Workshops 2019-20
This year's science club was rather disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic! However, we did manage to fit three workshops in before lockdown. The first Saturday Club workshop of the 2019-20 session, hosted by the School of Life Sciences, took us out into the wild, whilst the second plonked us into the middle of the Pacific Ocean on board RSS Sir David Attenborough! Just before lockdown, we managed to squeeze in some spectacular sports science with the School of Sport and Exercise Science...
Plantmania
Plantmania, hosted by the School of Life Sciences had the girls plant hunting around the Riseholme campus identifying and collecting plants using ID guides and books then creating a posted of their favourite plant families. They also explored the ecology and sustainability of what we eat and our weekly shops identifying why some foods we eat have a bigger carbon footprint than others and mapped the journey of our dinner plates!
a massive challenge
A MASSive challenge was set for our Autumn workshop, hosted by Dr Colin Dowding from the School of Engineering.
Imagine this...
We're all on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough - a new state-of-the-art scientific laboratory designed to support scientists in extreme weather (polar regions). It's jam-packed full of scientific facilities, instruments and laboratories!
We're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The batteries are flat on our digital weighing scales, which we need to complete some vital experiments, and we don't have any spare batteries (Oh no!).
But we do have lots of fancy scientific equipment!
Our MASSive challenge is to test different ways of measuring mass without using a weighing scale.
Spectacular sports science
The winter session of the Newton Academy explored many aspects of sport and exercise science:
- Sport and exercise biomechanics considered how we can measure sporting technique and improve performance
- Sport and exercise physiology delivered an introduction to sports physiology and the demands of sporting performance
- Sport and exercise therapy introduced the assessment methods and tools associated with functional movement screening (FMS) and
- Health and exercise nutrition explored the types of food that are recommended for a healthy, balanced diet.
The workshop was designed and hosted by Gemma Best, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, along with some of her students. The workshop was delivered using cutting-edge facilities at the University’s state-of-the-art Human Performance Centre.
