New Summer 2015 Science and Food Technology Catalogues out NOW!

The new Summer 2015 Science and Food Technology Catalogues from Better Equipped are out now, packed full of innovative new products, lower prices and exciting promotional offers. 

Key highlights include:

• OVER 500 PRICE REDUCTIONS across our range of Science Equipment. Look out for the ‘New Lower Price’ badges throughout the catalogue.

• £12.98 in FREE GIFTS with your first order over £125+vat from our new Food Technology Catalogue, including a FREE KitchenCraft Oven Mitt Offer.

FREE Laser Pen with Every Order Placed Online

We are pleased to offer a FREE LASER PEN worth £9.98 with each and every order placed on-line (irrespective of order size).  These lightweight pens are useful for optics demonstrations, diffraction work and for highlighting points on projected charts and images, and of course can be great fun as well.

This New offer of a FREE LASER PEN is in addition to existing FREE Gifts on offer for orders of over £60+vat spent on food technology products and for orders over £175+vat spent on science equipment.

In order to receive your FREE Laser Pen then simply add product code 0969 to your basket before you checkout - the £9.98 cost of the Laser Pen will be deducted from the total cost of your order. 

This free Laser Pen features:

- A very tight beam for a small spot

- Class 2. Less than 1mW so approved for use in schools 

- Powered by 2 x AAA cells (supplied) 

- Momentary push button operation

Please follow this link to view the Laser Pen On offer:

http://www.betterequipped.co.uk/laser-pen-offer

New Spring 2015 Catalogues Out Now

Look out for our new Spring 2015 Science and Food Technology Equipment Catalogues. They are now available (week commencing 5th January) and are packed full of everyday low prices, great value promotional offers and exciting new products.

Key Highlights include:

FREE GIFTS available to all customers with their first order from this catalogue (minimum order values apply).

FREE DELIVERY on EVERY order over £75+VAT for UK mainland delivery destinations.

LOW PRICES. Our prices are set to match or beat the cheapest price in the market.

QUALITY GUARANTEED. All products are guaranteed for a minimum of 1 year and we offer a no quibble guarantee!

If you wish to receive a copy of either brochure then please request a copy via our contact us page: http://www.betterequipped.co.uk/contact/

New Improved Website www.betterequipped.co.uk

We have just re-designed and re-launched our website. It’s really easy to navigate and use and you can shop using your existing school/college account. You can also pay immediately or request your order to be invoiced for later payment, whichever is most convenient!

Other highlights include: 

• Over 2000 NEW Food Technology products on-line & available for the Autumn Term

• New Comprehensive Safety Section

• New improved search functionality

• Easier navigation to help you get to your products quicker

• Log in to enable quicker ordering & checkout

• Log in for fast re-ordering and repeat ordering of items

• Log in to track the status of orders

• Ability to save your shopping basket for later order completion

• One account number used across your on-line orders and financial invoices

Please take time have a look for yourselves at www.betterequipped.co.uk

More Thought For Food Required

Better Equipped are pleased to announce the launch of our latest food technology catalogue which features a significantly larger range of products to help bring food technology lessons to life.

‘There’s no doubt just how important food technology is as a subject’ said a company spokesperson, ‘ we live in a time where there’s a tremendous enthusiasm amongst all ages for food programmes such as Masterchef but at the same time we have rising incidence of obesity and declining levels of understanding of both what is meant by a balanced diet and more fundamentally where food actually comes from. It’s clear there’s a knowledge gap around food provenance, preparation and positive nutrition and at the same time there’s an opportunity to  harness enthusiasm for cookery programmes in order to educate school children about food fundamentals. In short Food technology lessons can play a critical role in providing more thought for food.”

Recent research by the Global Insight Agency ‘Future Foundation’ shows that for example over half of children questioned believe that potatoes count towards their ‘five-a-day’ total, and perhaps more surprisingly that 10 per cent also think carrot cake counts. Research last year by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) also revealed that approximately 30% of primary school children thought cheese came from plants and nearly one fifth believed fish fingers were from chicken.

As well as almost doubling the number of products featured, our latest brochure also features both everyday low prices and some great promotions to help schools get the most out of their budgets. We hope that the launch of a new Larger Food Technology Range will in some small way help enable engaging food technology lessons and help to fill the Gaps in knowledge around where our food comes from and what exactly is meant by a balanced diet.

Helping To Bring The Science of DNA Into The Classroom

We are pleased to introduce the second of three new Science Catalogues for 2014 which amongst other highlights includes a big increase in the number of Biotechnology products featured.

