SCIENTISTS are helping children keep learning during lockdown by hosting live experiments over video calls. Through the Scientist Next Door project, founded by researchers from Durham and Edinburgh universities, over 50 scientists from around the world are taking part in video calls aimed at encouraging pupils’ interest in STEM subjects. Small groups of scientists run video calls with a family to discuss the science behind daily processes and encourage children to undertake supervised experiments at home or demonstrate them live.
The Northern Echo | read more...
Since it began on Wednesday 25 March, Scientist Next Door has made over 40 calls to children aged four to 17. The calls have covered topics as diverse as extracting DNA from a strawberry, comparing fingerprints, why boats float and balloons fly, how sunscreen works and why we see auroras in the dark winter sky. The project has a website with a wide range of resources, including information about COVID-19. This explains what it is, models a pandemic and shows why hand-washing is important. The project was founded by Dr Valentina Erastova from Edinburgh and Drs Basile Curchod and Matteo Degiacomi from Durham. It has involved scientists from the universities of KTH in Stockholm, Nottingham, Lancaster, Rutgers, Cornell, Bangalore, Barcelona, Perugia, Athens and Oxford...
Palatinate | read more...
A group of researchers is overcoming the barriers of lockdown, to help school children discover the wonders of science in their own homes. Pupils and their families can now join live chats with scientists and be guided through unusual experiments – such as how to make a lemon battery. The organisers, from the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham, hope that the project will help stimulate scientific interest and learning among children – during the restrictions imposed by Covid-19...
University Of Edinburgh: COVID-19 RESPONSE | read more...
We love sharing our passion for science with the next generation – and COVID-19 isn’t going to stop us!
Durham University: University and City: Growing together | read more...
Scientist Next Door creates a platform to share our passion for science and to help bring up the new generation of fantastic scientists! This initiative is by a small group of scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham. We support parents through group video calls, blogs to support individual child's learning needs and shared educational resources...
Department of Chemistry: Durham University | read more...
“We want to encourage children to be curious about science and the world around them. As scientists, we were concerned that lockdown would widen the gap in the uptake of sciences by children and we wanted to provide a fun and accessible platform for their continued learning.” – Dr Valentina Erastova, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh School of Chemistry and founder of the Scientist Next Door. “Our goal is to give support to families that are currently not benefiting from science connections, events and activities. Through this, we believe, we can lower the barriers that prevent pupils from the least advantaged backgrounds pursuing their aspirations in science.” – Drs Basile Curchod and Matteo Degiacomi, Lecturers, Durham University, Chemistry and Physics Departments and co-founders of the Scientist Next Door.
Viral Stories: Collating the best stories from UK Universities during COVID-19 | read more ...
Scientist Next Door - Website helps families learn and discover science together. As of today, COVID-19 lockdowns are implemented in more than 160 countries around the globe, affecting over 90% of the World's student population. This impacts directly on children's education, removing an opportunity to learn through activities and interactions. The uptake of science by children is strongly correlated with their socioeconomic background, their family connections with scientists and the possibility to engage in experiments and practicals during lessons. Therefore, the additional burden of home-schooling further widens the gap between classes accessing to sciences...
School of Chemistry: University Of Edinburgh | read more...
...the Scientist Next Door project aims to support families by creating a new inclusive culture and learning science together. The website www.scientist-next-door.org is a platform to provide interesting materials, experiments and to organise calls. Families can participate in video-calls around a topic of their interest with a group of scientists, and ask them questions and do experiments together, guided or demonstrated by scientists...
SynthSys: Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, University Of Edinburgh | read more...
Many of us were suddenly faced with the daunting task of homeschooling our children while schools were closed. While teachers still offered up as much support as they could, there were concerns about children missing out by not being in the classroom. Valentina Erastova, Chancellor’s Fellow in the School of Chemistry, decided she could help. With Basile Curchod and Matteo Degiacomi, both academics from Durham University, Valentina created Scientist Next Door, an online community of scientists able to teach science and help conduct experiments with children stuck at home. Here she talks to bulletin about the project.
University of Edinburgh Staff Magazine | read more...