Science lesson held for teachers

Teaching took an about-turn last week when a group of teachers from south-east England were given a lesson on how to make science more fun.

Over 20 science and geography teachers from throughout the region attended the special training day at Imperial College's Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

They learnt how to build a seismometer and use seismograms at the session, devised in partnership with the British Geological Survey (BGS).

"This project is a great idea, and provides hands on experience which I can feed back to my school and help train up other teachers," said Phil Aspery, head of Physics at Forest Secondary School in Snaresbrook.

Part of a nationwide bid to get more teenagers interested in studying science, BGS has launched the UK School Seismology Project to improve physical science participation rates.

This follows the government's launch of Project Enthuse earlier this month, which, with financial support from the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline, aims to encourage more pupils to study science.