Out now, our summer term brochure sees the size of our Edvotek Biotechnology range double and introduces new products such as ‘Mystery of the Crooked Cell’ and ‘M12 Electrophoresis Apparatus’ to a range which already features resources such as ‘What Does DNA Look Like’,  ‘DNA Fingerprinting Made simple’ as well as fundamental pieces of equipment such as PCR machines and UV Transilluminators’.

There’s no doubt that many students possess an inherent interest in the study of DNA, in part fueled by programmes such as C.S.I. but there’s also a belief by some that it’s ‘out of reach’ science for them. This new larger range of biotechnology equipment is aimed to help bring the subject of DNA to life, make it engaging, easier to understand and of course affordable for schools. 

Using biotechnology resources from our range is a great way to make learning engaging and memorable. Our kits take the complex subject of DNA for example and apply the science in a way that helps students to absorb the information, and appreciate its use and value in the real world. There are plenty of studies that suggest children find it easier to learn when they are doing something practical, and biotechnology kits are the perfect way to do this. By expanding our range we hope that in some small way we can help convert students interest in the subject of biotechnology & DNA into learning and understanding of the subject.

Using History to Bring Science to Life

An article by Andrew Holding in the Guardian stuck a chord with our own experiences of learning science as a child and also seemed to reflect the enthusiasm for certain science lessons seen in today’s students.

The essence of Andrew holdings article is that 'Neglecting the rich history of science when teaching it is a missed opportunity to connect the subject to the world around us.'

Andrew states that teaching the stories and characters behind scientific discoveries makes the difference when engaging students on a particular topic. ‘Storytelling is nothing new and has played a role in education for centuries, if not millennia. But with the pressure of working towards examination, many teachers and students lament the lack of time spent beyond the syllabus. The stories and characters behind the science are often as fascinating as the science itself, or sometimes just mind-bogglingly strange.’

Sharing the real life stories behind the science is a technique the producers of TV docu-dramas would use and that’s why the often manage engage the masses in what would otherwise be viewed by much of the audience as pretty dry subject matter – it’s the human angle which brings the subject of the science to life and which enables the subject to connect and cut through with it’s audience.

A great case in hand is the 100+ year journey to the discovery of DNA and all the individuals involved in this journey, starting in 1869 when Swiss biochemist Friedrich Miescher isolated a new substance from the nuclei of white blood cells through to James Watson and Francis Crick’s paper of 61 years ago. Studying the history of each step on this journey will surely help engage students and help cement a better understanding of the science behind DNA. 

Bringing the Science of Forensics into the Classroom

Using forensic laboratory equipment is a great way to make learning science engaging and memorable. It takes basic scientific ideas and applies them in a way that helps students to absorb the information, and appreciate its use and value. There are plenty of studies that suggest children find it easier to learn when they are doing something practical, and forensic science kits are the perfect way to do this.

Forensic laboratory equipment gives students the chance to learn, practice, and apply a wide range of skills. Below is a list of some of our forensic equipment and kits, and information about the skills and experiments they teach children.

New Food Technology Range From Better Equipped

We currently supply science equipment to around 4000 UK secondary schools & colleges and this spring term we are excited and pleased to offer a new range of food technology products.

Our first food technology catalogue is out now and is packed full of products to help bring food technology lessons to life, and with everyday low prices, promotional offers and volume discounts it will also hopefully help you to get the most out of your budgets as well.

Using Forensic Laboratory Products as an Aid to Teaching Science

One of the challenges constantly facing science educators is making their topic relevant. This applies as much to the relevant bodies governing education as to its students.

Science contains a lot of large, complex ideas. Students can often find it hard to engage and relate with these ideas, especially if they cannot see how this knowledge will benefit them in the real world. Students can be very shrewd when learning new topics, and the question 'when will I ever need to know this?' is one that every teacher will surely have heard.

Call for Practical Science Experiments to be Protected in Curriculum

The Council for Science and Technology expressed in August its intention to write to the education secretary raising concerns over the science curriculum. The Council warns that the current focus on exams is squeezing practical laboratory experiments out of the curriculum. If things continue to progress down this path, the idea of school microscopes being a mainstay of any science lesson could soon become as antiquated as students playing with mercury.

Cramming for exams crowds out practical learning

In a letter to education secretary Michael Gove The Council for Science and Technology (CST) warns of the loss of practical science lessons as schools focus on preparing pupils for written exams. 

The council says that without practical learning, science lessons would be "like studying literature without reading books" and are lobbying for laboratory experiments to be protected in a shake-up of GCSEs and A-levels in England.

