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jone freihnd
kev

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Vanessa
Grade 8 - Biology (David will be doing earth and space)
Grade 10 - Biology with Bec

Science Physical 10 GradeScience Eath 8 GradeAcale Small Introduction 7 Grade

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Grade 8 - Physics
Grade 9 - Biology
Grade 10 - Biology

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Grade 8 - Biology
Grade 9 - Physics

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Encouraging girls into science is critical to filling future skills gap and boosting benefit of growth to the UK

Posted by Rebecca Paddick | January 29, 2017 | Secondary

A new study; 'Jobs of the Future', has revealed that science, research, engineering and technology jobs will grow at double the rate of other occupations creating 142,000 extra jobs between now and 2023. This is the year girls currently choosing their GCSEs are expected to start entering the workplace.

The study from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) was commissioned by EDF Energy, as part of its "Pretty Curious" programme to inspire more girls to consider science and technology careers. To coincide EDF Energy has today launched a new virtual reality film to help girls see successful women at work in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) related careers.

The report is based on SMF analysis of existing data, looking at the main occupation groups that fall into the science, research, engineering and technology fields, to produce an estimate of growth in these jobs over time, and detail on where these jobs are expected to arise. The research predicts that computing skills will be the most in demand with the highest number of new jobs.

Demand for traditional science and engineering-focussed areas such as research and development and specialised construction will remain high, driven by the Government's commitment to ongoing investment in infrastructure. However, even areas like retail, head offices, PR and consultancy and legal, accounting and financial services will also have high demand for science, research, engineering and technology skills between now and 2023.

Almost a quarter (22%) or 142,000 of the vacancies in science, research, engineering and technology created between 2016 and 2023 will be new jobs. The industries creating the highest number of new jobs include; construction (43%), specialised construction (63%) and retail and head offices (both 36%).

We rely on the talents of people with a variety of STEM skills and recognise the critical need to inspire more young women to enter these fields

To recruit the numbers needed to fulfil the expected demand for roles in 2023 and support the UKs industrial strategy, more girls will need to study science subjects at school, further education and higher education.

In 2016 there were an estimated 462,000 women working in science, research, engineering and technology (19%); if there was gender parity that number would be 1.2 million.

In addition, women are particularly underrepresented in the roles and industries identified in the report as likely to see the most job openings in the future, such as in computing services (16%), architecture (10%), specialist construction (8%) and construction (13%).

The energy industry is being transformed by new technologies, with customers wanting new ways to manage energy, and electricity generation switching to low carbon. As the UK's largest low carbon electricity generator, largest supplier of electricity by volume and biggest investor in future low carbon generation, EDF Energy has major requirements for STEM skills. It believes far more girls are needed to take up STEM careers to meet future skills requirements.

Sarah Flannigan, chief information officer at EDF Energy, said: "As well as investing in digital innovation and R&D to help our customers manage their energy better, we are building the first new nuclear power station for a generation. We rely on the talents of people with a variety of STEM skills and recognise the critical need to inspire more young women to enter these fields. That is why we're aiming to increase our intake of female STEM apprentices to 30% by 20183 and we hope by using innovative technology that appeals to teens, we will reach more girls and inspire them to consider science and technology careers."

As part of its "Pretty Curious" programme, EDF Energy has created a virtual-reality film that immerses girls in the worlds of three successful women working in the most in demand STEM-related industries in 2023, the year those currently choosing their GCSEs will graduate. Viewers will be transported to EDF Energy's offshore wind farm in Teesside with renewable energy research engineer Claire Canning, to the top of the Shard with structural engineer Roma Agrawal and to an East London shared workspace where computer coder Claire Mitchell introduces the girls to the community of coders that sit behind technology experienced daily.

The 'Pretty Curious' programme aims to change the perception of STEM subjects and help address the lack of women entering the industry.

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A new study; 'Jobs of the Future', has revealed that science, research, engineering and technology jobs will grow at double the rate of other occupations creating 142,000 extra jobs between now and 2023. This is the year girls currently choosing their GCSEs are expected to start entering the workplace.

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Environment

Tiny pieces of plastic, or microplastics, are everywhere - despite potentially harmful effects on the environment and human health. Here are just a few of the products in our day-to-day life that contain microplastics.

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Microplastics: Our daily companions | All media content | DW | 17.01.2018

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Environment Tiny pieces of plastic, or microplastics, are everywhere - despite potentially harmful effects on the environment and human health. Here are just a few of the products in our day-to-day life that contain microplastics.

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While the basic thrust of sexual reproduction remains the same throughout nature - sperm meets egg - some animals have evolved impressive adaptations to make it work. Dyani Lewis takes a peek.

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Chemical used in McDonald's fries may cure baldness

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Scientists have used the chemical to successfully regenerate hair follicles for the first time.

