Investment in science
Wednesday 09 July 2008
Scotland's science centres are to receive additional funding of £250,000 this year in a bid to get more young people switched on to the world of physics, engineering and technology.
The science centres will make bids to the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) for the funding. The funds will be used to enhance primary teachers' delivery of Curriculum for Excellence, the Government's new approach to learning and teaching for 3 to 18-year-olds.
Last month, the 2007 Scottish Survey of Achievement in Science highlighted that too few Primary 4-7 pupils were achieving expected levels in science in the classroom. The new funding will go some way to address these concerns by improving the learning experience for young people in physical sciences and technology.
The Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) is funded by Scottish Government with a grant of £2.1m over the coming three years, as previously announced. This supports a series of residential and day courses to demonstrate interactive approaches to science teaching that focus on practical work with strong links to Curriculum for Excellence. It will enable the science centres to play a complementary role alongside SSERC's activities to deliver training to teachers in primary schools.
Scotland's science centres are: Our Dynamic Earth (Edinburgh), Glasgow Science Centre, Sensation (Dundee) and Satrosphere (Aberdeen).
The Scottish Government recently announced the introduction of the Scottish Science Baccalaureate which aims to encourage more of our young people to study science in S5 and S6. The draft experiences and outcomes for science were the first to be released under Curriculum for Excellence and the feedback on these, together with input from Scottish science organisations, is being used to finalise the science outcomes.