The Institute has been successfully running one day conferences for teachers which are designed to link in with the materials, minerals and mining topics in the curriculum at secondary and FE level for a number of years. The full-day events generally consist of lectures from experts from industry and academia followed by a more practical session looking at how you can enhance your teaching of the topic back in the classroom.

The programmes are put together to improve the knowledge and understanding of teachers in order to raise their confidence in teaching the topic and raise achievement. Our conferences are free of charge for any teacher from a school that is a member of our Schools Affiliate Scheme to attend. Non-members can pay £30 to join the Scheme (download PDF 98k) and attend for free or pay the £50 non-member delegate fee.

In 2009 we ran two conferences. The first, at the University of Exeter focused on smart materials and included talks on shape memory alloys, piezoelectric ceramics, smart textiles and auxetic polymers and a practical demonstration of resources available from SEP. In October we ran the second event at the University of Manchester which concentrated on improving the delegates' understanding of the fundamentals of materials science and engineering with an aerospace context. The talks included information on alloys for jet engines and composites for air frames and the practical session looking at a resource developed at the university called ‘So you think you can design a jet engine’ went down a treat with the teachers.

In 2010 Nanotechnology-Small world, big ideas was held at The Boilerhouse in Grantham and was a great success.  The delegates found out how nanotechnology is being and could be used in a range of applications from construction to medicine.

Our next event for teachers will be taking place on 25 June 2012 as part of Congress 2012 in London.  More information about this event will be available shortly.