Oxford University and OISSP pull out the stops for Oxfordshire Teachers at the annual Schools Science Teachers' Festival Thursday 16th June 2011
The Difference in Girls and Boys Brains: Does it Matter?
This was the fascinating question addressed by Professor Gina Rippon in front of an audience of Oxfordshire Science teachers. Festival lecturer, Gina Rippon, Professor of Cognitive Imaging at Aston University, made the headlines in 2010 when she dismissed the idea that women's brains are wired differently from men's as "patronising nonsense." Evidence and clear facts gave an intrigued Oxfordshire gathering the chance to consider how traditional stereotyping of girls and boys and the way that tasks are presented to them are as significant to their success in learning as the very small structural differences between male and female brains in terms of size and amount of grey and white matter. Teachers left with some fresh insight on how to raise achievement all round.
Tom Kempton, Project Director for OISSP commented, 'Professor Ripon showed us that the small differences should not be a barrier to girls choosing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. She also helped to debunk the 'neurotrash' reported in some popular publications'.
Earlier on at the Science Teachers' Festival, guests from all schools right across Oxfordshire were able to tour the museum, visit the Huxley Room where the famous evolution debate took place 150 years ago and see the swifts breeding on the new video cameras in the tower of the museum. Some teachers who attended even had a chance to handle the weird and wonderful insects from the insect collection. The tour the university Philip Wetton telescope was also very popular. With its fabulously positioned location, this marvellous observatory at the top of the Denys Wilkinson Building in Keble Road is the first new observatory built in Oxford for over a century.
Teachers were treated to a demonstration of optics and the Camera Obscura exhibits from the Oxford Museum of History of Science and went on to take part in the Science Oxford 'Science Game Show', an entertaining display of demonstrations that may be new to the school science lab. Highlights of the evening included presentations to Didcot Girls' School and Cokethorpe School award winners of competitions run through the new online resource Sciencebook www.sciencebook.org.uk. This resource, free to Oxfordshire schools has been developed and launched by OISSP this term with the support of The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford. Teachers also found out how Sciencebook can be used to inspire pupils' interest in science subjects and their understanding of the science of sustainability, innovation and climate change.
The Strolling Players drama 'The Table Turned' provided an entertaining look at the ways in which Victorian scientists investigated the séances that were so popular in the 1860s and inspired teachers to consider the question, 'How are facts made in science?' Schools have been inviting in The Strolling Players to explore the history of science and invention with their pupils.
During this lively evening event, science teachers were able to pick up a wide range of current information from stands provided by the Association of Science Education, Science Oxford, Oxford University Physics Department, South East Science Learning Centre, Oxford Museum of the History of Science and www.sciencebook.org.uk among others.