The CST, which provides strategic advice to the government says that the focus on exam grades is "pushing inspiring practical work into the margins as teachers concentrate on preparing for examinations". In it’s letter to Michael Gove the council states that practical learning should not be an optional extra but that laboratory based experiments are the "essence of science and should be at the heart of science learning"

The council believes that the changes to GCSEs and A-Levels should provide an opportunity to integrate more practical experiments into school science with teachers encouraged to "devise innovative and challenging practical based science curricula for their students, including more independent, project-based work".

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "The Council for Science and Technology rightly notes that our reforms 'will give teachers space and freedom' to conduct more experiments and practical’s. By scrapping modules and January assessments, our reforms will end the constant treadmill of exams and leave more time for experiments and practical’s in science. We have also prioritised experiments in our new curriculum. Pupils will focus on practical work in primary school so they are ready to move on to more advanced laboratory work in secondary school."

Accompanying the letter from the CST is a report which argues that there has been a "steady erosion" of laboratory skills in school science over the past 20 years so let’s hope the planned changes provide an opportunity to reverse this trend.

Council for science and technology

http://www.bis.gov.uk/cst

FREE On Site-Technical Support

Better Equipped is pleased to announce that Alan North has joined as Sales and Technical Coordinator. 

Alan brings with him many years of experience in the field and will be happy to provide free and relevant help, support and advice to our school and college customers as required. Please feel free to contact him on 07711 032862 or alan.north@betterequipped.co.uk
Alan can offer technical support via phone, email or face to face on site. This free service includes training, demonstrations, honest advice & support and stock items for you to evaluate at your leisure. Furthermore we are always willing to support events for technicians and teachers. Please get in touch with Alan if you are organising such an event and would like Better Equipped to attend.

We have moved

We're pleased to announce that we've moved to new, bigger premises. We've only moved a couple of miles from our previous base but our new warehouse has significantly more space and will enable us to expand our range more and hold larger stock quantities required to guarantee the fast delivery and high levels of customer service you've come to expect from Better Equipped. More importantly this extra space will also enable us to buy bigger quantities from our suppliers which will help us to further drive down prices for you.

 

Our new address is Wrenbury Business Park, Wrenbury Road, Wrenbury, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 8EB.

 

Please note that our phone, fax and email details will remain the same: Freephone 0800 970 7142, Free Fax 0800 066 4443, Email sales@betterequipped.co.uk

Our Biggest Ever Range

Over 2000 top selling science resources available

Following our move to bigger premises we now stock an even bigger range, in fact it’s our biggest ever range of science resources, with over 2000 top selling items available at www.betterequipped.co.uk

 

Furthermore if you can't find what you need, please contact us and we will look to source and supply your items at a market beating price!

 

And please don’t forget that across our range we continue to offer FREE DELIVERY for EVERY order over £75 and as before, there are NO CHEMICAL DELIVERY SURCHARGES on orders containing Chemicals for UK mainland delivery destinations.

Science in Schools – Why Does it Matter?

With constant budget reviews, the cost of teaching every subject on the curriculum is often under scrutiny. Even the main subjects haven’t escaped. Science is a relatively expensive subject to teach, needing specialised equipment, facilities, and staff, so it is hardly surprising that the costs involved in doing so are being examined.

It is worth understanding the importance of a strong education in the science subjects. High quality of teaching, and of the equipment available for students to use in their experiments, is vital in ensuring that pupils get the most out of their science education.

Economic benefits of science

Girls Shine on BTEC STEM Courses, We Just Need Numbers to Rise.

Pearson, the organisation which awards BTEC qualifications has shared data which shows where girls participate in skills based science and technology courses they outperform their male counterparts by being more likely to achieve the top grades.

Despite this success and as per science participation in a broader context boys significantly outnumber girls on STEM BTEC courses, but figures from Pearson also show that albeit from a low base the number of girls taking BTEC qualifications in STEM subjects is increasing.

This year, girls made up 5% of students taking engineering at BTEC Level Two, taken alongside GCSEs but more than a third (37%) of these girls gained a distinction, compared with 20% of boys.

In information technology (IT), girls made up 38% of the student population at Level Two but around a third (31%) gained a distinction, compared with 21% of the boys.

Rob Bristow, president of Pearson in the UK, said: "Still too few girls make the next step in a Stem-related career by studying these subjects at university. This is something educators, business and government all need to work on and put right."

"We know STEM skills are crucial to the high skills economy we will need in the future. Too often these are seen as 'boys' subjects'; today's figures show that, when girls do sign up to these vital subjects, they flourish."

