Thursday, January 29, 2009
Have Your Say. January 2009
An exciting range of free opportunities and resources to support innovation in teaching and learning.
Last year the Welsh Assembly ran a competition for young people aged 5-16 to give their ideas for how to reduce the carbon footprint of Wales. Last year's winners did not win a traditional prize; instead they were also made Climate Change Champions and asked to get involved in raising awareness of climate change in their school and local area. This is an example of how Wales is leading the way in the use of school councils and learner voice. The competition has now been launched for a second year with a new set of Champions hoping to be found. To read the views and activities of the Champions and more about this year's competition click here.
The Stephen Spender Memorial Trust runs an annual competition to celebrate the art of translating poetry from one language to another. The competition is open to under 18s with a closing date of 22nd May 2009. The task is to translate any poem from any language, classic or modern, into English. The winning entries will be published and winners also receive a cash prize. Details and an entry form.
The Royal Botanical Gardens Trust has launched a Sculpture competition for schools. The theme is The Environment - Minibeasts and offers over £7,000 in prize money. The closing date is 30th April. The website offers advice and ideas. Competition rules.
The Great Plant Hunt is a website designed to offer resources, ideas and events for Primary schoolsto celebrate the life and work of Darwin, two hundred years after his birth. In March 2009 the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew will be sending the UK's 22,000 Primary schools a treasure chest full of free resources to be used in the classroom, online and outside. There is also a chance to take part in a nationwide science project to develop The Millennium Seed Bank. The Great Plant Hunt website.
The Royal Mint has launched an exciting competition to design a new 50 pence coin to celebrate the 2012 London Olympic Games. The competition is open to all schoolchildren in England and Wales and really is a once in a lifetime chance to see your design on 50p coins across the UK. The website gives you a template and hints and tips on how to design your coin.
Saving Energy At Home is the theme of a new competition to design a poster only open to 6-9 year olds. Closing date is 28th February.
The Historical Association has launched a competition for 11-14 year olds to write a piece of historical fiction. Their teacher wins a prize too!
The Schools Linking Schools Network is a DCSF-funded website designed to support schools through the process of linking with another school as well as how to make good use of the link to meet their community cohesion duty as outlined in DCSF guidance and Ofsted recommendations. The website is the gateway for schools to register and link with other schools as well as the home for DCSF free resources and advice. The school linking website.
Art as we have never seen it before – with Google Earth. The main art gallery in Madrid has used technology in an innovative way to shed new light on some of the most famous paintings in the world. Even if you have seen the art before, this will give you a new perspective. The gallery has joined with Google Earth to offer the facility to view its collection using the magnification tools of Google Earth. This means it is possible to study a work of art not only at a closer range than is possible in a gallery, but also in closer detail than the human eye or a digital camera. The images of these works are about 14,000 million pixels, 1,400 times more detailed than the image a 10 megapixel digital camera would take. The facility is available on the Prado website;: great for students of art because it is free, new and easily accessible whatever your location. The gallery does not claim this is a replacement to seeing the art, but a complementary or different experience.