We believe that one of the best ways to enthuse primary and secondary school students about science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is for our scientists, technicians and others to engage
with the students in school during lesson time, in after-school activities, and at
agricultural shows. We
also invite primary school children to visit our Farm Science Visitor Centre situated near our Compton
(Berkshire) campus. Although our forte is the science that underpins the health of livestock, we can and do
contribute to broader biological topics. For example, we have assisted during
Sixth Form biology lessons
involving molecular biological techniques, in a primary school's
Science Club,
and a primary school's
Science Day, to which parents had been invited.
Darwin: natural selection
We have developed a set of four activities that vividly illustrate natural selection, principally for use in
primary schools. This activity can be taken into schools at any time, either in whole or in part. For example,
although we use the development of antibiotic resistance to demonstrate rapid evolution of bacteria in our own
time, our interactive demonstration is equally relevant to Key Stage 2 topics Micro-organisms and Keeping
Healthy.
More...
Farm Science Visitor Centre
We have created a Farm Science Visitor Centre in the Dairy of
our farm at
Compton, Berkshire. The theme is "Meadow to Milk; the science and technology of milk production". This
activity is relevant to a number of Key Stage 2 topics, including Keeping Healthy, Life Cycles, and
Micro-organisms.
More...
Ticks and midges spread diseases
Miriam Windsor at our Pirbright Laboratory is the driver behind this activity, which involves looking down
microscopes at midges and ticks that we raise in our Insectary. It has become especially topical as
bluetongue virus, spread by biting midges, came to the UK for the first time in 2007. This activity is
relevant to a number of Key Stage 2 topics, including Keeping Healthy and Micro-organisms
More....
Culicoides midges spread bluetongue virus and other viruses e.g. African horse sickness virus. Two videos
are available, showing how and why IAH scientists capture midges in the field.
DNA - the recipe for life
Another activity that we do, in primary schools, is built around the concept "DNA" the recipe for life.
We give the children a T-shirt on which there is a large A, C, G or T, representing the four building blocks
of genes. The children then act as DNA molecules.
More...
How Science Works
For secondary school students in Berkshire and Oxfordshire we participate in the How Science Works scheme
of the Oxford Education Business Partnership. Our scientists from our Compton Laboratory engage with a class
of students for up to half an hour, then repeat the process with up to 10 classes. The scientists explain
what drew them to a career, in our case, in biological sciences, and describe some aspects of their working
life in a laboratory. The aim of the scheme is to show students that there is a huge array of careers to be
had in science, engineering and technology, to suit myriad talents. We are also engaging with Surrey SATRO
to provide schools in Surrey with visits from scientists and technicians at our Pirbright Laboratory.