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SAC Researchers Hook Hawick Pupils On Science

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Hawick primary children got excited about science this month, catching their enthusiasm from SAC postgraduate students Jill MacKay and Louise Buckley. Jill and Louise, both PhD students from the Animal Behaviour & Welfare Group at Bush Estate, were taking part in Hawick’s first ever science festival.

Normal classroom activities were suspended as P5 pupils from across the town’s schools travelled to the town hall for a week of science-based activities.

Jill explained, “It is so important to find ways to get children engaging with science now if we are to encourage more teenagers to choose a scientific career. That’s why events like this are so invaluable.”

Jill and Louise devised and delivered their own workshops. Jill got students considering issues of experimental design by creating a simple study obviously biased to benefit the females amongst the group. This yielded lots of discussion. The boys weren’t shy at coming forward to argue that the study wasn’t fair and ‘needed improving’.

Louise’s workshop took a different approach. Children carried out their own experiments to investigate the behaviour of Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches. The group found out that male cockroaches are more active than female cockroaches. The boys felt this was because the females were lazy but the girls argued that the male cockroaches were just more scared so were trying to run away.

Louise summed it up well, “Hawick Science Festival was great fun.  I cannot wait to get involved with the next festival.  Events like this are as rewarding to the scientist as to the student as they give us a chance to communicate our work to a whole new audience.”

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