Archive for the ‘Super Learning days’ Category
Matrix in the Museum 2012
Posted on: July 31, 2012
Making a Cartilage model
On 10th, 12th and 13th July, the Manchester Museum hosted our annual ‘Matrix in the Museum’ events which are run in partnership with the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research in the Faculty of Life Sciences. This year we had three schools visiting over the week; Stretford High School, Manchester Academy and All Hallows RC High School, all bringing year 8 classes to take part in the days’ activities.
The students were split into 5 teams for the day; Team Mucus, Team DNA, Team Cell, Team Cartilage and Team Matrix, all with a research scientist as their team leader. The day started by having a tour of the research laboratories in the Michael Smith building. The students get to see real scientists at work and find out about the work that they do. It was then over to the Manchester Museum to complete their team challenges!
Each team had a different challenge to do about their respective area of research i.e. team name, from making a model, to writing a song/poem or rap to preparing a presentation to show the rest of the class. The students worked brilliantly to complete these challenges, coming up with some fantastic ideas and creative ways to showcase what they have learnt. After lunch, during their final preparations, two ‘judges’ or Professor and research group leaders came round to talk to the students about what they had been doing over the course of the day.
Team DNA (Team Pro) from Manchester Academy with Dr Keith Brennan and Dr Pat Caswell
It was then time to show off the work they had been doing. Each team presented their topic to the judges and the rest of the group and demonstrated their model and song/rap/poem. The judges then had to pick a winner – itwas often a very tough decision with all groups performing really well and showing how much they have leant from the day. A special mention has to go to Team DNA or Team Pro as they were known from Manchester Academy whose constant energy and enthusiasm throughout the whole day was just fantastic! It was a brilliant few days and I hope the students enjoyed as much as we did!
Thank you to all students, researchers and PI’s that took part which made it such a successful event.
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- Team DNA (Team Pro) from Manchester Academy with their prize and Dr Keith Brennan
Enrichment Day
Posted on: June 20, 2012
On Friday 15th June The Manchester Museum became a hive of activity when Burnage Media Arts College brought 90 (yes, you read that right: Ninety!) of their Key Stage Three students to take part in our Enrichment Day activities.
It was an intense, yet immensely fun day. The students were split into six groups of fifteen students, each with a tutor to supervise, and they took part in four out of six Enrichment Day activities on offer throughout the day. These consisted of:
Minerals and Me!: Students were encouraged to explore the differences between rocks and minerals and challenged to identify which raw materials make up a variety of everday objects
Creative Thinking: Using our anthropology collection as inspiration students created their own masks to celebrate the Jubilee and Olymipics
The Money Game: Students put their skills to the test in this fast-paced competition in our Money Gallery. First team to complete as many challanges correctly had the honour of being named ‘champion’!
Mystery Animals: Using the Living Worlds gallery students used their own investigative skills in order to identify a mystery animal in our collection.
Dinosaur Footprints: How long a stride does Stan, our T-Rex, have? Students answered this question, and more, by examining different dinosaur footprints and concluding if they were walking, trotting or running. They were also able to predict scenarios suggesting how the footprints were made all those millions of years ago.
Finding Frogs: With our fantastic live animal collection students were encouraged to find out more about frogs and their unique adaptations, in addition to discussing issues around habitat loss. Then, if they were lucky, they got to meet one of our residents!
Here at the Museum we really enjoyed it – it was great to see so many students taking part in various activites and engaging with so much of our collection all in one day. To close, I’ll let you read what two of the teachers concluded about the day:
Museum staff were amazing: really flexible and enthusiastic – could not do enough for us as staff and the boys. Thank you!
Educational: students taught about different ideas. Very enjoyable!
Cells, Senses and C.Elegans and GCSE Body Experience – collaboration with undergraduate students from FLS
Posted on: June 5, 2012
Back in March, we hosted two special days aimed at KS4 and A-Level students. We had been working closely with 3rd year undergraduate students from Faculty of Life Sciences from University of Manchester who had been developing activities to be delivered in the museum during these bespoke events.
The first one, on 9th March was entitled ‘GCSE Body Experience’ where 80 students from St Peters RC School, West Hill School, Rydal Penrhos School and St James RC School attended The students took part in workshops exploring different parts of the body, from eyes and ears to gut and immune system. Some comments from teachers that attended are below:
“Well researched, well presented in a logical progression. Challenged students and extended them. Students were engaged and on board” Teacher, Rydal Penrhos.
The A-Level event ‘Cells, Senses and C.Elegans’ was a couple of weeks later on 22nd March. 85 students came along from Holy Cross College, Cardinal Newman College and Sedburgh School. The workshops included topics such as HIV, embryonic development, C.elegans and oogenesis. Some teacher comments about the event are below:
“The students were fully engaged and could relate to a lot of the content as well as gain further insight into the subject” Teacher, Cardinal Newman College
“Excellent materials and presentation. A totally new topic which made my students think!” Teacher, Sedburgh School
James, one of the undergrads involved gives his thoughts below:
“My initial thought was that the museum would be an easier choice, until I realised I would have to interact with GCSE and A-Level pupils which I haven’t done since I was one of them! It became daunting very quickly but after working with the museum staff and developing a resource which I was confident in, my jitters subsided…slightly. Each group and especially each year group was very different and it required lots of on the spot thinking – something which became easier the more time I did the activities. From the responses I got, the students had a great time, not just at my session but at all the sessions. I learnt a lot about myself and about how to overcome obstacles, and ended up with sessions that I am proud of!” James Topham, 3rd Year undergraduate at The University of Manchester
Overall, it was a really successful event in which both the students delivering the activities and students attending both really enjoyed the events. We will be running these days again next year, so look out for them being advertised if you are interested in bringing your students to this unique day.
Some pictures of the events are in the gallery below:
Dinosaur Super Learning Day
Posted on: April 14, 2010
'Stan' at the Manchester Museum
On Friday 19th March we had a really fun and successful Dinosaur Super Learning Day. 70 Y1 and Y2 pupils joined Hannah, Vicky and I in the Museum for a jam packed day of dinosaur related activities. With assistance from Anna and Louise, some of our student helpers, the pupils participated in a carousel of four activities that included creating, naming and drawing their own dinosaur, a dinosaur dig and exploring the Pre-historic Life gallery.
The day began at 10am and by 2pm all the pupils were on their way to becoming fully fledged palaeontologists! Although we were all exhausted, we were really pleased with how successful the day had been. We are hoping to run more Dinosaur Super Learning Days in the Summer term and for more information or to book a date, please ring Nora on 0161 275 2630.
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