
My experience so far

• Teachers keen to learn more about cutting edge
  science and research
• Wed definitely be interested in working with
  Materials
• I would be very interested in a session for
  teachers as materials is the area of the course
  where I am least competent (Head of Science)
• Real interest to learn about career paths within
  SET
• Heightened profile in Materials Science within
  (some) curriculum specs
• Incredibly high level of student engagement, and
  progression to PG study

19
Challenges

• Interactivity and level of delivery
• Lack of recognition of discipline

20
Finally

• Appreciation of the need to Outreach
• The University of Manchester has set Outreach,
  Widening Participation and Science Communication
  as high areas of activity in the recent past.
• Demonstration of the realisation of the
  importance of promoting awareness of Materials
  Science and research in Universities to a wider
  audience.
• NOT (just) RECRUITMENT!!
• Public awareness and understanding of science
  research advances