Read our school visit diaries!
Solveig Fiskaa and Hege Hansbakk Huuse
15-19 October 2007
Birkenlund Skole in Arendal and Blussuvoll Skole, Trondheim, Norway
Planning and programme
The planning meetings started in June when we met several times to plan the trip and to discuss what we wanted to say and do with the pupils. We got in touch with our former schools quite early (middle of June) to check if they were interested in a visit
A flying object gets built. Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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and to get an idea of how much time we could have with each class. The interest was great and in a few days we had already set an approximate time for a visit to both of our schools. During the planning period, we kept in touch with one teacher from each of the schools to discuss what they felt about our ideas, and how much time we would need to go through the programme we wanted to do. The teachers gave us three school hours (each 45 minutes) for each class, which gave us the time we needed for our planned programme:
1st hour: Present ourselves, CERN and our work at CERN (PowerPoint and movie).
2nd hour: Practical task in groups of three or four pupils.
3rd hour: Contest with explanation, giving presents to the best group and a summary of what we can do with science, engineering and technology as well as where to study.
Flying objects built in one class. Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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The practical task was to build a flying object using the following material: two balloons, helium, 1 nail, cord, 2 small sticks, paper, 1 plastic cup, 1 plastic plate, scissors and tape. Each group was also given a name to be either drawn or written on their object. The names were different professions such as computer scientist, geomatic engineer, chemical engineer, architect, physicist, etc. The groups were given points for the time their objects remained in the air, the design, how well the object hit a point on the floor and how many different types of material they had used. This task was selected because it fits well into the learning objective under the theme "Technology and design" for 14-15 year-olds in Norway. It also presented an example of an engineering project where there is a deadline and a (material) budget.
School visits
We started our trip in Arendal where we visited four classes in two days. The pupils were 14- and 15-years old. We then moved to Trondheim for 2 days to work with another four classes of
15-year olds. These schools were chosen because Solveig used to be a pupil at Birkenlund in Arendal, while Hege used to be a pupil at Blussuvoll in Trondheim.
The programme was very successful. The timing was perfect and the pupils seemed to enjoy it a lot. They built their flying objects with great enthusiasm. Some even had questions about CERN, where we had studied, on how to become an engineer, etc. Also the teachers seemed to enjoy our visit and gave us very good feedback afterwards. They were very happy to be able to give the pupils "something else".
On our visit to Norway we also experienced that the local communities were interested in what we were doing. We therefore had a visit from the local newspaper and the local television in Arendal, as well as the local newspaper in Trondheim.
Newspaper Articles:
Newspaper Article Visit to Birkenlund Skole in Arendal
Praktisk realfag
16 October 2007
agderposten.no
Newspaper Article Visit to Blussuvoll Skole in Trondheim
Leker ingeniører
25 October 2007
adressa.no