9 June 2008

Literacy and learning go crazy

School children in Dundee have been treated to a visit from Dundee Science Centre staff today, as part of a project held in conjunction with the Dundee Literary Festival and Dundee City Council.

Children from Longhaugh, Rosebank and St Mary's RC Primary Schools have been reading Crazy Creatures by Gill Arbuthnott and have benefited from a programme developed by Dundee Science Centre and the Leisure and Communities and Education Department of Dundee City Council. The children have each been given a copy of the book, which has been paid for by Starbucks, and will meet the author and ask her questions as part of the Literary Festival on 19th June.

The children’s teachers have worked with the various departments to refine lesson plans that promote literacy and science.

Education workers from Sensation have gone into classrooms and taken DNA from each child which they have then made into a necklace and talked about how our DNA makes us who we are.

Anna Day, director of the Dundee Literary Festival said, "We take literacy very seriously at the festival and wanted to include as many children as possible. We're working with teachers to provide a fun way of getting children into books - and helping them stay that way."

Clara Cromar, Education Officer at the Dundee Science Centre says, "I believe this project is a fantastic opportunity to integrate science and literacy in a fun and exciting way."

Stuart Syme, Senior Library & Information Officer, says, "We are always looking for unusual ways of bringing books and young people together. Generally, boys are less keen on reading than girls and prefer non-fiction to fiction. Also, girls are less keen on science and facts than boys are. So, by using an accessible and highly entertaining book, Crazy Creatures, by award winning publisher Barrington Stoke we aim to let girls see that science and facts can be exciting, and boys that books are fun."

The Dundee Literary Festival runs from 19th to 22nd June and is sponsored by Apex Hotels. For details of the festival, go to www.dundeeliteraryfest.org.

For media enquiries contact:
Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk