National Year of Reading - What on Earth! - Scientists Making a Difference

In September 2026 all UK Secondary Schools will receive two copies of the book Scientists Making a Difference by Dr Shini Somara together with a pack of resources. This is a collaboration between publishers What on Earth!, the Gatsby Foundation and Imperial. We talk to teacher Jennifer Marchant who created the school resources to discuss the book, what schools will find in their pack and how they can be used within the science curriculum as well as in careers lessons.

There are linked resources online supporting the resources in the box and also CPD for teachers (starting in September and available to book now) to support them in using the materials.

For more information check out the dedicated website here.

Transcript

Katy 0:11

Hi, I'm Katy.

Ali 0:12

I'm Ali and welcome to Mostly Book Talk. In today's quick episode for the National Year of Reading, we're talking to Jennifer Marchant, who's an experienced science teacher, and she's been working with What on Earth to create resources to support a new book called Scientists Making a Difference. It's a project that's been created by What on Earth Publishers in collaboration with the Gatsby Foundation and Imperial College, and all UK state secondary schools will be receiving a pack of resources and a copy of the book in the autumn.

Katy 0:43

That's very exciting. So enjoy. So great news for schools. In September 2026, all UK state schools will be receiving a pack of science resources for a brand new book called Scientists Making a Difference. And this is a project that has been created by What on Earth in collaboration with the Gatsby Foundation and Imperial College. And the aim is to support career-linked activities in schools and hopefully inspire a whole new generation of young people to consider a career in the sciences. So today we have with us Jennifer Marchant, who is an experienced science teacher, and she has been working with What on Earth to make a full resource pack to sit alongside the book for schools to use. And we're going to talk to her about that. So welcome, Jennifer. Nice to have you on. Can you just start by telling us a little bit about your background and how you came to be involved in the Scientists Making a Difference project? It's good to be here.

Ali 1:45

It's been a really exciting project to be part of. And I think I got here partly by chance. I've been a member of the Association of Science Education for a long while, who are also working with Imperial and Waterleft books and Gets beyond this project and where the CPD is going to be delivered. So when they were looking for people to support with the teacher resources to bring this book into the classroom a little bit more and make it more accessible for schools, then they asked me if I would be interested because I've done some writing on various things for them before. So it was it was an amazing opportunity. I've really enjoyed reading out the different scientists and the different job roles that are available here in the UK. So many of them I hadn't even been aware of.

Katy 2:37

So it's been interesting for me as well. Nice. And just give us a bit of an overview. What's the book about? What will people find when they get the book?

Jennifer 2:45

The book is an amalgamation of profiles, like little interviews that are either a double spread or maybe two double spreads of many different scientists. And that could be from computer scientists who are working with the AI to environmental scientists, all whose job roles are largely based in the UK, although some of them do travel outside of the UK for their work as well. And these are not like the scientists that many students are aware of from what you're taught through the courses in schools. They're doing cutting-edge jobs. They are solving the problems that are the problems of the here and now. Some of them have been through a traditional university route, some of not. So it's it really should open the eyes of whoever's reading it too. What possibilities are out there? And also to what exciting things there are to come, because some of them are working right at the edge of modern technology and looking forward to what comes next.

Katy 3:41

And do you have a favorite one? Is there one scientist that you think, oh yeah, that is my favorite, one of their stories?

Jennifer 3:47

Well, it's really tricky because there are so many interesting stories now. I really like the story of Dr. Asel Sartbaeva. She is part of a team that has been, well, they're doing other things now as well, but historically they have looked at encasing vaccines to solve the vaccine wastage problem that happens when you need a vaccine in a hot country, but the vaccine needs to be refrigerated. And if you don't have a way of keeping the temperature cool, then the vaccine becomes useless. They can't be used in their programs. So what they came up with was a way of encasing that vaccine that meant that it could just be transported at a room temperature or a warm temperature. And that meant that it was a lot cheaper to provide vaccines because you're not having to account for high wastage.

Katy 4:39

Oh, interesting. There's a real emphasis on diversity in the book that science is for everyone. And how central was that in terms of the objective of the books? And how do you think that shaped what scientists they included in it?

Jennifer 4:55

I think it was really key because it's very difficult to imagine doing something when you don't know it exists. It's really hard to try and forge a path towards something that is invisible to you. And I think that was one of the core, core parts of this book, just like it was for the previous book in the set, is engineers making a difference. It's really trying to bring some of those slightly quirkier or harder to visualize areas of science to life and with a real diversity of scientists as well, from a wide variety of academic backgrounds and pathways into their jobs. Some of them knew for certain what they were going to do. Some of them almost, you know, landed in there via twists and turns along the way.

