The Association for Science Education (ASE) can trace its origins back to 1900. ASE is the professional body for all those involved in science education and is the largest subject association in the UK. ASE membership caters for secondary and primary school teachers and technicians. It promotes improvements in science education and education in general, specifically through advice and support for teachers. The ASE has worked closely with the University throughout its history. The current President of the ASE is Dannielle George, Professor of Microwave and Communications Systems, University of Manchester, who took the reins from Sir David Bell (VC, University of Reading) in 2016. The ASE runs an excellent programme of science Continuing Professional Development for teachers and technicians, from TeachMeets (informal events for local teachers to share their innovative teaching ideas) to national conferences.
The ASE journal ‘School Science Review’ (produced three times a year) is circulated to all secondary school science teachers who are members of the ASE (which is pretty much all of them). It is also sent to university libraries and education centres and is read worldwide. The September 2017 issue was on the theme of ‘Public Understanding of Science’ which covered subjects such as fake science, popular science and how to teach students complex concepts. I was extremely pleased to see 8 of the 14 articles in this special issue were by scientists from the University of Brighton and our School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (PABS) was featured extensively. There was an excellent article (We are all mutants) by Professor Timson, Head of PABS, which I am sure every A-Level biology teacher covering genetic mutation will find extremely informative and helpful in conveying this complex area. Professor Sosabowski, Dr Olivier and Seija Maata wrote about natural products and they even outlined 2 experiments that are suitable for A-Level chemistry. Dr Scutt and Dr Allen had written an article about using simulation to facilitate understanding of medicines. Dr Patel and Dr Ingram, together with two of our MPharm students (Simon Crane and Alan Mokree) and Marion Curdy, a Learning Technologies Advisor, shared the concept of mini lectures to support and enhance traditional face-face lectures for undergraduate students.
Jorj Kowszn from the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics provided a fascinating article, ‘The Village Election’, which was based on his introductory lecture to a third year undergraduate course on the Mathematics of Social Choice.
My favourite article was one with an extremely catchy title – ‘Scientific U-turns: eight occasions when science changed its mind’ – by Professor Sosabowski and Professor Guard. It gave some really interesting examples but, having carefully followed the evidence base for some of the examples such as MMR and Autism, a better title could have been: ‘Scientific U-turns: eight occasions when science provided more robust evidence’. But I admit that’s not that catchy!
Overall, an excellent special issue and one that secondary school science teachers across the country will benefit from. What a good way to demonstrate the reach of our efforts in the public understanding of science. Thank you to all those who contributed!