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Staff in the Lancaster Environment Centre have received £84,000 of funding to deliver a range of fun science and technology educational activities to school students from backgrounds which are under represented at UK universities.

The funding comes as part of the University of Lancaster’s widening participation programme aimed at attracting more students from these groups including pupils who are in care, who receive free school meals, who receive the 16-18 bursary, who have disabilities or whose parents didn’t go to university (except as mature students).

The funding will enable university staff to expand on a series of initiatives they have been trialling.

The ‘Research in a Box’ scheme allows pupils to experience research first hand. University researchers and school teachers jointly create a ‘box’ containing resources and equipment related to research in a specific subject area.

The first ‘box’ gives school students the tools to carry out a research procedure called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which creates a large amount of DNA from a very small sample.

“PCR is used in lots of things like forensics,” explained Dr Jane Taylor, who leads the Lancaster  Lancaster University’s School-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI), funded by Research Councils UK.

“The contents of the box include a PCR machine, micropipettes, agar gel, lab coats and gloves, chemicals needed to carry out the procedure and electrophoresis equipment to visualise and size the DNA that the pupils make.

“The idea is to introduce pupils to the world of research in their own school environment and to help them understand that research is not some ivory tower activity, but something that is relevant to their lives. We make sure that the contents fit in with the GCSE and A’level syllabus.”

Young researchers from the Faculty of Science and Technology have taken the box into schools and it is now available for teachers to borrow to use in their science classes.

The new funding will enable more PCR boxes to be produced, and mean university staff can work with teachers from schools with a high number of disadvantaged pupils to create boxes about different research areas.

In another initiative, Dr Carly Stevens, a plant ecologist who is a keen computer gamer, has been turning her hobby into an educational tool. She has created Science Hunters, an in-game environment which uses the popular computer game Minecraft to teach and enthuse children about science.

“Computer games are hugely popular amongst teenagers and young people and as such provide the opportunity for teaching science in an environment where young people, are at ease and used to learning complex ideas,” Carly explained.

“This funding will allow me to expand on work I have already been doing with schools and children with disabilities.

“Working with the National Autistic Society, I’ve created a Minecraft Club and having been running sessions for children with Asperger’s and Autism, involving children with a wide range of ages and abilities.

“I have also hosted a small number of school events on campus, which have been incredibly successful and we are now going to focus more on schools with a high percentage of pupils from disadvantaged groups.

“I would also likes to take Science Hunters to game conventions with an educational focus, such as Games Britannia, and to science outreach events, like National Science Week, as well as to more local events.”

The final part of the funding with be used to train PhD researchers and university students to take a variety of other activities into schools, and to encourage pupils from disadvantaged groups to apply to university.

“The long term objective is to increase the number and proportion of students applying and registering at Lancaster University from the target groups,” said Dr Kirk Semple, head of outreach at Lancaster Environment Centre.