Memorandum 22
Submission from the Royal Institution
of Great Britain
The Royal Institution (Ri) was founded in 1799
and over the years has grown significantly in size, breadth of
activity and profile from within its original, elegant central
London townhouse. The Ri's events are open to everyone, and now
with over 3000 individual members, fourteen corporate members
and in excess of fifty event partners, the Ri offers unlimited
access for many thousands of people to encounter "real"
science.
Over 30,000 children and tens of thousands of
adults attend our varied programme of public lectures and events
each year. In recent years, the Ri has covered a huge range of
relevant topics, from cutting-edge discoveries in chemistry and
physics, to debates on genetics and other medical and health issues,
the application of the latest technological advancements to our
everyday lives, exploring the symbiosis between science and arts,
discussions about travelling to outer space, and even the science
of ice cream!
The Ri is particularly committed to increasing
access to science for young people. In fact, Michael Faraday himself
inaugurated the very first science lectures for young people in
the 1820s, and since then our work with schools has been at the
heart of our success. Our Science for Schools (SfS) programme
comprises special events for primary, secondary and 16+ school
groups, including science talks; thousands of children come through
our doors via the SfS programme every year. The aim of these unique
events is to get children excited about science, technology and
maths, aware of their impact on their everyday lives and to consider
a career in science as a viable option.
Some of the most successful and popular events
that we have run as part of the SfS programme have covered human
space flight, the science, engineering and technology required
to take humans into space and highlighting the diversity of disciplines
involved in one mission. In 2005, we ran a few events given by
Dr Kevin Fong from the Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme
environment medicine. We found that the students not only responded
to his delivery style, but also that the focus of the event on
a highly inspiring topic made learning complex science much easier
than it otherwise would have been.
Using the focus of human space flight made learning
about physics (eg trajectories of planets and spacecrafts, the
solar system, rockets, etc), biology (eg how the human body works
and the effects of zero gravity) and chemistry (eg chemical composition
of rocket fuel) easier for the majority of students than it otherwise
would have been. Having the benefit of input from scientists actually
involved in human space flight added to the quality of the experience,
and helped raise students aspirations to envisage themselves taking
part in similar programmes. From our involvement with scientists
involved in human space flight programmes, we feel that the motivational
benefit for UK students is enormous and can only have a positive
impact on the UK skills base.
October 2006
|