Katy 5:40

And there's examples from all different levels within the industry, isn't there? So you've got apprenticeships and technicians alongside professors and people who've already done very big things in their careers. Was that also a deliberate choice?

Jennifer 5:56

Yes. I I believe that making sure there was something that showed that scientific careers are for everyone who's just the people with doctoral professor in front of their name, or that you know they've got presence in here as well because they're leading big research teams. But if there are people there who have gone in through an apprenticeship route who are doing really important supporting roles or who are newer into research, so they're earlier on in their career and they're really finding their niche. So you've got a brilliant picture of people in all sorts of roles, whether they're on the like literally in the field in some cases or more lab-based. It's not just what people imagine when they think of a scientist.

Katy 6:40

Yeah. Okay. And so every secondary school is going to receive this pack in September. What's in the pack? What should they be looking out for?

Jennifer 6:49

So they're going to be two hard copies of the book itself, which has got beautifully coloured illustrations, sometimes with diagrams for showing a little bit more detail about what the projects are that those scientists are going to be doing. And schools can order more books if they want to have more books too. There's going to be a copy of the teacher's guide, which has got 22 whole class, whole lesson activities, and another 30 odd additional activities that can be expanded or just use the snippets with analysis as well. So a whole variety covering all of the different scientific topics, basically one per one per scientist from the book in there as well. There are worksheets that go with the 22 main activities. So being a teacher of people are only going to use things if it doesn't incur a huge amount of extra planning time. So we're trying to cut back on that. So it's really easy for everyone to integrate it. So there are worksheets that can be used. There are also PowerPoints that they can download online through the ASE part of the website, because there are two websites associated with this. And there's also online a mapping guide. So some of these are downloads that will support what's physically available in the box. And there's also going to be a timeline. And there are going to be 12 hot topic posters which relate to some of the chapters there. So protecting animals or like future and medicine or AI. So it's actually something that staff can put visually around their departments as well. So hopefully something that everyone can quickly and easily engage with. And then online, yeah, there's that mapping document. So it's easy to work out what can go where within the existing curriculum.

Katy 8:45

Okay. And so how do you see teachers using all of this? I mean, obviously you're you're making things as little work as possible to incorporate those into their classroom. How do you see it sitting next to their curriculum work? What year groups do you see it being used with? The resources are all aimed for ages 11 to 16.

Jennifer 9:04

So throughout key phase three, key stage four if you're in England, or S1 to five or six-ish if you can in Scotland. And the way that they're written, many of them could go in either of those kind of stages, depending on the detail that you want to include. But the mapping documents putting many of them where topics commonly first come up. So for example, filtration is something everybody does. But one of the practicals here is filtration, but looking at eDNA. So you've got the filtration practical, but with a careers-based spin on it. So there's a wind turbine making practical that you could look at when you're covering energy transfer. And it's just a slightly different tweak on what you traditionally imagine as a wind turbine, it's a trever style, like more vertical wind turbines. And then you've got an immediate link into a very new way of using wind energy. So most of them are going to be already where you would have a practical, almost all of them have got a very practical spin on them.

Katy 10:14

So and do you only envisage science teachers using them, or do you envisage that they might be used in career lessons or even by librarians? Or do you do you need the knowledge of the science to be able to make use of them, I suppose, is the question.

Jennifer 10:28

It depends on which practical it is. So it's actually designed so that there are some which are more careers focused, particularly we and the latter types of activities. There are some designed specifically for careers lessons. That's how schools deliver that particular aspect, or PSH in general, looking at different pathways to careers, looking at different levels of qualification, and even looking through the different profiles, because all of the scientists in it describe what their most interesting features of their careers have been so far, and getting students to think about what really inspires them, what gets them fired up, what things do they want as their key moments, and maybe using it as a bit of a guide towards their next steps, whether it's within science or not. So yes, there are definitely activities there focused elsewhere. There was also because there's computer science in there, it's not your biology, chemistry, physics science, there's computer science and specific activities for that.

Katy 11:29

And a few that link in with the geography curriculum as well.

Jennifer 11:31

So it's quite diverse.

Katy 11:33

Are they just going to be addressed to the schools generally or are they addressed to the heads of science? How are they going to arrive? Who's going to get them? It's a mixture.

