Yasmin Gardner

Primary School Teacher/ Science Lead

What do you do?

Since becoming a teacher, I have loved teaching science! Science gives children an opportunity to investigate and to enhance skills beyond what any other subject can. Through the Science Ambassador projects, I have seen how pupils can be empowered to take ownership of their learning, fostering curiosity and leadership skills. Through hands-on experiments, workshops, and community involvement, we encourage children to explore scientific concepts and share their enthusiasm with peers. My goal is to create a vibrant, inquiry-based environment where science becomes a dynamic and exciting subject for all students. 

How are you involved in this area of science? 

Over the last 5 years, I have led science within my school. Through Covid, we worked closely with Durham University to continue our Science Ambassador projects remotely. This involved the children creating videos to showcase different experiments which could be shared with other schools. As the project continued, more schools were able to get involved and train together. Children were able to go back to their schools and share their passion for science.  

Through the Ogden Trust, I was given the opportunity to complete my Senior Teacher Fellowship. Noticing that children are not given many opportunities to explore science professions, I decided to create a series of films to exhibit different career paths in science. I looked at the Science National Curriculum and considered the vast number of roles in science might link with them – providing an opportunity to schools to showcase them. This gave children a chance to ask questions about careers which they were interested in and created links with physicists and schools.   

What do you love about this topic?

This project has given me a chance to work with children outside of the normal classroom environment and has allowed me to see children’s interest in science grow! I have loved seeing Science Ambassadors engaging with children back in school about different careers in science or about some of the investigations they have taken part in. I have heard them discussing science in the playground and dinner hall or before lessons. Seeing their confidence flourish has been amazing to see!  When they’re confident they’re coming to me to ask when we are next meeting or to give me ideas on what we can do next! 

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

At the start of every year, I ask the children in my class what they would like to be when they’re older. In past years this was mostly filled with hairdresser, footballer or gamer. I have seen a huge difference in my school in the attitudes to science and careers and an easy way to see this is in their answers. Astronomer, engineer, marine biologist are just a few of the phenomenal aspirations I now get to hear about! My ambassadors have led assemblies and science focussed weeks across school to share this passion as wide as they can. I hope this project will continue to impact children across many schools through the films and hopefully even encourage other ambassadors to add to the films themselves! 

Find out more:

• Take a look at some videos produced by our Science Ambassadors
• Find out more about the work of The Ogden Trust