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Setting fire to teabags and making tinfoil pie cases rise in the air was part of a recent workshop for science lab technicians.
The one-day event, run by Wellington College Teaching Alliance (WCTA), saw 13 technicians from nine state schools spend a day picking up tips on how to run practical sessions on topics including convection, electricity, and radioactivity.
It was delivered by Wellington technicians Wendy Vooght and Sarah Fryer.
Feedback from attendees included: “It was a really enjoyable day and very useful seeing lots of different ideas for practicals that we could try at our school.
“It was also nice to meet other technicians from other schools. A lot of effort was put into the day and it was much appreciated. ”
Another technician said: “Wendy went to a lot of effort to go through electricity, electromagnetism and static electricity. She showed us the demos and explained the theory behind it, which was so useful. The booklet she prepared is amazing. It is going to be a very useful resource.
“Wendy and Sarah are absolutely incredible with so much knowledge and delivered everything so well. It was easy to follow and understand and they were very professional.”
And another said: “We appreciated all the hard work and effort that Wendy and Sarah put into setting up such a large array of equipment and experiments, some of which were familiar and others that weren’t. It was good to see some very simple demos that are cheap and easy to set up, but very effective in teaching the students and we will be introducing some of these ie centre of mass (coke cans and spoon and fork, bottles on a slope) friction (pages of book interleaved), gas pressure (egg in a flask, insert drinking straw into a potato), waves (elastic with electric toothbrush), refraction (disappearing coin and beaker), scattering of light to show sunset.”
WCTA aims to facilitate collaboration between teachers and between schools and ensure they have training and development opportunities to enhance their students’ education.
This academic year, it has delivered courses including a two-day course on mental health first aid and a day for GCSE maths teachers, as well as a number of upskilling workshops and Subject Specific Support Groups.
