Motivate long projects
Disease Dynamics
Experiments in Astronomy
"It's
not that I'm smart ..."
Reading Between the Lines: Communicating in Code
Each school year, we run long projects mainly for secondary students;
we also run linked primary/secondary projects when schools indicate they
would like this. The webpages for these conferences are not accessible
to non-participants, but you can see the resources used in previous
projects.
In 2008-09, we are running three long projects for KS3
students:
We are also running a long project in which schools participate in a research project with a research team from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.
The topics are cross-curricular, and we actively encourage schools to
work on these projects in as many curriculum areas as possible. This
has the advantage of reducing the pressure on any one curriculum area,
while enabling students to see links between different subject areas
and to appreciate how different disciplines can contribute to a better
overall understanding.
We provide a virtual learning environment (Moodle webpage) for each
long project, with information about the project, a variety of resources
for students to explore, additional notes as required, forums for teachers
and for students, work and ideas posted by schools, and a calendar of
major dates. These are password protected, so only participants who have
been given the enrolment key can access them.
Our long projects
start in September or early October and run through to Easter or the
summer, depending on the school years involved. We start with a teacher
briefing by videoconference, then for students we provide two VCs per
term, plus follow-up project work to be done after each VC in preparation
for the next. VCs 1, 3 and 5 will only require short input from students,
as they will be mainly for moving the content forward; VCs 2, 4 and 6
will be opportunities for students to give longer presentations on the
work they have done during the term, and for them to ask each other questions
and respond to questions from other schools and from the speaker.
To access your long project, click
on its graphic or the link above. On your first visit you will be asked
to set up a user account. You will need this userid and password every
time you log into the site. On your first visit only, you will also be
asked for an enrolment key which will be emailed to participating schools.
If you are at a participating school and don't have it, please email Jenny
Gage.
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