Science Interest Group
Some members of The Moray Coast U3A have indicated that they wished that their education had included more science education. This is because there are aspects of the role of science in the modern world that they would understand more fully if they had a more thorough knowledge and understanding of science. To support this, we started a Science Interest Group.
The aim of the group is to look at various aspects of science; how these aspects relate to our everyday lives both in terms of material welfare and in terms of altering our understanding of nature in its broadest possible sense. Sessions will be designed to be accessible to complete beginners.
Our initial team was:-
Ian Collacott; Group Leader and specialist in Microbiology and Virology
Roger Hull; Specialist in Cosmology
John Mills; Specialist in Chemistry
Taster Sessions
We ran three meetings in the 2018-2019 Session. These were in March, April and May of 2019. This was to determine if demand was sufficient. As both demand and feedback were encouraging it was decided that the Science Group would run on a regular basis for the 2019-2020 session.
It was proposed by the group that meetings should take place on the Third Thursday of the month at 10:30 a.m. in the Snug of the McBoyle Hall, Portknockie. Sadly the Covid-19 epidemic and subsequent lockdown spoiled our plans.
Taster Session 1
The first meeting of the Science Group was on Thursday 21st March at 10:30 a.m. in the Snug of the McBoyle Hall, Portknockie. The title of the presentation was, “What has Chemistry ever done for us?” A PowerPoint Show file of the presentation can be downloaded by using the link on the right of this page.
Taster Session 2
The second meeting of the Science Interest Group was lead by Ian Collacott and the working title for this meeting was; "Infectious Diseases that haven't Killed You..........yet!" The meeting, on Thursday 18th April, was well attended and we were treated to an interesting and informative talk on the history of vaccination and its undoubted benefits.
Taster Session 3
The final meeting of the Science Interest Group for the 2018 - 2019 session was on Thursday 16th May, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. in the Snug of the McBoyle Hall, Portknockie. The presentation was delivered by Roger Hull. The title of the talk was "The Weird and Wonderful World of Modern Physics" The aim of the talk was to equip those who attend with the basic ideas to understand "The theory behind cosmology (and everything else!)"
Recent Meetings
The Meeting on Thursday 19th September was organised by Ian Collacott who gave a brilliant lecture with the title "An Introduction to Microbiology"
The meeting on Thursday, 17th October, was again organised by Ian Collacott. He continued to develop the theme of "An introduction to Microbiology".
At the meeting of the Science Interest Group on Thursday, 28th October, John Mills gave a talk on "The Periodic Table". 2019 is the 250th anniversary of the introduction of the Periodic Table.
There was no December meeting as our usual day was so close to Christmas. On January 23rd Ian Collacott gave an inspired first part of a two part presentation on "Fungi".
Next Meeting
The Covid-19 epidemic and the fact that two of our three leaders have now moved out of the area has put the future of the group in doubt. We hope to have more meetings in the future.
Use the "Click to Send a Message" facility on the right of this page to send a message to the group leader, especially if you have a science background and can help.