Gatsby is committed to supporting practical science in schools and colleges, having supported the British Science Association's educational programmes for a number of years.

Gatsby is now partnering with the BSA to produce new guidance for teachers on how to embed open-ended extended investigative projects, such as CREST Awards, into the secondary curriculum. At present, most of the students who achieve CREST Awards each year complete their project work outside of the curriculum, which adds to teacher and technician workload. By building CREST Awards into curriculum time, however, teacher workload is reduced whilst students' skills and experiences within STEM are greatly enhanced. This comprehensive guidance will be a valuable tool for any teacher looking to benefit from project-based learning in the classroom.

Our previous partnerships

The BSA has worked with Gatsby to support teachers using practical science through Demo Day, an annual campaign held during British Science Week.

Demo Day aimed to inspire secondary school teachers and technicians to explore new concepts, provoke discussions and generate excitement through running science demonstrations. It has run successfully in hundreds of schools across the UK.

In 2014, we released Demo: The Movie, a 30-minute film which follows science teacher Alom Shaha as he goes on a journey to explore the use of demonstrations in science teaching.

In 2015, we created a new downloadable resource, Demo Insights. This resource is full of ideas and demo insights for teachers, including tips, stories and thoughts from professional science communicators.

In 2016, we had more Demo Day pledges than ever, with over 655 teachers, technicians and science communicators pledging to take part.