UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Awarded to: John Begg
Institution: University of Derby
Funded in: 2002
Project description: The project aims to make up and test resource boxes for three groups of children corresponding to KS2, KS3 and KS4 levels focussing on materials.
Background: There are thought to be in the region of 150,000 home-educated children in the UK. Reasons for home education are many but in a significant proportion of cases this is due to the child having Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Children diagnosed with this condition often have considerable aptitude for science and engineering [ref. Asperger's Syndrome - A guide for Parents and Professionals by Tony Atwood].
Home educating parents and guardians typically arrange themselves into local groups, which meet twice monthly. They communicate via Internet newsgroups and have many science-based resources available to them on the web, e.g. einstein on line. They however lack hands-on resources to use at their meetings. Occasionally groups hire guest presenters for science days, but the cost has to be borne by the parents or guardians. Recently organisations like the National Space Centre and Birmingham Science Museum have made available resource boxes (at a small charge) for groups, such as home educators, to use. These are becoming increasingly popular.
The idea behind this proposal is to make up and test resource boxes for three groups of children corresponding to KS2, KS3, and KS4 levels focussing on materials. (Home educators are not required to follow the national curriculum but learning is normally aligned to it.) It is envisaged that the boxes might contain samples, activities and experiments, which could be carried out in a non-school environment, but would appeal to the home-educated children and their learning styles.
Objectives: The aims of the project are:
