NESTA's idiscover
idiscover is exploring how to put power into the hands of young people to choose learning experiences that will help them develop the skills they will need for the future.
NESTA's idiscover education programme helps young people develop the skills and attributes they will need in an innovation-driven society and has been designed to test the impact of giving young people meaningful choices about learning opportunities.
Participating young people receive credits of up to £200 per term to book places on a range of educational experiences covering science, technology, engineering, maths, enterprise and the creative sector. As well as being engaging, the experiences will enable young people to broaden their horizons and develop innovation skills and aptitudes.
The By Design Group are delighted to have been accepted as one of the deliverers for this programme and have the following products available:
Enterprise of the Olympic Games
A full day of engaging activities that links enterprise skills with the Olympic Games. The students deal with finance, business planning and sales and marketing from the perspective of both local organising committees and the International Olympic Committee. Using hi-tech testing equipment they discover how to set personal targets, learn the importance of teamwork and communication and finally have to draw upon their creative talents to design their own Olympic complex.
The Sciences and Sport
Three one day programmes that link Biology, Chemistry or Physics with sport. The days look at topics such as diet, positive thinking, biomimetics, friction, the brain, materials in sports equipment and much more, all in practical ways such that the students are able to understand the strong links there are between science and sport. Activities range from learning to juggle, to discovering how velcro was invented and why the Jabulani football appeared to swerve during the recent World Cup Finals.
The Physics of Sport Lecture
The lecture takes the audience on a journey through a range of sports, looking at how science and physics in particular affects both the participants and the design of many items of modern day sports equipment. Topics covered include reaction times, speed, light and sound, balance, inertia, forces and friction. With the help of various props, members of the audience are invited to take part in simple experiments to illustrate how the science works.
The idiscover programme is being piloted until July 2011 in selected schools in London, Manchester and the Scottish Highlands with the By Design Group products being available and having been delivered in all of the pilot areas. All the By Design Group products are also available for purchase by all schools and local authorities, outside of the pilot programme areas, please call us for further details.
Nesta will be sharing their emerging learning about the programme’s impact and will develop an approach for supporting schools and local authorities so that they can implement their own idiscover programme. For further information directly from the NESTA web site click here.
16th September 2010
