Millburn Academy wins bid for Year of Light competition funding.

Following a successful entry in the Scottish Optoelectronics Association Schools competition for 2015 International Year of Light, all S2 pupils at Millburn Academy had the opportunity to visit exhibits similar to those at science centres in larger cities.

Based in Inverness and not able to easily attend Scottish “year of light” events elsewhere in Scotland, Millburn Academy hosted an in-school mid-winter 'festival of light' with a series of activities based on optoelectronics.

With existing school equipment and optoelectronics kit from the successful bid Science staff designed activities to allow pupils to experience aspects of optoelectronics aided by STEM (Science Technology and Maths) ambassadors and senior pupils studying sciences at Millburn Academy.

Martyn Crawshaw, Principal Teacher of Sciences said: “We have 200 pupils in S2 and we held a ‘virtual’ visit to a science centre with 10 ‘exhibits’ set up in school over 2 days for all S2 pupils including those who may not normally sign up for extra science but may yet go onto a career in optoelectronics.”

Followed up by a short classroom presentation of ‘how it works’ theory by their teacher - each pupil designed and produced a Christmas card using an light emitting diode and watch battery which they took home with information about “2015 International year of light”

For further information visit the Scottish Optoelectronics Association website at: http://www.optoelectronics.org.uk/uk-schools-photonics-competition