The University of Manchester gets Nobel Prize for graphene. Gene therapy could eradicate cancer and heart disease. Large Hadron Collider scientists developing new cancer treatments.
These are just three headlines that have emblazoned the front of national newspapers in recent times. When students think of science they are often taught to look backwards at the ‘golden age’ where Faraday began explaining electricity, Rutherford helped us understand the makeup of atoms, or a bit closer to today with Crick and Watson telling us about the structure of DNA.
With time constraints and the pressure of getting through the content, we often focus on these turning points in science, which is fantastic, but students then fail to grasp all the opportunities available to them in STEM when they leave school. Science, for example, is not just about men sitting in stuffy offices, writing what appears to be ancient Greek onto chalkboards…it’s an ongoing, ever-changing and exciting area of work to go into.
"Now has never been a more exciting time to be getting into STEM and have a career at the cutting edge of science."
With Research Councils UK (RCUK), we develop bursary-supported CPD and free teaching resources on cutting-edge scientific developments. This could be looking at Quantum Key Distribution where we can see how encryption affects our life, developing from the Second World War Enigma machines to how phone messaging or online banking protects our personal details from even the most determined hackers. With energy resources under the spotlight, nuclear fusion is certainly looking at solving this. Imagine being able to power the world with only colliding hydrogen atoms together. This is currently being researched in fusion reactors around the globe.
There are also increases in nanotechnology, such as using viruses as wires or the possibility of nano-robots being introduced into our body to heal illnesses or perform surgery. Getting students directly involved in science is key, so enabling students to take control of a robotic telescope, such as the Liverpool Robotic telescope, is an opportunity not to be missed.
Now has never been a more exciting time to be getting into STEM and have a career at the cutting edge of science. Could one of your students go on to develop the next cancer treatment? Could they be part of the engineering team that designs or builds the machines to do this, the mathematician who calculates the correct dosages, or the computer programmer who ensures the machine ensures the machine is pointing in the correct place?