On Wed 11th May 2011 Professor Steve Rose, Imperial College London, spoke at Canterbury Catherdral as part of Simon Langton Grammar School’s Commemoration Day.
Professor Rose, Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London, was asked to speak at the event because for the last 5 years he has collaborated with Simon Langton Grammar School through an innovative research project. Through this project, school students from Simon Langton Grammar School were given the opportunity to undertake authentic academic research with academics from the Physics Department at Imperial College London.
Over the last five years Professor Rose has set the students real problems in Plasma Physics which hadn’t yet been solved and supported the students in their attempts to solve them. Thus giving the students an insight into what it’s like to be a scientist. The first research project undertaken at the school involved a group of 6th form students, supervised by Professor Rose, developing the theory underpinning the research work of the use of spectral data from distant astrophysical objects for geometrical analysis. The students made considerable headway with the research work; one of them publishing a paper on his work in this area and went onto win the UK Young Scientist of the Year award 2009 in part because of this research work.
As the students began researching at an early age, it blurred the divide between school and University. This model is beginning to be recognised as reshaping the way school students learn science. This new approach to science education has had a significant effect on the numbers of students studying physics to A-level and subsequently going on to study Physics or Engineering at University.
Around 1000 school students attended Professor Rose’ Commemoration Day talk at Canterbury Cathedral. Professor Rose said ‘It was a huge honour to be invited to speak at my old school on a subject that I feel passionately about – the importance of undertaking authentic research in schools.’