Important change to the organisation of our Schools Outreach Activities

After completing our projects with our adopted primary schools, St Sophia’s and Galston,  for 2017-18, Council agreed that we should now cease to adopt one, or perhaps two, primary schools each year. Accordingly, given that we have now 16 registered STEM Ambassadors on the  KESS membership list, we decided instead to offer our services to all schools in East Ayrshire.

Therefore, periodically we will give a short report of our ongoing activities as requests from schools are received.

Primary Schools Outreach Activities

2018
21st June	Darvel Primary School	Talk to P6/7 about Archimedes and to explain to the pupils the science of why things float and why things sink	D Gorman
28th June	Darvel Primary School	Talk to P6/7 about aspects of astronomy	I Grogg
15th November 27th November	Newmilns Primary School	Talk to P3 about aspects of Materials	E Dunsmore
28th November	St Sophia’s Primary School	Talk to P5/6/7 about Energy and Sustainability	J McDonald, A McCallum and D Gorman
5th December	St Sophia’s Primary School	Talk to P5/6/7 about Energy and Sustainability	J Canning and E Dunsmore
19th December	St Sophia’s Primary School	Talk to P5/6/7 about the Titanic and its sister ships	W Fitzpatrick
2019
13th February	Bathgate Academy	STEM Careers	Euan Dunsmore
21st February	Galston Primary School	STEM Careers	James Canning
28th February	Galston Primary School	STEM Careers	James Canning
12th March	Alzheimer Group Kilmarnock	Talk on Astronomy	Isabelle Grogg
16th March	Doonfoot Primary School	STEM career/materials	Euan Dunsmore
20th March	Cumnock Academy	Careers Fair	Euan Dunsmore
25th March	Kirkmichael Primary School	STEM career/materials	Euan Dunsmore
11th June	Alzheimer Group Kilmarnock	Talk on Engineering the Routemaster	Danny Gorman
9th January - 27th March (every Wednesday)	St Sophia’s Primary School	Engineering activities	Graham Longbottom

The Story of Lewis Fry Richardson

On Tuesday 19th June 2018, the Society and Grange Academy invited Professor Tony Mulholland (Head of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde) to come and address 5th and 6th year maths and science students from schools across East Ayrshire. The title of his address was “Lewis Fry Richardson”. This was the story of a man who applied his mathematical abilities to a range of challenges before, during and after the last world war. Lewis Fry Richardson’s two most significant contributions were algorithms to predict likelihood of was and fractals. However he made significant contributions to other areas of mathematics, science and engineering.

This was a most inspiring lecture by Professor Mulholland and was very timely in so far it was the time of year when students start their advanced studies in maths and science.