Technology & Innovation - Issue 11

takes some effort – so for anyone interested, here are some tips. 1. Get your department on board! Show your colleagues some past examples of successful context-based learning, so that they can see it’s an approach worth trying. 2, Start small Choose one topic to write a scheme for. When teaching cells, adaptation or enzymes, for example, you could use the ongoing search for alien life as your context. What might alien cells look like? Howmight alien life adapt to survive on a distant exoplanet with higher surface gravity than Earth? By looking at the most extreme forms of life on Earth – such as those that thrive in the boiling hot acidic pools of Yellowstone Park – you could potentially identify the kind of life one might encounter in Venus’ acidic, hot atmosphere. 3. Begin with a question When teaching radioactivity, our overarching question will be, ‘ How can we power ourMars Rover? ’ Individual lessons can then have their own sub-questions – ‘ How do we select our radioactive source? How can we calculate howmuch of it we need to power our Rover? What shielding and protection will be needed and why? ’ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sophie Allan is head of teaching and learning at the National Space Academy 4. Maintain a local focus Research your locality to see if there might be any themes you can tap into. Is there an industry that’s particularly strong in your area? Maybe there are some interesting landmarks or parks you can use for examples? Get your students involved by asking themwhat they’re interested in, and identifying any key questions and concerns they might have, thus increasing their buy-in and connection to the lessons. 5. Don’t reinvent the wheel There’s an abundance of resources produced by institutions specialising in a particular subject. Universities and research organisations will often produce free resources aligned to their research and development, which can serve as a useful starting point for your own explorations. If you find a site with numerous high quality resources relating to one particular topic, you could build your scheme around these. We have a wealth of free-to-download classroom resources that we would love more schools to incorporate into their schemes of work! 6. Highlight role models These could be individuals who are cited within your lesson resources, or people you’ve asked to come in and give a talk. More companies now showcase their employees’ work and sector-relevant career pathways via their websites, so find a name, get a picture (and maybe contact them for more information), and show students that the science they’re learning can lead to some interesting jobs – some of which they may have never even heard of before! We have a range of free careers videos available at nationalspaceacademy.org/ careers/career-resources for any schools using space exploration as a context. It’s also worth contacting university outreach leads and local companies for potential speakers, so that you can bring your context further to life with an actual face and contextual experience – or you could arrange for a STEM ambassador to visit your school. Students can’t aspire to roles they don’t know exist; highlighting such roles within your resources, even in small ways, can have a really meaningful impact. Most importantly, start with something that engages you – a news story, the topic you enjoyed most at university, something that’s recently caught your interest in a podcast. If you, as the teacher, find yourself truly engaged with it, then you’ll want to put in the legwork of identifying and possibly developing resources you can use in class. Having done this for one topic, others will then followmore easily. National Space Academy Resources nationalspaceacademy.org/what-we-do/i-am-a-teacher National Space Academy ‘Space to Learn’ funded in-school workshops nationalspaceacademy.org/space-to-learn LIFTOFF Commence your journey into space exploration by checking out these recommended links: 35 C L A S S R O OM I N S P I R AT I O N teachwire.net