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Special Projects
This page aims to give a flavour of just some of the Special projects
At-Bristol has developed or been involved with over the past few
years. Whether local or European-wide, a one-off event or a
3-year pioneering project, this page showcases the wide-ranging nature
of At-Bristol's work.
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Meet the Gene Machine
Meet the Gene Machine was initially
an outreach project designed to engage young people and teachers
in debate around the social and ethical implications raised by
advances in medical genetics. Through a combination of fast paced
humour and engaging debate, the project created opportunities for
Key Stage 4 and post-16 students to discuss such issues and gave
teachers support in leading classroom activities that stimulate
discussion on the human implications of science.
It is still being run as a workshop activity as part of Explore's
learning programme - click here
for more information.
For further details of the outreach element of the project, which
has now finished, please click here. |
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ALTER-Net - A Long-Term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research
Network
ALTER-Net is a Network of Excellence: its 24 partner
institutes from 17 European countries are aiming to build lasting
integration of biodiversity research, monitoring and communication
capacity.
www.alter-net.info/
At-Bristol is leading a work package that seeks to build a sustainable
relationship between biodiversity scientists, science centres and the
public.
Click here for good practice guidelines in biodiversity communication
with the public
www.at-bristol.org.uk/alternet/
Click here to visit the International Press Centre for Biodiversity
www.biodiversityresearch.net/ |
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SWEEP –
Sustainable Waste Exhibition and Education Programme
The SWEEP learning programme is an innovative project that aims to
engage individuals in key issues relating to waste management and
sustainability. By establishing such issues within the context of
broader aspects of biodiversity and sustainability, and by centring
the whole within the exciting and stimulating At-Bristol learning
environment, we aim to raise awareness and increase understanding of
the principles of sustainable waste management and effect change in
people's attitudes and behaviour.
Click here for more information. |
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Citizen
Science
CitizenScience was a pioneering three year
project supported by the Wellcome Trust, that explored ways of
engaging young people in discussion about bio-medical issues. Using
past project experience, a number of resources have been created that
aim to support teachers and other education professionals in running
debate and discussion events. These resources include the recently
published Discover Debate Decide: Who Should Get IVF lesson plan, and
are downloadable for free from the
CitizenScience website. Also available on the website is
information about the CPD sessions run through the Science Learning
Centre South West, focussing on Debating Controversial Issues and the
wide variety of events run over the course of the project. |
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Your Amazing Brain
A web site where you can explore your
brain, take part in real-life experiments and test yourself with our
games, illusions and brain-benders.
This web site will grow over the next few
years taking experiments, debates and elements of the ‘Your amazing
brain’ exhibition area of Explore At-Bristol to people around the
world.
Created by At-Bristol and supported by
The Wellcome Trust. |
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Illuminate
The Illuminate
project developed two new schools workshops on light for At-Bristol.
As part of the project we created eight purpose-built exhibits
to take into classrooms. Each exhibit allowed students the opportunity
to explore the fascinating world of light and its many uses.
Light
fantastic was aimed at key stage 3 students, looking at reflection,
refraction and colour mixing. On your wavelength was
for key stage 4 students and concentrated on light as a wave, as
well as looking at the electromagnetic spectrum.
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NewMediaLab NewMediaLab activities included digital
video and audio production, computer animation, web design and
CD production, digital imaging and interactive gaming, live
web-casting and more!
At-Bristol's exciting programme of activities for young people
aged 14 to 24 produced some fantastic results.
NewMediaLab is funded by Lloyds
TSB and supported by Connexions West of England. |
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Bionet
A multi-lingual web site that lets you
explore and debate the latest discoveries in life sciences.
Created by eight European science centres
and museums and by
ECSITE, Bionet is presented in nine different languages. You can
explore the science, look at the ethical issues, compare the laws in
different countries, play games and express your opinions.
Supported by the European Commission. |
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Afrikan Science
A
web site celebrating the contribution
towards science, engineering and technology by Afrikan heritage
people.
