Engaging with the community
Festival of Sport
New scheme helps raise
children’s aspirations in science
F
OR THE FIRST TIME, QMU took
part in the East Lothian Sports’
Award Ceremony. The event,
which took place in Musselburgh’s
Brunton Hall in October, honoured and
celebrated the achievements of many of
the county’s sports people and sports
clubs.
QMU sponsored the ‘Volunteer of the Year’
award, which was presented by Johnny
Elmer, Vice President of QMU’s Students’
Union. This award recognises an individual
over the age of 25 who has dedicated their
time and devotion to a sports’ programme
in the East Lothian community. All of the
individuals who were nominated within
the category demonstrated leadership,
dedication and devotion to the importance
of sports for the youth. The winner of the
award was Margaret Kerr, who was part of
the Saltire Team Gymnastics organisation. ❒
Enterprise
Exhibition and
Awards Dinner
Q
MU WAS DELIGHTED to
support the Mid and East
Lothian Chamber of Commerce
‘Enterprise Exhibition and Awards’
event that was held in October. The
University, which is always keen to
support community projects and
business development, sponsored
the ‘Business High Growth and
Innovation Award’, which was won by
biotechnology company, Ingenza.
Guest speakers at the event included Ken
Barclay, Head of RBS Corporate Banking
Division and Fergus Ewing MSP, Minister
for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism. ❒
A
NEW SCHEME FOCUSED on raising children’s awareness of science
is being piloted at QMU.
The ‘Researcher in Residence’ scheme is part of the University’s community
outreach work and involves children aged 10 – 11 at a local primary school.
Three QMU researchers visited children at Towerbank Primary School in Portobello.
The young academics created fun, interactive sessions that demonstrated aspects
of their research projects.
The challenge for the researchers is in making PhD level research accessible to
primary children. However, the academics obviously hit the mark with their entertaining
sessions as feedback from teachers and the children was overwhelming positive.
Zoe Roxburgh, speech researcher, used two different types of technology to show
children what their tongues were doing inside their mouths during speech. This
included pioneering ultrasound technology developed at QMU as well as an iPad
app that showed the general motions that the tongue, throat, and mouth make when
producing certain sounds.
She explained: “Through the use of an ultrasound scanner, children, for the first
time, were able to view all the different shapes that an actual tongue makes when
forming different sounds. For example, they were able to see where the tip of the
tongue was when creating the sound ‘L’ as well as tongue movement at the back of
the mouth to form the sound ‘G’. The children seemed to really love the visual stimuli
of the ultrasound, as well as the iPad app, as they were able to mimic exactly what
they were seeing on the screens.”
Zoe also tried to raise awareness amongst the children that there can be a huge
variation as to how different people speak. She suggested that they shouldn’t be too
quick to judge people on the way they sound.
Two researchers from Dietetics and Nutrition also had great fun with the children,
exploring different aspects of taste and diet. The school pupils especially enjoyed the
food rainbow that raised awareness of different food groups.
Dr Wendy Beautyman, Lecturer in Researcher Development at QMU, said: “This
is a new community engagement project that brings science to life. It emphasi