Ian B Dunne - Do Science Ltd

School Science Days

A typical day in School (if there is such a thing)
These days work well.
In a primary school I will take over the hall for the morning and then do a science show or two differentiated by key stage if need be.
The Show will normally be Science ...The Best Bits and will include some demos, lots of pretty pictures and specimens and rove from astronomy via carnivorous plants to singing dinosaurs.

For the rest of the day, I would go in individual classes answering questions and telling tales of how the world got to be as it is.
There never seems to be enough time for all the things they want to know but I'll do my best.
I also tell science stories, Darwin and Faraday are two I like best.

In Secondary schools it seems I'll do a show, Great Moments of Science or   Science Magic...Magic Science
seem popular. I'll do shows in the hall during the day for as many audience as required.
and maybe one in the evening too.

There are activities both outside and inside that I can do, particularly for primary.
and there are workshops for secondary, especially G&T.

Science Fairs

I have been involved with Education Business Partnerships for a good few years, and they keep asking me back so I must be doing something right.
People are very kind and say things like I put the "WOW" into Science, or "You were the best thing about the whole fair."
So if you are organising one and want the kids to go home zinging with some amazing science rattling around their brains then get me to come along.

Typically the show is 40 minutes to an hour when I take as big an audience as the room will hold and I fit in as many shows as I can.

Story telling : The Science Storyteller

My Science stories are about some of the great and the good (and bad)
who have discovered things, made things, invented things or just had great ideas.
More and more schools seem to be getting me in for their book weeks, either for a simple bit of story telling or some science and storying.There are stories about everything and for every body.
Pick a subject, go on, just about anything, and there will be a story about it, and with luck I might even know it.
Not just science, and stars, rocks, trees and dinosaurs but people and even things that strictly speaking might not exist.
If the worst come to the worst I might even make some thing up and see if you can spot the joins.

Storying is the oldest form of drama and entertainment.
People often think it is just for kids but that goes to show how wrong people can be.
I have made people three times my age jump and laugh.
Maybe it goes back a million years or more to our ancestors who first learned to talk sitting round the fire telling tales to fill the long nights and keep the ravenous creatures of the dark away from their dreams, who can say for sure.
But I know that deep down we all love a tale.

Moral tales, why such and such is so and so, history, stories of fairies and giants, there are just so many.
Best of all I like a good bit of mirth and nonsense.
There is something to tell everybody that will, amuse, entertain and maybe even educate them a little.

As a good Scientist and Educator I have been told off for doing most unscientific ghost stories and tales of the supernatural, but, I just can't resist them.

The look of fear and wonder on people's, especially adults, faces, the jump of shock and the nervous laugh are so worth it