My name is Andy Darvill, I live in North Somerset, England.
You can contact me via
I teach Science (with a Physics specialism)
at Broadoak
Maths & Computing College in Weston-super-Mare, and
some ICT. I'm also the web site manager for the school.
My birthday present in 2000 was a flight in a hot air balloon.
Want to see some pictures?
I'm keenly interested in the use of ICT in
education, and have been responsible for acquiring much of the
software used in our faculty. Where we can't illustrate the
work with practical exercises, I'd much rather give the students
a computer simulation than simply hope they'll take my word
for it. I find that the Internet is great: students can be guided
to useful sites, and we can develop online materials to do exactly
what we need in lessons. At Broadoak, science staff teach all
aspects of science to KS3 (ages 11-14), whilst for KS4 (ages
15-16, i.e. GCSE) we teach our specialism where possible - mine's
physics, but I do biology & chemistry too.
Gained private pilot's licence (single engined)
1978.
Physics degree Bristol University, graduated 1981.
Whilst at university, gained more flying experience with the
RAF University Air Squadron.
After graduation worked for 18 months at
South Bristol College as an AV technician, before joining
BBC TV as a cameraman.
Worked on just about every type of programme for 10 years,
ranging from pre-recorded drama to sport, Outside Broadcasts
and other assorted live mayhem. Involved in running the dinghy
sailing club, and set up a part-time business producing wedding
videos.
Then the BBC made national cutbacks and I moved into radio
for a year, before returning to Bristol University for PGCE
teacher training. The above now comes in really handy for
teaching light & sound, and for lighting and shooting
school events - our new school building has some impressive
performance facilities, and I'm often involved on the technical
side in concerts, plays, assemblies and so forth.
Whilst on my PGCE I created &
taught a part-time adult evening course entitled "Get
the best from your video camera", and ran a juggling
club at my teaching practice school. There are students at
Broadoak who believe the rumour that I ran away from the circus
to become a science teacher...
I'm one of the trustees of the charity that
runs the Curzon Community
Cinema in Clevedon, UK,
running the web site, helping out with ushering from time to
time, and one of their team of projectionists.
I've written a fair bit of online revision
and exam material for the widely-acclaimed SamLearning
site, including nearly all of their "GCSE Science
for the 21st century" resources.
I was part of the BBC
Bitesize "SOS Teacher" team for several
years, and would still be doing so if their core funding
hadn't been withdrawn :-(
Since early 2002 I've been working
with Nelson
Thornes publishers on a variety of projects, including
the "Cut,
Paste and Surf!" series writing the Science
book and CD-ROM, and the Starter & Plenary CD-ROMs
to accompany their Spotlight
Science series of textbooks for Key Stage 3.
I also shot many of the video clips for
the "Powerpack" to accompany the Scientifica
series of KS3 books, and am currently working on material for
their new Key Stage 3 course "Fusion".
Andy Darvill's Science Site: About
me
