Taking renewable energy into Scottish Schools

In March, Dr Ian Rae took part in a science engagement training event, the aim being to develop and improve skills and techniques for presenting science to a young audience.

His opportunity came in May when he and Lars Brunner from BioMara recorded short presentations to video on aspects of their respective scientific research work.  They were ably assisted in this by Dr Cathy Southward of Edinburgh University, under the auspices of GLOW Scotland.  Ian focused on his Anaerobic Digestion work for the BioMara Project, while Lars explained the work that goes into cultivating and harvesting seaweeds.  These short films were uploaded to the GLOW site to allow the children participating to view them.

The filmed segments were used in June, when Ian & Lars travelled to Glasgow to take part in an online ‘Glow meet’ where school children from across Scotland used a audio-visual link-up to probe both scientists further on their respective areas of research.  Hosted and presented by Dr Southward, the children had watched the short films that Ian and Lars had prepared, and each was then give time to answer questions posed live by the children themselves.  The standard and quantity of questions posed were both excellent (considering most of the children were of Primary school age), and on the day Ian walked away with the coveted golden lab coat, for answering the most questions posed.