Earlier this week, year 5, 6 students were thrilled to participate in science engagement activities led by visiting science education expert Michael Gregory. Michael is an experienced science teacher turned science stage performer, and has been a leader of several European networks of science educators, both formal and informal: EuroScienceFun, Scientix, Science on Stage, and CERN teacher programs.

Year 5 followed a series of simple experiments to understand the science behind how different parts of the eye work.  The students summarized key findings in colourful hand-drawn diagrams of the eye.

Year 6 learned to perform various experiments from Michael’s science show “Particle Detectives”, which he developed for CERN in 2023.  Anyone interested in learning the experiments can access the open-source script and experiment guide on the CERN Science Gateway website.

Michael had tested one of the earliest first versions of the show on a previous visit to Mougins School in June 2023, before travelling from Mougins to CERN, where he continued to develop the show before taking it on tour around the world.

Once the Particle Detectives script was published on the CERN website, Michael started using the resource to train students to perform for others, first with fellow CERN ITW alumnus Christoffer Akpeloo in Ghana, then last week in Serbia, and this week back in Mougins, where it all began!

A student in year 10 who came after school to watch an upgrade to one of the demonstrations said; “I remembered Michael showing us a green fire tornado back when I was in year 8." .... the upgrade in this case was from green flame to black fire.  

With year 12 students, Michael and Johnny led discussions about CERN, particle physics, and enrichment projects which they hope to undertake over the summer and throughout next year.

Michael is currently based in Valencia, Spain, where his PhD research brings together his experiences in Mougins and connecting with science educators around the world.  Michael is the community manager of EuroScienceFun - the continent’s largest network of science performers, and until moving to Spain he was the main national coordinator for Science on Stage France.