Education Pathway Consultants

We would like to extend a very big thank you to all, who took part in organising, participating, paying for and supporting the Science Camp, without you this will still remind as a vision only.

 

Ms Alicia Davies, Oxford                   Deputy Head of Myddelton College

Mr Richard Crowther, Oxford             Education Compliance Officer of Myddelton College

Ms Wai Man Cheong                         Head of Chemistry of Macau Pui Ching Middle School

Mrs Abby Plumb                                Organiser

 

Jon Wade, NERC Research Fellow NERC         

Oxford University Earth Science Department

Professor Wade is a volcanologist.... Studying Ash clouds of volcanoes. Examining the volcanic Ash from different eruption. Project ran with the airlines easy jet and air bus to apply this technology in avoiding Ash clouds which are not visible to the naked eye only in the infra-red spectrum. Many focuses if the research is to examine the refractive index of the Ash cloud and what this tells us about the composition of the Ash cloud. This uses both satellite data and Radar technology., discusses the Scanning Electron Microscope. and the X-ray Diffraction Machine. Over 1million £££ of equipment in each room here!

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Dr Charlotte Lynch

Oxford University of Material Sciences

Lecture on the nature of solids and material sciences, focused on polymers and ceramics.

 

Dr DANIEL EBNER

The Target Discovery Institute (TDI), Oxford University

Discussing the pathology of Alzheimer, dementia and cancer. Students are examining the neurones at a cellular level looking at how scientists make mini brains in a test tube to look at how messages are sent and how they can be interrupted. 

The Target Discovery Institute (TDI) is a major new collaborative research initiative led by the Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe, FRS. Strategic investment through the Department and collaborative use of existing research resources from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, the Department of Oncology, specifically the Radiation and Oncology Unit, the Oxford Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Structural Genomics Consortium enabled the Target Discovery Institute High Throughput Screening Facility (TDI HTS) to operate for two years before the institute was fully established in the new NDM Research Building. The TDI now encompasses several groups including Chemical Biology, Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry and Medicinal Chemistry.

HL-1-actinin-Mybpc3The Institute investigates drug target discovery across various diseases drawing on the expertise of the research staff on the Campus, Medical Science Division and wider University capitalizing on existing strengths in genetics and genomic medicine, molecular and cell biology, structural biology, chemistry, pharmacology and medicine. There has been very strong support for this initiative from the University's centre and Division.

A drug target is a molecule or molecular interaction at a critical point in a disease-causing pathway that is predicted to being amenable to therapeutic manipulation. The centre aims to link recent advances in genetics, genomics and cell and chemical biology for improved drug target discovery. A more specific focus for refining and validating such targets will provide a better link between traditional "open ended" academic processes to biomedical research and the need of the pharmaceutical industry for accurately defined targets for drug development.

 

Bio Chemistry Department Oxford University

Trinity College, Oxford University
Thank you for the private tour allow our students to have intimate contact with the history of the heart of Oxford University. Such as Artemis the Trinity college Cat. Original microscopes used by Hugh Powell. The distillation apparatus used to distil morphine from poppy resin. Underneath Einstein's personal blackboard he used when he was a researcher at Oxford University. Henry Moseley and his X-ray experiments. The Bodleian library the only library in the UK to have copies of every book ever published in the English language...... And many ancient texts in other languages. Copies of Shakespeare's original manuscripts are housed here. The Radcliffe camera my personal favourite. All Souls College...... Only the most academic elite students can enter here. The undergraduate who scores highest in their examinations across the whole university is invited to join this college. Only one per year...... The most exclusive academic honour in the world. We have finished the day with dinner in the Turf Tavern....... This is the pub that has been frequented by presidents, princes, poets and pioneering scientists such as Einstein in his time at Oxford...... Shelly the poet wrote many sonnets there......

 

Bio Chemistry - Myddelton College

Titration is proving more difficult for some than others. The students are being led though some advanced chemistry practical experiments by Mr Neil Bentley our head of science. They spent the morning looking at the invention of synthetic drugs from extracted plant alkaloids and barbiturates.... Finishing in the fast-paced world of designer drugs where chemists. Can combine any combination of molecules having first examined the patient’s DNA to ensure the treatment can be tailored more precisely to a patient and avoid unnecessary side effects. Also, the students will look at the use of statistics in analysing results such as chi square, Spearman's rank correlation and Standard error, focused on which scenarios are best to use different analysis methods in. 

 

Bio Medicine - Myddelton College

Discussion of meaning and impact on medicine, drugs, diagnosis and therapies the pupils have launched into their own projects on the history of medicine. Each team is focused on a different time period. From prehistory to ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, ancient Greece, medieval Europe and the 18th century. Prehistory lesson and they are extracting DNA from fruit. The students extracted the DNA and looked at how DNA actually looks on a molecular level we are moving onto cells specialisation and gene regulation to examine how all cells containing the same information can looks so different and carry out such different functions. Also extracted the alkaloids from traditional herbs to examine how simple forms of traditional medicine were obtained in early European history.

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Research Method – Myddelton College

How do we use Googles an information resource to answer any scientific question. Usually you get about 500,000,000 papers to read so the students had a short lesson on using "", and bracket functions in search engines to ensure we receive the best quality information tailored to our needs as scientists. Each student is now using these skills to answer their own questions in just one hour to research? The questions they have designed are very varied including:

Which is the most important organ for survival?

Will the progression of technology cause further social divide between rich and poor?
Do insects have emotions?

Why does the heart have four Chambers would more or fewer increase efficiency of blood flow?
Do genes determine personality in humans?
How does music effect the mind
What is insect knowledge?

How does insect’s knowledge to answer questions?

Why is some music impossible to forget but other songs are hard to learn?
Why do different species have different numbers of chromosomes?

What would happen to the human body in a vacuum?

 

Microsoft lecture – Myddelton College

Myddelton College is a Microsoft showcase school and students are expected to engage with the internet, with lessons that are delivered electronically, through Cloud technology and using flip learning techniques.

 

Engineering Challenge – Myddelton College

Students testing their products strength before they make decisions.... Excellent thinking skills and collaboration would be required. Target height one meter. Girls team achieved 1.14m wiping out all the competition. Discussion to explore each of the towers successes and failures....how this links to the real world problem solving of engineers.....finally concluding on how the decision to sketch out a draft of their base layer as research before building was the key to the winning teams ultimate success. The students also explored the concept of allotropes with a special focus on carbon and its uses in modern science, Nano technology and the periodic table.

 

Convergent Evolution   – Myddelton College

Students looked at convergent evolution, colour versus camouflage examined to the wider evolutionary benefits of colour and the structure of iridescent feathers under the microscope. They are learning about standard deviation and Standard error measuring caterpillars that are pretending to be twigs. Also, looking at warning colouration instead of camouflage to avoid predators. Demonstration that caterpillars are creating the same angle as the normal side shoots to show this is a genuine Evolutionary Adaptation rather than an Anthropomorphism. Sharing class data is more efficient so any more individuals can be measured...... All scientists collaborate! Ants as farmers? Students are looking at symbiotic and how two species are essential to the survival of both. Linking back to our work earlier this week on decay and enzymes. We have also been observing the behaviour of leaf cutting ants to see if they have a favourite colour? They certainly don't like dark red rose petals!