Bringing science to life in schools

Science has been brought to life for children during the Zoolab Tour currently visiting schools involved in our Meteor scheme.

The Food Web was the theme of a Zoolab session involving children from Newport Primary School in Middlesbrough. They looked at the vital role which sunlight plays in our lives and how animals such as a cockroach, frog, snake, tarantula, rat and giant snail fit into the food chain.

Sasha Mullen and Sophie Fixter were among children who enjoyed getting close to some of the different creatures brought to the session by Zoolab.

Really enjoyed seeing the animals Sasha, aged ten, said: 'The snake was slippery and wriggled about a lot. I liked the snail too, it felt a bit slimy. I really enjoyed seeing the different animals.'

Sophie, aged 11, said: 'The animals were really friendly and it was good to be able to hold some of them. I learned that a cockroach can live for 14 days without its head and that it breathes from little holes near its legs. I was really surprised.'

Zoolab run a range of curriculum-based workshops for children through workshops which complement the National Curriculum.

Inspire children to think about higher education During its two-week run the Zoolab tour will visit around 500 children at schools from our Meteor programme, which aims to inspire primary and secondary school children to think about higher education.

Along with the Food Web, other Zoolab tour topics include the Rainforest Roadshow, which introduces children to some of the animals which live there and Habitats, which looks at how animals adapt to their surroundings.

The tour has been organised as part of the Meteor Programme STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Integrated Education Strategy. This is funded by One NorthEast, aimed at helping promote awareness of science, technology, engineering and mathematics with young people in the local area.

The University first launched Meteor in 1999 as an initiative to inspire primary children from six Middlesbrough schools to think about the benefits of further and higher education. Since then Meteor has expanded massively and now includes young people in secondary schools throughout Teesside.

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