Should ALL drugs be banned in sport?

Doping in sport usually means the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but is can also mean techniques like ‘blood-doping’. “Drugs in Sport” the fifth in the series of free I’m a Scientist Debate Kits explores the ethical issues around the use of drugs in sport such as possible harm to the athlete and unfairness. This set of 8 characters will get students exploring the differences between different types of drugs and discussing their effect compared with non-drug techniques of improving performance. To get your free copy of Drugs in Sport fill in the form and we’ll send you one in the post (UK and Republic of Ireland only). What is a Debate Kit? The thinking behind the kits is that, for very sound reasons, the post-2006 GCSE curriculum calls for far more debate and discussion in science. However, simple-to-use and effective resources to support this are lacking. As it’s a relatively … Continue reading

Posted on March 1, 2012 by ModShane in News | 5s Comments

Strong demand for Drugs in Sport kit

Reading through the draft copy for this latest debate kit made me smile.  It was very good.  Sure, I’m a bit of an Olympics geek and general armchair sportsman, but I felt it provided great angles to debate a very contentious, yet easy to grasp, scientific issue – Drugs in Sport. It seems as though I’m not the only one who likes the sound of it. This is a quick update on how we are distributing the 2,000 kits that we have printed. Previous recipients of debate kits The first 4 debate kits enabled us to build a decent list of teachers who wanted them. Our evaluation showed that the kits were well used, but the last one to get posted out was in June 2010 so we thought it appropriate to ask those teachers to opt in to get the next one. We emailed the 1,543 people on that … Continue reading

Posted on March 1, 2012 by ModShane in Evaluation | Leave a comment

Debate Kits – final evaluation

The I’m a Scientist Debate Kits project is now over (for the moment). Here’s a summary of the evaluation findings, or you can download the full report at the bottom. Summary I’m a Scientist Debate Kits is a project to help get more debate and discussion in the UK’s science classrooms. It was a Gallomanor project funded by the Wellcome Trust Over the last 18 months we have produced and distributed four kits, on different biomedical topics. Altogether roughly 4,500 printed copies, on three biomedical topics, have been printed and distributed, plus a further 4,000 copies downloaded. They have proved extremely popular with teachers, apparently meeting a teaching need for high-quality, simple-to-use resources to stimulate debate and discussion in the science classroom. Teachers judged them to be very effective. The kits got students seeing different sides to an argument, expressing their opinions and backing them up with facts, and developing … Continue reading

Posted on June 5, 2011 by in Evaluation | Leave a comment

New debate kits unveiled

The teachers have spoken. They voted for legalisation of cannabis to be the topic of the next debate kit, and so, obedient as ever, that’s what we did. Our grant doesn’t cover printing and distributing this kit, so it’s online only. Just click the link below and print it out. Download Cannabis Debate Kit (normal size) (pdf) Download Cannabis Debate Kit (large print) (pdf) The debate kit is a simple-to-use role play on the topic ‘Should the UK legalise cannabis?’. Your students play characters with different points of view and have a structured debate. It helps to cover the following curriculum points:- AQA To evaluate claims made about the effect of cannabis on health and the link between cannabis and addiction to hard drugs. Some people use drugs recreationally. Some of these recreational drugs are more harmful than others. Some of these drugs are legal, some illegal. CCEA the effects … Continue reading

Posted on November 20, 2010 by in News | Leave a comment

Vote to choose topic of the last debate kit

People have made some brilliant suggestions of topics for the last debate kit. Thanks! Please vote for your preferred topic below:- [poll closed] BTW, There are some suggestions I’ve not included, for one of three reasons:- 1. It’s not a biomedical topic (e.g. renewable energy) – the Wellcome Trust fund us to promote debate and discussion about biomedicine. But we’d be happy to produce kits on other topics if someone else would fund it! 2. It’s a topic we’ve already done. Previous kits are on IVF funding, Stem Cells and ‘Are we too clean?’. You can download earlier kits here. 3. I couldn’t see a way to make a debate kit on the topic. e.g. Nature vs Nurture just seems far too big a question. It’s a fascinating one though and I’d love to produce resources of some kind on this. In fact I’ll probably be distracted for the rest … Continue reading

Posted on November 8, 2010 by in News | Leave a comment

Help us decide the topic for the last debate kit

Do you have topics you really want to get a classroom discussion going on? Do you find you haven’t got time to research and prepare resources yourself? Well your wish is our command! Our last debate kit is coming up, please let us know what you’d like it to be about. Here’s a list of topics teachers have suggested before to start you off. We’ll gather suggestions for a week, and then you can all vote for which topic you want. Please bear in mind that as the kits are funded by the Wellcome Trust, who are a biomedical research charity, the topics must have some relevance to biomedicine. Sad to say, the next debate kit will be our last, as we are coming to the end of our Wellcome Grant. This last kit will be online only, as planned. Some suggested topics Animal/human hybrids Animal organ transplants Designer babies … Continue reading

Posted on October 29, 2010 by in News | Leave a comment