Netgains

Promoting STEM careers

Hosted by the Science Council, this new online careers resource is part of the Government's national campaign to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. The site brings together videos, interactive activities and quizzes which aim to highlight to 11-19-year olds the career opportunities open to them if they study STEM subjects. The materials are collected together in six categories: 11-14, 14-16, 16-19+, parents, teachers, and careers staff.   

Futuremorph website

The teachers' resources are designed to help introduce real jobs as contexts in the teaching of science. There are 10 short videos featuring interviews with people in a variety of careers which involve using science and maths, eg a glass artist and a football club physiotherapist. Each video is accompanied by a practical activity for 11-14-year olds which is mapped against the Key Stage 3 Science programme of study and the Scottish equivalent. A list of six career contexts, which covers living things, environmental science, energy and motion, natural and man-made materials, Earth and space, and communication technology, gives examples of the range of jobs in each area, the knowledge and skills required for each job, and reasons for why the jobs are important. Other resources include presentations, which teachers can adapt and use to promote science and maths in their schools and colleges.   

Available to download from the website, the teachers' material will also be distributed to all secondary schools and colleges as a CD-ROM- booklet pack in early 2009. 

Spectraschool2

Early January will see the relaunch of the SpectraSchool website, part of the Spectroscopy in a suitcase (SIAS) project of the RSC-led Chemistry for our future (CFOF) programme funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). First launched in January 2008 and hosted by the University of Leicester, the website provides teachers with access to real infrared, uv-visible, nmr and mass spectral data from a library of over 50 compounds.   

The revamped website will feature several new features, including: 

  • 13 C-nmr spectra for compounds in the library; 
  • integration traces for the compounds' nmr spectra; 
  • animations of molecular processes, eg bond vibrations, fragmentations etc. 

New copy and paste functions will allow teachers to incorporate into their own teaching materials graphs and spectral data from the site.