We live in an extraordinary time of rapid technological development yet there are limited opportunities for public engagement with researchers. This project aims to open the doors of research to significant new audiences through dialogue activities and family activities linking STEM and the arts/humanities. We will develop the following through working with EPSRC researchers and through SEAS:1) Dialogue Activities - Public lectures, talks and debates with active researchers. (inc. Meet the Scientist, Question Times, Lab Visits and use of Science Horizons and DEMOCs (Deliberative Meetings of Citizens materials).2) Family - Including shows with practical demonstrations. - We will work with researchers to shape lively and topical content and develop memorable, inspiring demonstrations incorporating cutting edge research. Family activities will include challenge-based events. There are many tested ideas. Examples may include: Design and build a robot, Design, build and fly a remote controlled model plane carrying a digital camera, Design, build and race a car, a Scrapheap Challenge, Fly a model helicopter, Build remote controlled 4 by 4's, Role playing (Flight school training, Build a water pump for a remote African village), etc.3) School Programming. Content similar to family but with curriculum link and strong focus on skills and the of process of science and engineering. There will also be careers talks and a careers conference utilising Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAS - volunteer practising Science and Engineers) as role models.The main GUSF 2008 festival will run in June 08, with an estimated 15,800 attendances, 8,000 of which will be those specifically engaged in EPSRC related activities. Prof. Miles Padget will act as adviser on EPSRC research strands both from within Glasgow University and across Scotland. Social, ethical and/or cultural issues surrounding science and engineering will be central to the festival. We will use the experience of the TSA to shape a cost effective festival that facilitates EPRSC dialogue and discussion. The TSA was set up ten years ago to create and deliver memorable learning experiences for children and adults. The group has hosted the local SETPOINT since the start of the SETNET initiative (www.setpointscotland.org.uk). The Science and Engineering Ambassador (SEAS) scheme (www.setpointscotlandseas.org.uk) is central to the teams work. Team projects employ an investigative approach with an emphasis on topical applications, and are built on collaboration with industry. The team wish to now build a collaboration with EPSRC researchers. The team use a large number of approaches and have delivered, promoted and managed a wide range of local and UK National STEM learning experiences. These have included local clubs, teacher CPD, team-building for pupils and teachers, community fairs and events in shopping centres, National competitions and schemes, have included Junior Engineers, YEB, support for YEC, CREST, Make it in Scotland, Tomorrow Inventors, Nuffield, Shell, BP, and INTEL projects. All challenge based activities focus on young people's skill development. Fundamental to our approach is active learning. Science and engineering and education should be experienced as a verb and not as a noun. Activities are delivered in collaboration with careers organisations, teachers, and a large number of practising scientists and engineers. A particular emphasis is put on co-operation between education and industry, and learning that is fun. Cost effective delivery models and mechanisms are vital to success.

We propose to produce a robotics based technology project that is targeted at pupils in the upper two years of the primary school. The project will include classroom activities as well as the full spectrum of the written material. Four teachers from the two pilot schools will provide the expertise to turn the technical ideas into workable project material. An associated web site will provide additional pupil resources, space for the display of pupil work, and a repository of information to aid the classroom teacher.Associated with the project will be a mobile exhibition that will provide the pupils with a more advanced hands-on experience of many aspects of present day and future robot ideas. Contract science interpretation staff and postgraduate students will be involved in leading pupils and their teachers though a set of guided activities. As with the previous static robot exhibition, we will be using the expertise of Falkirk Museum Services to help with the overall design of the exhibition layout and logistics.

From cookers to concrete: Understanding the environmental impact of buildings will engage school children in a web-based game designed to develop their skills in recognising where carbon dioxide is produced in buildings and what they can do to reduce it. The proposed engagement project aims to instil demand for more environmentally benign methods of construction and building use in future generations of construction clients and the public as building users. The work seeks to increase awareness of the potential that marked shifts in design and construction methods (such as the use of innovative construction materials and servicing methods to achieve zero-carbon buildings)) have for maintaining our quality of life in a sustainable manner. It is necessary to inspire future building users to demand the use of new technologies and new practices so that they will become commonplace without need for regulatory mandate. The project will last twelve months and has been designed to coordinate with the school calendar. The project will be evolve over three phases. The initial phase will be the development phase and will involve the educational partners and researchers and the creation of a database; a series of building model animations and a public interface for the game specifically and the project in general. The second phase will be a strategic piloting phase within our partner schools, two at primary level and two at secondary. This phase will involve an iterative process of developing educational material tuned to the specific requirements of the different age groups. The third and final phase will be the implementation of the game and support material within the schools and the dissmenation of the project outcomes. The implementation will be designed to meet the needs of the specific schools and the material will be developed to allow a flexible delivery. The dissemination will be through various media but will culminate in an exhibition to be hosted by the Lighthouse and will showcase the work of the schools.

It is hard not to have a fascination for the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). No other catastrophe in history of the world was so far-reaching and all encompassing. Even the death of the dinosaurs does not look quite as bad when compared with the PTME because, even though these terrestrial giants were wiped out, lots of other things survived, especially at the bottom of the ocean. In contrast, no environment, no habitat and no location was safe at the end of the Permian. Death struck in the deepest oceans, in the shallowest waters, and from the equator to the pole. Understanding what happened during the PTME, ~250 myrs ago, and how life recovered is the subject of a new NERC-funded research programme. Called Eco-PT, it is a major collaboration between British and Chinese scientists. The finger of blame for the PTME points to a giant volcanic region in Siberia. These erupted at the time of the extinction and belched out huge volumes of damaging gases. This included carbon dioxide which is thought to have caused dramatic greenhouse warming and lead to dangerously hot, oxygen-poor and acidified oceans - all bad consequences for marine life. What isn't understood is why conditions got so bad - there have been other giant volcanic eruptions that have not done anywhere near so much harm. The project will look at the extinctions on land and in the sea to examine when and how these two very different ecosystems collapsed. Did everything die at once or did the extinction on land precede that in the oceans or vice versa? China has the best rocks in the world for such a study and intense collecting of fossils will help answer these questions. Precise controls on the age will be achieved using new, ultra-high precision age dating involving uranium decay in volcanic minerals. It is also possible that there was feedback between the terrestrial and marine extinctions, for example plant dieback on land may have changed nutrient input into the oceans and so altered plankton populations that normal food webs were no longer sustainable. The potential causes will be investigated using the latest techniques. Thus, a new technique, involving analysis of molecules in fossil pollen will be used to asses the role of ozone loss. Other volcanic gases, such a sulphur dioxide may also have been involved in the terrestrial extinction and this role can now be investigated by examining trace concentration of sulphur compounds and their isotopes preserved in terrestrial rocks that formed at this time in China. State-of-the-art modelling approaches will also be used to better understand regional and global climate changes during and after the mass extinction and to reconstruct the style of ecosystem recovery. Climate modelling of different scenarios will enable these conditions to be better understand and will help us understand the nature of super-greenhouse worlds with greater clarity. The prolonged recovery from the PTME is also one of the most fascinating intervals of the world's history. Some groups bounce back quickly whereas others remained in the doldrums for millions of years. The recovery style varied greatly; some groups show an increase in diversity but not their disparity whereas others show an increase of both. What this meant for ecosystem stability and its resilience (ability to cope with further stresses) will be investigated using ecosystem modelling approaches that look at interaction between species and the interplay between form and function in terrestrial animals.