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The cheetah is built for running, with long limbs and powerful muscles that propel it along as it chases down its prey. But a new study has found that the world's fastest land mammal has another, less obvious adaptation hidden away in its inner ear. Scientists suspected that the cheetah might also rely on a specialized vestibular system, the part of the inner ear that detects head movements and helps animals maintain their gaze and posture. Using computerized tomography scans, they created detailed 3D images of the inner ear from the skulls of cheetahs and other cat species, from leopards to domestic cats. They found that the vestibular system took up a much greater part of the inner ear in cheetahs than in any other cat. The cheetahs also had elongated semicircular canals, parts of the system involved in head movement and eye direction. These features help the animal catch dinner by letting it keep its head still and its eyes on the prize, even when the rest of its body is rapidly moving, the researchers write in Scientific Reports. The extinct giant cheetah did not have the same features, suggesting that the distinct vestibular system evolved fairly recently, they say.

doi:10.1126/science.aat2000

More from ScienceShots

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Cheetahs' ears are crucial for catching dinner

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The cheetah is built for running, with long limbs and powerful muscles that propel it along as it chases down its prey. But a new study has found that the world's fastest land mammal has another, less obvious adaptation hidden away in its inner ear.

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Posted February 03, 2018 06:32:25

The biggest investor in cancer research in Australia needs to address an "inherent bias" in how it decides which projects get funding, an oncologist specialising in rare tumours says.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has previously been criticised for appearing to favour research into common cancers, which have comparatively high survival rates and attract more financial support from philanthropic groups.

Last year, a cross-party Senate committee recommended the NHMRC make rare cancer research an official priority, but the Federal Government agency is yet to decide on that.

As clinicians and medical scientists around the country prepare their applications for the 2018 NHMRC funding round, concerns are being raised about "major flaws" in the decision-making process.

Dr Nick Pavlakis, an oncologist specialising in neuroendocrine tumours at Sydney's Royal North Shore hospital, said he applied for an NHMRC grant on five occasions to help fund a clinical trial, but had no success.

"That's the hardest [thing] to swallow, because it's addressing an area of unmet need where there's a lack of evidence in a rare tumour subtype," he said.

A panel of medical experts assessing Dr Pavlakis' first grant application said the proposed trial, which involves a treatment known as lutate therapy, was not feasible.

The experts said neuroendocrine tumours were rare and they doubted enough patients could be recruited for the trial, something Dr Pavlakis disputes.

"We already had the numbers, I put that in there, but the people who reviewed it didn't believe us," he said.

'It's a system under pressure'

Dr Pavlakis said the experts chosen by the NHMRC to review grant applications for cancer research typically specialise in more common cancers and are unlikely to understand the importance of clinical trials for rare diseases.

"If it's weighted toward people who have a stronger interest in the common diseases, there's an inherent bias in that, not that it's deliberate, but it exists and you can't avoid that," he said.

"If you've got 30 grants to read on one night, you're tired, you can't tell me that you won't be inherently bias toward things you know better or more about than others - you will."

The CEO of the NHMRC, Professor Anne Kelso, conceded that was a problem.

"I really think the great majority of people are doing the best they can, but it is a system that is under pressure," she said.

"I think most of the time we get a very good set of assessors, but other times we're unable to get the absolute perfect person - because they might have a conflict of interest or they're not available or they're already reviewing too many other grants."

Dr Pavlakis did manage to get the clinical trial going, thanks to donations from the Unicorn Foundation, an Australian not-for-profit set up by a family affected by neuroendocrine tumours.

But without NHMRC funding, there have been compromises along the way.

"The trial has been adjusted because of the lack of funds, we're not going to get the strength of the evidence we were seeking, but we will still gain information that's not in the literature," Dr Pavlakis said.

'We try to find value for money'

Professor Kelso insisted grant applications were not judged according to how many people were affected by any one disease.

"I'd be very surprised if the fact that a particular disease was uncommon would be the reason that a project would go down," she said.

But Dr Darren Saunders, an associate professor of medicine at the University of NSW - who has previously helped the NHMRC decide which researchers get funding - said that was a consideration.

"What we try to do when we're trying to decide on funding is to look for the very best research, the most excellent research that will have the biggest impact and significance," he said.

"So we do look for things that are likely to impact a large proportion of the population. We try to find value for money, if you like."

Between 2012 and 2016, the NHMRC invested more than $112 million in research for breast cancer, which now has a five-year survival rate of 90 per cent.

During that same period, only $10 million was put toward oesophageal cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of just 20 per cent.

"The lack of funding for both research and treatment is outrageous," said Richard Vines, the co-founder of the advocacy group Rare Cancers Australia.

'Pushing people away' from rare cancer research

Professor David Thomas, the director of Sydney's Kinghorn Cancer Centre, said the disparity in funding has created a vicious cycle by discouraging aspiring clinicians and medical scientists from pursuing a career in rare cancer research.

"If they have a choice to study in breast cancer, where the money is... they're always going to go for breast cancer," he said.

"Because they have a greater chance of getting the money to do the research in the first place, and that is a problem."

That claim has been supported by statistics provided by the NHMRC, which show that over a 10-year period, the agency received more than 2,500 grant applications for breast cancer research - compared to just 143 for oesophageal cancer, and 127 for neuroendocrine tumours.

