FT Project in Israel
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Paul Roche has just returned from a few days in Israel, working with the British Council to help promote science and technology to young people as part of the EU-funded RISE (Researchers in Society) project. On Wednesday 23rd Nov. he visited Bairuni High School, an Arabic school in Judaida-Maker village, and talked to around 250 high school students.
The students (who spoke English as a third language, after Arabic and Hebrew) were incredibly enthusiastic, and the event was a real success. Paul had been invited to the school by Kesar Anton, the school principal, and Yosef Kaiyal, the English language co-ordinator, and the visit was arranged by Sonia Feldman of the British Council Israel. After his talk, and many, many questions(!), Paul was presented with a thank-you certificate from the school and a number of gifts.
The following day he spoke to a group of around 100 students from all over Tel Aviv, at the Hemda Science Education Centre, and finished the trip with an evening science cafe talk to the general public on the subject of Mars exploration (and specifically whether we should continue with robotic missions or start planning human missions). The programme for the cafe can be seen here, in both Hebrew and English.
The evening ended with a party at the British Ambassadors house, to mark the finish of "Britain in Israel month". Sadly, and contrary to expectation, there was no sign of any Ferrero Rocher chocolate...
During the visit, Paul met with various members of the Israeli educational system and talked about the FT project and how it might be started in the Middle East. It is hoped that the first Israeli users will come from the Bairuni High School and the Hemda centre (which serves 17 Tel Aviv high schools).
