Glow Scotland

Mission Impossible Science Challenges

Find out about how schools from across Scotland are talking part in science challenges and collaborating using Glow Meet. From 9am until 3pm today, June 1st, three schools from across Scotland are taking part in the Foam Fire Extinguisher challenge by Kitchen Chemistry. Pupils from Perth High School, Marr College and Calderglen High School will be exploring a range of chemical reactions with the aim to produce foam. The design process will then begin as pupils from S2 – S3 strive to create a fire extinguisher which can put out a fire in the shortest time. One of the challenges they will face is to find a way to keep the chemicals apart to ensure the fire extinguisher doesn’t go off until they need to put out a fire!

These schools are exploring the possibilities of creating their own fire extinguishers through hands on experiments and sharing their findings in Glow Meet. Pete Johnson from Kitchen Chemistry who is also a teacher at Stewart’s Melville College will be working with all four schools to guide them through their scientific discoveries using the audio, video and white board in Glow Meet. Pupils will be collaborating and updating discussion boards in a Science Challenges Glow Group throughout the day to update everyone with their findings, sharing top tips and eventually their finished products.

The fire service will be joining S2 at Perth High School to give a presentation on fire safety to all the schools involved and then judging the competition to find the most successful fire extinguisher.

You can join this Glow Meet now, Monday 1st June to watch their progress. Join the Science Challenges Glow group by clicking on the link below and then clicking on Send request.
https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Science/Science%20Challenges/default.aspx

Last month Neil Winton of Perth Academy delivered a free on-line CPD session through the English Teachers’ national Glow group. The session was a huge success and one teacher who logged in was Miss Coates of Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire who was inspired to try using WIKIs with her own class:

The other day, whilst planning an advertising unit for my S3 I wondered if I could use the wikispace for that. In just 3 days the result has been rather dramatic! The task is up and running and the kids are creating their own websites for their very own companies detailing the history of their advertising campaigns. We even have “The Apprentice” style PMs who I have made organisers. I am very chuffed with their progress.

The WIKI has been such a success that in only a few days the class have added nearly 300 different edits.

3E1 have now opened their WIKI for public viewing and you can access it HERE. There are several discussion threads open already and the class are keen to get as many ‘hits’ as possible and hear your thoughts on their work.

The English Teachers’ national Glow group runs a free CPD session for teachers’ every month. The May masterclass is scheduled for tomorrow (May 20th) between 4pm and 5pm and will feature Rob Marrs from the English Speaking Union giving practical advice on how incorporating debating techniques into teaching can help pupils gain a better understanding of text – for example ‘This house believes that Macbeth was to blame for his own downfall’

You don’t have to be an English teacher to join in these sessions but you do have to be a member of the group! To join click on this LINK, log into Glow and then press the Request Access button.

Finally, if you are also a teacher who has been inspired through Glow to start something new it would be great to hear from you! You can post a reply at the bottom of this blog or email the Glow team at GlowAdmin@LTScotland.org.uk

On Thursday 30 April Neil Winton – PT English at Perth Academy – delivered a fantastic masterclass on the use of WIKIs in the classroom. The session was packed full of practical hints like which WIKI provider was best for educators and how to use the ways WIKIs log changes to track pupil work. Teachers from all over the country logged in to watch and ask questions and the feedback was extremely positive, with one participant deciding she was going to use WIKIs with her class straight away as she had found the session, ‘interesting and inspiring’.
The accompanying Powerpoint and resources for this session can be found in the English teachers’ Glow group and a copy of the session itself will also be available there very soon.
You must be a member of the group to gain access to these resources. If you are not already a member click on the link above and then the ‘request access’ button.

Details of the English teachers’ group masterclass for May will be released very soon. Watch this space!

Class teacher Avril Taylor is from Pinwherry Primary School, a 14 pupil primary school in South Ayrshire that is discovering the benefits of Glow Meet. Avril has been so successful in her incorporation of Glow into The P5/6/7 composite class that she has been nominated for a Scottish Education Award.

On Thursday 23 April Avril was the latest ‘expert’ to deliver a Glowing Thursday session where she explained to teachers from across the country how she is using Glow to change the way lessons are delivered and also to help link up this tiny rural school with others around the country.

Glowing Thursday’s are open sessions where any Glow user can log-in listen to and ask questions of an ‘expert’ of the week. As well as explaining her own practise, Avril was able to answer a query about improving writing and also offered ideas for activities to do on Glow with a teacher also from a small rural school. When asked if she had had any issues with Glow her reply was, ‘only that it is addictive’ – in fact her only complaint was that, ‘It didn’t come with a Health warning!’

Avril has also been generous enough to share some of the work the children have been doing on the national Glowing Potential group. Click HERE to access this work.

The next Glowing Thursday event will feature Neil Winton talking about Perth Academy’s use of WIKIs in the classroom. The school have seen their achievements in writing go ‘through the roof’ since the introduction of WIKIs and if you would like to find out how this was done you can access the session HERE on Thursday 20 April at 5pm.

The second on-line masterclass session to be run through the English teachers’ National Glow group will run on Thursday 30th April at 5pm. This session will feature Neil Winton – PT English at Perth Academy – showcasing the best use of WIKIs in the English classroom. Perth Academy’s huge success in this area is well documented (access the article in TESS HERE) and Neil has spoken at a variety of events including last years Scottish Learning Festival about how the school’s writing results went ‘through the roof’ thanks – in part – to their introduction of WIKIs.

The masterclass will be available digitally through Glow Meet to all members of the National English Teachers’ Glow group. To request access to the group click HERE

To view Perth Academy’s Midsummer Nights’ Dream WIKI click HERE