But Professor Kelso said while the NHMRC received fewer applications for rare cancer research, their overall success rate is roughly the same as other cancer types.

"I can't see that the areas of research specifically on rare cancers are having more difficulty than other areas," she said.

"It's simply that the numbers of applications are very much lower."

Dr Pavlakis said the NHMRC could turn that around by establishing dedicated grants for rare cancer research with applications to be reviewed by experts in that field.

"For fairness, we need to have a different panel to assess the rarer tumours," he said.

"Put the money aside and let us fight for ourselves among the rare tumour situation."

The NHMRC has just completed a review of its grants program with a number of changes to come into effect next year, including capping the number of applications from any one individual or research team.

Separate grants for early career researchers will be introduced to help inexperienced clinicians and medical researchers get funded, something Professor Thomas said was "diabolically difficult" at the moment.

But no specific measures to boost rare cancer research have been announced.
To hear Background Briefing's full investigation into rare cancers, subscribe to the program through the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Topics: cancer, diseases-and-disorders, medical-research, australia

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national health and medical research council

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'Inherent bias' present in cancer research funding, expert says

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Posted February 03, 2018 06:32:25 The biggest investor in cancer research in Australia needs to address an "inherent bias" in how it decides which projects get funding, an oncologist specialising in rare tumours says.

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Cape Town faces Day Zero: what happens when the city turns off the taps?

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In 10 weeks engineers will turn off water for a million homes as this South African city reacts to a one-in-384-year drought. The rich are digging boreholes, more are panic-buying bottled water, and the army is on standby

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Updated February 01, 2018 17:14:42

A "talking" killer whale in France that says "hello" and "bye bye" is thought to be the first to be taught to mimic the human voice.

Wikie, a 14-year-old female orca that lives in Marineland in Antibes in south-eastern France, was recorded on video imitating numerous human sayings including the name "Amy", and even blowing raspberries out of its blowhole.

Scientists already knew killer whales could imitate bottlenose dolphins and sea lions, but the research found Wikie was capable of copying the sounds of one of its human trainers.

Researchers at St Andrew's University in Scotland found Wikie made "recognisable copies" of all the six phrases they said to it, and picked them up "relatively quickly", according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Learning very quickly

The researchers attempted to get Wikie to mimic the words "ah ah", "hello", "bye bye", "Amy", "one, two" and "one, two, three".

The killer whale was tested 30 times for each of them and got "hello" and "one, two, three" on its first time.

It managed to copy "hello" correctly 55 per cent of the time during the trial, and "one, two" 36 per cent of the time.

Wikie made the noise with its head out of the water and with its blowhole exposed, which researches said was significant as it normally communicates underwater.

Although the subject did not make perfect copies of all of the sounds, "they were recognisable copies as assessed by both external independent blind observers and the acoustic analysis".

"This accuracy level is particularly remarkable given that the subject possessed a very different sound production system compared to humans," the paper said.

Specific voice of whales

Observations of killer whales in the wild have shown different pods to have different "dialects", specific to each group.

The researchers said this recent trial reinforced the orca's ability to learn through "vocal imitation" and can be maintained through social interaction.

They said it is possible their data represented a "conservative estimate" of the ability of killer whales' ability to imitate.

"Our data show that killer whales can copy sounds outside their usual repertoire - which is an important piece of information if one wants to know not only what a species does, but also what it can do, under a variable set of circumstances," the paper said.

Topics: animals-and-nature, animal-science, research, science-and-technology, zoology, human-interest, france

First posted February 01, 2018 15:19:22

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Killer whale that says 'hello' thought to be first to imitate humans

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Updated February 01, 2018 17:14:42 A "talking" killer whale in France that says "hello" and "bye bye" is thought to be the first to be taught to mimic the human voice. Wikie, a 14-year-old female orca that lives in Marineland in Antibes in south-eastern France, was recorded on video imitating numerous human sayings including the name "Amy", and even blowing raspberries out of its blowhole.

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How everybody differentiates in the classroom

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How everybody differentiates in the classroom

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Look at equipment for teaching such as Pine Wood Derby (physics)

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Look at equipment for teaching such as Pine Wood Derby (physics)

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Look at updating video resources to more modern science, discuss what's out there.

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Look at updating video resources to more modern science, discuss what's out there.

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Time to share what each class is doing at the moment

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Time to share what each class is doing at the moment

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Create a list of external resources that can either come into schools or we can go and visit

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Create a list of external resources that can either come into schools or we can go and visit

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Time to add all our cool videos / resources etc to unit scopes

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Time to add all our cool videos / resources etc to unit scopes

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Planning of common assessment tasks for each unit and grade

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Planning of common assessment tasks for each unit and grade

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(and subsequent moderation of student work)

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(link to microbiology unit?)

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swapping rooms every term??

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science based snacks for meetings

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List of experiments and demonstrations relevant to a year group and area.

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List of experiments and demonstrations relevant to a year group and area.

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More practical demos (last year's were fantastic!!

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Development of formative assessment tasks

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Development of formative assessment tasks