The figures also show girls are out-performing their male colleagues in science, and while more girls are choosing to study science, technology, engineering and maths  (STEM), experts have warned that low numbers were going on to study these subjects at university and to have careers in these areas.

Helen Wollaston, director of WISE, (Women into Science and Engineering) said: “These results prove that girls can do science, IT and engineering; in fact, those that choose these subjects do better than boys. At a time when UK industry is crying out for more people with STEM qualifications, we have to get more of this female talent into the workforce."

Calls For Government Action To Get More Girls Studying A-Level Science.

The government is being urged to launch a nationwide careers service which would work alongside schools to encourage more girls to study science A-levels with the overall aim of increasing the number of women working in science.

Women are under-represented in a number of career sectors including science, technology, engineering and maths and the business select committee is pressing ministers to launch a nationwide careers service to address this under-representation.

The committee's chair, Adrian Bailey MP said: "We need to change the culture in schools which in so many cases presume there is a set of career paths for women.  A young person's influences are their peer group, teachers and parents. It's breaking into these groups to make them aware of the breadth of opportunities available that will make the difference."

The report highlighted inadequacies in the careers advice offered to young women and said the government should set targets for encouraging women into apprenticeships into sectors such as science, technology, engineering and maths where they are perennially under-represented.

The committee shared some worrying facts including the fact that only 20% of A-level physics students are girls, only 5% of fellows at the Royal Society of Chemistry are women and that women represent just 12% of workers in the field of astronomy.

The government has two months to respond to the report findings.

The full report on women in the workplace can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/news/on-publ-women-in-the-workplace/

UK Science Teaching Gets Vote Of Confidence - From Pupils!

A recent study commissioned by Wellcome Trust and carried out by Ipsos MORI asked 460 young people aged 14-18 about their experience of science education to better understand their interests and needs. A principle finding of the study is that for the most part pupils give a positive report on their own experience of secondary school science lessons.

Furthermore as a result of this positive classroom experience pupils also have an enthusiastic outlook towards careers in science, it’s a recognition of the great work science teachers are doing to engage and inspire the next generation of scientists.

Key facts from the study are that 82 per cent of pupils surveyed think school science lessons are interesting, and 58 per cent say they are more interesting than maths and English lessons. 82 per cent of young people also consider science to be a good area of employment to go into with 41% stating a level of interest in pursuing a science career.

So a key finding of the study reaffirms what many people already know - that the role of science teachers is absolutely critical in encouraging young people to enjoy, engage with and want to learn science. The irony is that many schools struggle to employ enough appropriately qualified science teachers and according to the Schools Workforce Census in 2012, only 55 per cent of physics teachers had a physics degree, 66 per cent of chemistry teachers had a chemistry degree and 79 per cent of biology teachers had a biology degree which again highlights the commitment of those who are teaching science to help inspire the next generation of scientists and hopefully the next generation of science teachers as well.

Source: Wellcome Trust Monitor

To Review the full report download the ‘Wave 2 research report’ document at the link below:

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Publications/Reports/Public-engagement/WTX058859.htm

EU Project Aims to Boost Undergraduate Studies in Science

EU Project Aims to Boost Undergraduate Studies in Science

by Increasing Engagement with Science Lessons at School

Across the EU the number of students enrolling in science degrees (especially in physical sciences) has decreased over the last decade. With the objective of reversing this trend an EU funded project 'ESTABLISH' (European Science and Technology in Action Building Links with Industry, Schools and Home) is looking to secondary school classrooms to become the catalyst for change.

11 European countries are collaborating in the €3.8m funded project which brings together a broad spectrum of the scientific community including teachers, parent groups, policy makers and academic researchers with the remit of driving change in classrooms of 12-18 year old pupils.

The project teams approach is to develop and implement innovative Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) units and teacher education programmes which will be adapted for each country across Europe.

Led by Dublin City University with coordination by Dr. Eilish McLoughlin the project aims to drive greater interest in science subjects at school, improve the take-up of science at university and also increase the number of career ready science and technology graduates.

Industry will play a key role in helping inform the project of real life experience of science in day to day applications as the ESTABLISH team seeks to help establish connections between science taught in the classroom and science carried out in industry.

ESTABLISH has already developed a number of new materials and resources  which are focused on developing authentic experiences in science, and to accompany this has also developed education programmes to help teachers adopt these new materials into their existing teaching plans. The project hopes this will help to improve engagement, stimulate learning and promote intrinsic motivation in students, and with the knock on benefit of raising awareness of career opportunities in science and technology.

For more information, please visit:

ESTABLISH

http://www.establish-fp7.eu/