The Level 4 & 5 Teaching Labs are associated with a number Schools Outreach activites, some of which are hosted and run by the Labs themselves and others which are not organised by the Labs but which the Labs support.
These events, which cater for a wide range of school children, are typically run out of term time, i.e. during the Easter Vacation or early in the Summer Vacation. Examples of Lab hosted events would be Chemistry Festivals and Key Stage 2 & 3 Summer Schools, whilst Lab supported events include Family Science Days and University Open Days.
UG volunteers are sought for these activites and calls for these volunteers are usually issued 2-6 weeks prior to the event. Helpers receive an honorarium for their assistance, although what this comprises depends on the event and organiser, e.g. for the Lab organised Chemistry Challenge each UG volunteer receives £30 per event.
To give a better idea of what can be involved in a Schools Outreach event, details of the annually held University of Southampton Chemistry Challenge are provided below.
The University of Southampton Chemistry ChallengeThe University of Southampton Chemistry Challenge (two events per year) are organised, hosted and run by the University of Southampton Chemistry Teaching Laboratories. These have proved extremely popular, allowing teams to participate in a variety of "hands-on" experiments.
For each event ~20 teams of 4 pupils in Years 7-9 (i.e. ~13 years old) from schools in Southampton and the surrounding area participate. The programme involves a Forensic Chemistry Challenge in the morning and a Practical Challenge in the afternoon. The event includes prizes awarded at the end of the event, given to the 3 best performing teams across the day.
Each day the Southampton event runs, 10-12 UG helpers are involved (some by providing general support for the activities, but most by acting as a helper for two of the school teams). Sometimes a few of the helpers also get to perform some end-of-event "fun" chemistry demonstrations (i.e. mostly involving cardice or liquid nitrogen) and the feedback from all the UG helpers has always been that they really enjoyed their involvement.
Chemistry Challenge @ University of Southampton Chemistry
UG helpers trying out an activity.
UG helpers performing demonstrations with liquid nitrogen.
I helped out at the Chemistry Challenge during the Easter of my second year. I really enjoyed the experience, being able to do things we would not do normally in the teaching labs or university. I had a lot of fun and would definitely recommend helping at this event to others. Being able to interact with small groups of school-age children would be good for anyone potentially considering teaching later on but anyone would benefit and enjoy helping out. It was very rewarding to see the group work things through and solve the problems set by themselves with only a few small pointers and guidance from ourselves. The guidance in itself was also a learning experience, working out what to say, how much and when so as to give a guide but let the students do the work for themselves.
LM (UG Helper 2011)The experience was enjoyable. All of the instructors were given time to acquaint themselves with the tasks and it was fun seeing the excitement on the children's faces as they discovered new facts about science. The experience was very beneficial since it allowed me to learn how to explain chemistry facts to children while also having fun. I would definitely recommend this experience to other students - It not only improved my ability to describe and explain chemical facts, but also reminded me of the excitement I had when I first learned about chemistry.
JT (UG Helper 2012)2017 EVENT DETAILS FOR VOLUNTEERS
The training session for the event will be held on Monday 27th March, with the event running on Tuesday 28th March and Wednesday 29th March. Volunteers will need to be available for the Training session and at least one of the events (- Note: You are free to volunteer for both events should you desire). Volunteers will be paid an honorarium of £30 per event.
Schedule for volunteers:
Please e-mail (before the end of Sunday 19th March 2017) Colin Flowers (cmf3@soton.ac.uk) to express your interest in volunteering. In your e-mail please indicate if you are interested in volunteering for one or both of the events. If you are only volunteering/available for one of the events, please specify which. Allocation of volunteers to events will be announced by the end of Monday 20th March 2017.
Monday 27th March 2017 - Training Session (Level 5 Teaching Laboratory) 1330-1345 Introduction. 1345-1430 Help set-up the activities for Event 1. 1430-1700 Try out the activities. Tuesday 28th March 2017 - Event 1 (Level 5 Teaching Laboratory) 0930-1500 Watch over and if necessary assist the pupils as they perform the morning (Forensic Chemistry Challenge) and afternoon (Practical Challenge) practical activities. Each volunteer will be assigned to look after two teams. (Note: There will be a lunch break between the activities.) 1500-1600 Reset the activities for Event 2. Wednesday 29th March 2017 - Event 2 (Level 5 Teaching Laboratory) 0930-1500 Watch over and if necessary assist the pupils as they perform the morning (Forensic Chemistry Challenge) and afternoon (Practical Challenge) practical activities. Each volunteer will be assigned to look after two teams. (Note: There will be a lunch break between the activities.) 1500-1600 Tidy/Clean up lab. Note to assigned volunteers: In order to process your honorarium, we will need: A copy of your passport, your NI number and your bank details. Please bring these with you to the training session.