Jennifer 11:41

So if there is a known named person who's either ahead of careers or ahead of science, then it will be going to them. If not, it will go to the school in general. Um hopefully with there is some words out there, then the heads of careers, the heads of science will be able to get to them wherever they land within the school. These will come out early September. So hopefully there are enough sciences to be able to locate the science departments.

Katy 12:06

Yeah, fair enough. And am I right that there's also some video interviews with the scientists that there are links to that that people will be able to access?

Jennifer 12:15

Yes, those are accessible now on the main scientists making a difference website. There are 15 of these with some of the scientists, many of whom are also ones where there's a key main activity focused around their work. So these videos can be shown again as part of those lessons to really bring those careers a bit more to life and to put some voices and faces to people who are doing this work. It's about making it more personal to students, not just saying this is a job out there.

Katy 12:47

It's a look, there are people doing this job out there right now. Yeah, that sounds really interesting. Is there anything else that people should look to in terms of how they work around that pack?

Jennifer 12:56

There's going to be some free CPD available through the ASE, the Association of Science Education website. And that can be accessed without the need to be a member. So careers staff, geography staff, computer science staff, people who wouldn't naturally be members of the ASC, or parents if they're home educating and would like to have something. Again, anybody can access this CPD, and that will happen from September. The sessions are now live to be on the book, and all of them will be free. And that will go through a bit more how to do some of the practical and how to link some of these into the curriculum without the need to put extra instance in because very few people have extra curriculum time.

Katy 13:43

No, I was going to say the curriculum is jan peck. And and I suppose that kind of relates to the other question I was going to ask you is that if you are a teacher who this box has landed on their desk and you're going, where should I start with it with your teaching hat on, what would your advice be in terms of where to start with it, where to most easily get some impact from that straight away?

Jennifer 14:04

I would say the best place to start is to go to the curriculum mapping document. This is on the ASD side of the website. So there are there are two interconnecting websites, but they have links to each other within them. So at the bottom of the ASD one where you can access CPD, there's a how to video, which goes through a lot of what we discussed. And yep, shows you some screenshots of that. And underneath, there's also a mapping document with some suggested places that you could link in these resources in just as a good starting point. It makes it less overwhelming to try and put some of these in. But as I said, the vast majority of them map into levels that will already be there without having to put anything new in. It's just about replacing a practical with a story behind it as well that integrates with that. Excellent.

Katy 14:59

And switching to the view of the young people experiencing being exposed to these resources, how do you think they will react to them? What do you hope they'll get out of them?

Jennifer 15:07

I think open range of scientists that they have chosen for the book are absolutely amazing. There are people from such a wide variety of backgrounds that I'm hoping all of the students who access material from this book can see a bit of themselves in somebody, regardless of their academic background or their cultural background, and that they can think, oh well, actually, this is maybe not what I first thought it was science. Then this is something that I could really get into, that it sparks their imagination a little bit. And even if it doesn't mean that they go on and do science, they're aware of what's going on in the world around them, the modern scientific developments going on, and they value that and they can see that science does actually impact their lives because all the things that they discuss are things that are impacting the lives of many, many people and the profiles of people are behind the scenes almost that you wouldn't normally see or hear from in many cases. So I think that's always good.

Katy 16:08

Lovely. Okay. Do you want just finally just to flag up the most quirkiest or the little facts that has stuck with you or anecdote that stuck with you from the book? There are genuinely so many of them that are amazing.

Jennifer 16:23

There are quite a few that are different, but yeah, there's one I can say about that I haven't already talked about and trying to get a variety. One of the things that I think is obvious when you think about it, but is really emphasized in the book is the importance of trees within our cities to cool the place down. So one of the case studies is about looking at canopy research basically and measuring the temperature at different intervals underneath a tree, uh at a different distance from the trunk of a tree. And if you go and do this, it's very noticeable the cooling effect it has. And the story behind it is all about the urban heat effect, basically. But in a modern world where we're getting more and more heat waves, even in the UK at the moment, then it's very relevant to just be aware of what we're planning our towns or cities and for people to think twice before they want to cut down inconvenient trees in their garden, for example.

Katy 17:16

Yes. Oh, it sounds really interesting. Well, thank you so much. I think it sounds like the schools are in for a treat in terms of what they will get. And hopefully this will help people make sure they look out for it and know what they have uh to expect from the pack. So thank you very much for your time. That's been really interesting.

Jennifer 17:33

Thank you very much.