The web site was made
with the help of a group of young people aged 7 - 15, to raise the
profile of these important achievements.
Funded by the Denman
Charitable Trust, with additional support provided by Bristol
Education Action Zone, St Pauls Carnival, Cole Productions and Bristol
2008. |
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A
Slice of Time
A video diary of a recurring dream
produced in a week of workshops and activities by a team of 13
trainees from 3 Bristol schools alongside Tim Macmillan, founder of
Time-Slice Films Ltd.
The themes
of the film were dreams and the hour of 5am. The week-long course was
run as part of At-Bristol's season of special-fx events, running over
the autumn half term from 19 October - 10 November 2002.
Supported by Central and North Bristol
Education Action Zone. Funded by the Denman Charitable Trust. |
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Feel
the Force
A resource pack for Key Stage 2 teachers
providing a selection of resources to help teach forces and motion
and design and technology.
Developed by At-Bristol with the support of the Medlock Trust, The
Chartered Surveyors' Company and Ove Arup and the involvement of
teachers from Bristol City, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East
Somerset and North Somerset councils.
Feel the Force sought to exploit the
interface between the science and design technology curricula. It
concentrated on practical applications illustrated through the theme
of Forces and Motion and used the exhibitions of At-Bristol as the
starting point. |
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Soundspace
Soundspace was a unique course, which
aimed to give 10 trainees skills in music production, digital
animation and web authoring.
The
course was aimed at 16-24 year olds who were not in full-time
education or employment, and was run over a period of seven weeks part
time, three days a week from March - May 2002.
The scheme was supported by Bristol
City Council, The Learning and Skills Council and Bridging the Gap,
and was set-up as a pilot project with the aim of running a wide range
of similar courses from 2002 onwards. |
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Stirring Stuff
Stirring stuff was a series of
workshops based in At-Bristol's state of the art Solutions laboratory.
From isolating your own DNA and solving
crimes using forensic science to molecular modelling and intelligent
materials, each workshop provided the chance to try out
real-world scientific techniques and explore the way science affects
life.
Stirring stuff was supported by
GlaxoSmithKline and
equipment was provided by
Amersham
Biosciences. |
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Naturally Newton
An exciting project using hands-on
exhibits in Explore-At-Bristol and workshops to investigate
Newton's laws of motion.
The Naturally Newton project was funded by the Gatsby Charitable
Foundation. Using hands on exhibits and workshops students can get
a real feel for Newton's laws of motion.
By mid-March 2002 over 200 secondary students from
all over the Bristol area had attended a Naturally Newton
workshop. |
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Brain Games 1 & 2
Brain Games was a creative learning
programme for Year 5 - 9 pupils (10-14 year olds). The programme
was designed by At-Bristol and delivered with partners across
the UK.
Pupils worked in teams
of five throughout the week. Each team had an adult mentor. Their
challenge was to create a Brain Game - any game that makes the
players think.
The pilot project was designed and
delivered in Explore At-Bristol in November 2000, with Brain games
phase 2 workshops taking place from March 2002. |
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Pacesetters
Aimed at enhancing the literacy and numeracy
skills of parents and to give them an opportunity to work with
their children in innovative and exciting ways, using computers
and ICT.
At-Bristol was
funded by WEAZ (the Weston Education Achievement Zone -
established by The Department for Education and Skills) to run a
series of these Pacesetter courses with Broadoak Community School,
Priory Community School in Weston-Super-Mare and Milton Infants
School. |
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Space Day
As part of the series of At-Bristol
sciZmic
events over 60 participants from local primary schools (years 5-7)
attended our Space day event in May 2002.
They tested lots of space activities, including designing and
launching rockets, writing postcards from different
planetary holiday destinations, and debating controversial issues
relating to space and extraterrestrial life. |
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Cities of Science
Cities of Science celebrated what
science does for our cities and what these cities do for
science. Members of the public were encouraged to create their own entries to the site,
and discover the science behind and around every day life in
the
city.
At-Bristol is co-ordinated the South
West Cities of Science site. |
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