Science, Nature and Tech

A Day in the Life of… a Structural Engineer

You might be starting to think about which subjects you want to study at school, perhaps you have even had a talk about careers.
One thing that is quite tricky to assess is what a job is REALLY like. Some jobs are quite easy to imagine, such as working as a teacher, because we see the work that teachers do every day. Some jobs are a bit of a mystery. What does an engineer actually DO? And what do you have to study, to become one?
Today we are introducing a new series of articles, which will show you the typical working life of people in many different professions. If you know someone who has an interesting or unusual career, ask them if they would agree to a short interview with us to show kids a day in their life.

We were lucky enough to interview Tasha Scott, who was happy to explain to us her studies and career as a Structural Engineer.

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Home, Health & Style, Popular

A Controlling Friendship – A Bully By Another Name

Have you ever had a friend who made you feel bad? Maybe your friend was mean to you sometimes, and confused you. Or she (or he) would ignore you because you had done something wrong.
We all fall out with our friends on occasion, even us adults. It is a normal part of life.
When the friendship is one-sided then it is a different story. Then we might say it is a ‘controlling friendship’.

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Home, Health & Style

Have you ever wondered…about your teeth?

Have you ever had a tooth pulled out by a dentist? If you did, you may have noticed something odd. The roots were probably still attached to the tooth, unlike when a tooth falls out normally. What happens to the root of a tooth, how do teeth grow and why is it important that you take care of them? Samantha Gouldson investigates! 

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Sports

Stories from the Stables – Part 4 – Summer Camp

Summer Camp at the Stables, from Carolyn Ward

Once a year, in August, Stourton Stables had a summer camp.  Fifteen lucky kids were invited to spend a whole week with their pony, grooming, tacking up, and riding every day.  There would be a jumping competition and picnic hacks, a visit to the three counties showground, and a swim at the leisure centre.

I was allocated Heidi, a grey mare with a snotty attitude. Literally. One of her tricks was to toss her head about whilst being ridden and flick massive globs of snot and foam backwards into the rider’s face.

Aside from the snot, she was zippy and responsive, pleasant enough to ride; but her main problem was she was evil to groom and tack up. She was a biter and a kicker. Hence I gave an audible groan when they announced we would have to wash our pony’s tail. Drat!

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School & Career

What is The Point in Learning … History

Have you ever sat in a Maths class wondering if you will ever have to do long division without a calculator once you leave school? Or silently cursed your Geography teacher while learning about the formation of oxbow lakes?
And History? That’s all in the past and irrelevant, isn’t it? In this series of articles, we will look at some of the subjects we learn at school, and try and answer the question: What’s the point in learning this?

Last time we looked at uses of Physics, both in day to day life, and in careers. Today we will focus on History – the study of the past and how our society came to be as it is. Here are some ways in which studying History is useful to us:

 

Critical Thinking

Thinking by Elisabeth Haslam

Thinking by Elisabeth Haslam

When we study history we don’t just learn lists of facts and dates off by heart. We read lots of opinions about what happened and why, and come to our own conclusion. We base these opinions on two types of material, primary sources which are texts and drawings created at the time of the history we are studying, and secondary sources which were written after the event.

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