Please enjoy this guest post written by Erica Morgan, editor at Futurum Careers, a UK-based organization and LabXchange collaborator dedicated to improving student access to science resources and spotlighting careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM).
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At Futurum Careers, we help “researchers to inspire, teachers to motivate, and students to aspire.” But what does our admirable catchphrase mean in practice—why do we do what we do, and how?!
Futurum’s mission is based on studies that highlight the importance of science "capital" and the need for quality careers advice for young people:
Professor Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at University College London in the UK, led the ASPIRES project to investigate the influences on young people’s science aspirations. She coined the term “science capital” to refer to all the science-related interests, engagement and resources that a person has.
The ASPIRES project compelled Futurum to play its part in building young people’s science capital—by providing them with resources that offer insights into the world of STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths, and medicine) and that introduce them to the diverse range of people that make that world possible—and how they can join them.
And we know that ASPIRES is not alone in championing the importance of science for young people. The US National Research Council’s Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), for example, aim to clarify for students “the relevance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to everyday life,” to provide them with a “coherent and scientifically-based view of the world.”
In 2013, the Gatsby Foundation commissioned Sir John Holman to set out a framework for world-class careers guidance in England. The wealth of data John collated informed the Good Career Guidance report, which outlines a framework of eight benchmarks that secondary schools and colleges can use to improve their career guidance programmes.
The benchmarks range from linking curriculum learning to careers to providing students with encounters with employers and employees. At Futurum, we wanted to connect teachers and students with the world of careers in a way that was accessible and engaging—that would aid classroom learning, support teachers in their work, challenge students to think deeply and critically, and show them they have a place in these careers. Appreciating the benchmarks’ references to “personalised” guidance and a “range of learning opportunities,” we also wanted our resources to be wide and varied, covering social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE), as well as STEMM.
The Gatsby Benchmarks may be guidelines for schools in England, but the commitment to young people’s futures that they demonstrate is seen all over the world. From the US to Australia, Canada to Serbia, Japan to Brazil, the researchers we work with all share a passion for providing young people with inspiring “encounters” with their work.
Working with these researchers, Futurum Careers creates free teaching resources that provide young people with a “real life” view of STEMM and SHAPE. Our resources include research articles, activity sheets, PowerPoints, animations and podcasts—with many translated into different languages.
Explore Futurum Careers’ fantastic learning resources on LabXchange.
Our resources are about real scientists and academics who are working on national and international research projects that are making a difference to our lives and the world around us. Our resources are accessible, stimulating and thought provoking, providing summaries of current research, careers advice and personal insights into specific fields. Most importantly, our resources show young people that researchers are people whose footsteps they can follow in. The research world is all the greater for the diverse range of people and perspectives it is made of, and if young people follow their passions, they can be a part of it too.
Physics teaching faces many challenges. In the UK, the Institute of Physics has found that a quarter of English state schools have no specialist physics teachers and that many young people are put off studying physics after the age of 16 because of “prevailing social attitudes that discourage them.” The US-based Physics Teachers Education Coalition shares similar concerns, highlighting that “most high school physics classes are taught by a teacher with little to no formal preparation in physics.”
At Futurum, we cannot train and recruit new physics teachers, but we can provide examples of current research to support teachers and encourage students to see what the field offers. And if working with physicists around the world has taught us anything, it is that physics opens up a whole new way of viewing our world—from the nano to the cosmic come astounding achievements!
Here’s a taster:
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In her Futurum resource, Dr. Susanne Hennig, Managing Director of the Centre for NanoScience (CeNS) in Germany, tells us about the centre’s work on “examining the extremely small.” With the most powerful microscopes, scientists can not only see the intricate details of a human hair, they can observe individual proteins and DNA molecules—objects that exist at the nanoscale. From creating molecules that can deliver drugs to specific targets in the body, to improving the efficiency of solar cells, this science of the very small has huge applications. In introducing students to nanoscientists from CeNS, we introduce them to DNA origami, nanocrystals and a field that shows physics from a fascinating perspective.
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Nanotechnology is, indeed, transforming the world around us. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US, Professor Jean-Pierre Leburton is studying how nanopores can detect DNA or proteins and generate electricity, providing benefits for medicine and clean energy. Jean-Pierre highlights how nanotechnology draws on fields such as material sciences, chemistry, biology, biomedicine, photonics, electrical and mechanical engineering, and more. In scientific innovation, there is no such thing as “just” one subject—like other sciences, physics is applied to and is impacted by so many other fields—a valuable insight for students who typically experience subjects in discrete, timetable-friendly slots.
If the minutiae of nanophysics is mind-blowing, so too is the intricacy of the human brain! Understanding how our brains work in health and disease is hugely challenging, not least because our brains are highly delicate and complex. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a powerful non-invasive technique that detects brain function by measuring the magnetic fields produced by the brain’s electrical activity. With this technique, it is possible to study and diagnose many brain functions and mental health disorders. Dr. Orang Alem, Dr. Svenja Knappe, Dr. Jeramy Hughes and their team at FieldLine Medical have developed a novel and wearable MEG device using their quantum sensor technology. As a kid, Orang always wanted to know “why?”—we hope that his Futurum article encourages this same sense of wonder in the students who read it.
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Moving from the challenges posed by studying the human “computer” to the challenges of building quantum computers, we meet Dr. Salini Karuvade, a theoretical quantum physicist at the University of Sydney in Australia. Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionise technology and Salini is investigating how to overcome the challenges associated with creating computers based on quantum systems. Her Futurum article reminds young people that scientific endeavours are not easy, but passion and persistence make them possible.
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From investigating nanomaterials to studying the Universe, the breadth of physics is huge—and the questions the field makes us consider just keep coming! Did you know that dark matter makes up over 85% of the Universe’s mass, but scientists have never been able to detect it? And that some gravitational waves are proving just as elusive? At The University of Western Australia, quantum physicists Dr. William Campbell and Emma Paterson are aiming to solve these mysteries. And such research often provides surprising findings. When studying the special twisted light created in the cavity resonator device she uses for her research on dark matter, Emma discovered an application that benefits the medical industry: separating mirror-image forms of drug molecules. A young person thinking about future career possibilities may not have made a link between quantum physics and healthcare, but Emma’s work reveals the link is very real—and something they too could work on in the future.
As our mantra shows, Futurum believes that helping young people to meet their potential is a group responsibility. Researchers inspire by sharing knowledge and experiences, teachers motivate by facilitating learning and fostering curiosity, and students aspire by engaging and believing in themselves.
We’re passionate about our role in this group endeavour and in creating teaching resources that provide a view into a world of amazing human achievement. From small insights come big aspirations….
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