On Friday, I was lucky (hmmm...) enough to be asked to go on a school trip with the year 7 & 8 science clubs that I help out with. The trip was to a science fair hosted as part of the STEM clubs group (STEM is science, technology, engineering and math, as I discovered!). The fair was an opportunity to show what we had been doing over the past year and meet (and steal ideas from) other schools also involved. Also there were the MoD, the institute of physics, an aeronautics group (involved in the flying start challenge our year 9's took part in) and the Bloodhound team with the scale model of the car they hope will break the land speed record!
It was great fun and good to "network" but it was also slightly strange. It's the first time I'd been on a school trip in over 5 years and the first time I was there as a "responsible adult" (gulp!). It was a chance to get to know two of my collegues better as there was a fair bit of waiting around, and a rock physics lecture (about the physics of rock music, not stones), taken by a Dr Lewney, where Becky and I were in our element! It was also impressive (I think that's the best word) that one of our kids managed to get the number of a girl from one of the other schools!!
I'd been having a rather bad week at work, so being able to do science, get ideas and relax a bit more than normal and get paid for it was a real relief. Next time though, can we leave the kids behind?? Actually, next year I think that it's our turn to plan and host it...we have quite a challenge ahead of us!
We also had a bit of excitment today. One of the year 7 science club projects has been hatching chicken eggs. For the past three ish weeks we'd had these eggs incubating in our prep room, and had pretty much given up all hope of them hatching. The school doesn't have the best track record. So imagine my surprise and excitement when one of the teachers simply said this morning "aparrently it'll be ok to move the two chicks into the incubator in a bit." wow!! Over the weekend four of the chicks had hatched!! And they are totally adorable, but really distracting as they sit and cheep on the side! One of them has a bit of a dodgy leg so has been removed of extra special treatment but the others are all healthy. Now we need to name them...! Any ideas?
That's it for now,
Clare xx
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
6 Months
I have been meaning to up date this blog about 2 or 3 times since October, but seem to have got distracted by everything else. Really sorry, I'm not going to make any promises about blogging more regularly, as I'm not entirely sure what to blog about. I can keep putting up my news, but is there more that I can use this blog for?
News time then. I am now employed, as a Science Technician in a South Gloucestershire school. I started back in November, (2nd November to be precise!) and I'm finding it great. There are stresses that come with working in a school, no money left in the budget, teachers changing their minds 5 minuets before they need equipment, and kids coming and disturbing us regularly because they need a pen or pencil! But the staff are great. I'm part of a team of 5 technicians, which is higher than most schools, one of whom is part time. We get on, have a laugh and still manage to get the work done. The teachers are also great, as long as you don't catch them in a highly stressful situation. Of course two great things about working in a school are fixed holidays, and every weekend off!
I am still involved in the Bristol Nights project, going out once every 6 weeks to give tea and coffee to anyone in the city centre who is around between midnight and 3 and would like one. A few months back, our generator broke down, it was spitting out sparks and plumes of black smoke, so we were having to use gas to boil our kettles, which slowed the process down slightly. It also meant that we haven't had any external light available. But we managed. The good news is that a new generator arrived in Bristol a few weeks ago, and is being installed on the bus. So we're praying that installation goes well, and we can have electricity when we next go out on the 10th April.
I'm going to stop there, I was hoping to finish on something interesting and thought provoking, but there's nothing that springs to mind right now, but who knows, I may be back soon with something more interesting!
Take care and God bless
Ruth xx
News time then. I am now employed, as a Science Technician in a South Gloucestershire school. I started back in November, (2nd November to be precise!) and I'm finding it great. There are stresses that come with working in a school, no money left in the budget, teachers changing their minds 5 minuets before they need equipment, and kids coming and disturbing us regularly because they need a pen or pencil! But the staff are great. I'm part of a team of 5 technicians, which is higher than most schools, one of whom is part time. We get on, have a laugh and still manage to get the work done. The teachers are also great, as long as you don't catch them in a highly stressful situation. Of course two great things about working in a school are fixed holidays, and every weekend off!
I am still involved in the Bristol Nights project, going out once every 6 weeks to give tea and coffee to anyone in the city centre who is around between midnight and 3 and would like one. A few months back, our generator broke down, it was spitting out sparks and plumes of black smoke, so we were having to use gas to boil our kettles, which slowed the process down slightly. It also meant that we haven't had any external light available. But we managed. The good news is that a new generator arrived in Bristol a few weeks ago, and is being installed on the bus. So we're praying that installation goes well, and we can have electricity when we next go out on the 10th April.
I'm going to stop there, I was hoping to finish on something interesting and thought provoking, but there's nothing that springs to mind right now, but who knows, I may be back soon with something more interesting!
Take care and God bless
Ruth xx
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