A key objective of the BLOODHOUND Project is to inspire the next generation to enjoy and pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To support this, the BLOODHOUND Education team has provided resources to teachers throughout the lifetime of the Project. However, what is less well known is that thanks to the Prince’s Teaching Institute, newly qualified Physics teachers are specifically taught how to use BLOODHOUND resources to enrich their lessons.
The Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI) is an independent educational charity created by the Prince of Wales which believes that all children, irrespective of background or ability, deserve a rich, subject-based experience at school. It also believes that young people's opportunities in life are maximised by having inspiring teachers who are knowledgeable and passionate about their subjects.
To support this philosophy the PTI encourages teachers to rediscover their love of their subject through training courses. In turn, to support the PTI, the BLOODHOUND Project has been providing keynote lectures to Physics teachers for the past three years as part of the training courses offered by the PTI.
The PTI training for Physics teachers involves six themed days spread though out the academic year. The theme for the first of these days is ‘Forces and Motion’, which is a perfect match with BLOODHOUND! As well as describing the amazing technology being developed for the BLOODHOUND Project, the talk also introduces the wide range of teaching resources that can be found online. Feedback from the teachers shows that these are proving popular in the classroom.
Where online resources do not exactly match the teachers’ needs, they are encouraged to adapt them to their own requirements. Robert Murray, a Physics teacher at Sale Grammar School, did just that when he used BLOODHOUND in his classroom: “I made a few changes to the resources found on the BLOODHOUND project website to create, design and test air-powered dragsters. The students took three to four hours in total over three weeks to design, build, test and race their dragsters.”
Feedback from other teachers has also been very positive, with many using the BLOODHOUND project to provide inspirational lessons to their students.
Further BLOODHOUND lectures are planned in conjunction with the PTI training courses, and it is hoped that even more teachers will decide to use BLOODHOUND in the future to encourage their students to follow careers in science and technology.
For more information about the PTI and for details of its training courses around the UK please visit the PTI website.
Roger Hoyle, Bloodhound Education Ambassador
