Making education accessible to everyone
01 July 2008
Steve Acquah is a postdoctoral associate researcher in chemistry working for Sir Harry Kroto in the department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Florida State University.
He is a science presenter for 'Science With Acquah', part of the Global Educational Outreach (GEO) initiative which was created by Sir Harry Kroto to provide a free resource of educational material.
Q What is your academic research in?
A My research is currently focused on producing carbon nanotube hybrid materials and creating new self-assembling biomaterials.
Q How did you get involved with Outreach and why is it so important?
A The work on Outreach officially began when
I arrived at Florida State University, but it was probably more of an extension of the work I was involved in during by tenure as both the manager of the University of Sussex Chemistry Society and president of the Science Society.
The concept of finding the best teachers from around the world to teach the world is one that is extremely important, making education accessible to all regardless of age and location.
Q How do you find the time and resources to carry out these activities?
A Finding the time to film episodes can sometimes be difficult especially with commitments to research and student supervision, however the Mediasite recording equipment at Florida State University allows me to quickly record and publish presentations with post production as an added bonus.
Where else can you be a research scientist in the morning, a secret agent in the afternoon and still have time for tea with Harry by 4pm?
Q How can new technologies be used to enhance education and what is your vision for the future?
A One of the things I like to stress is the need to 'continually change the rules of the game' in respect to the format of the media in which we provide education.
There will always be room for the blackboard, but with so many consumer gadgets such as iPods and next generation smartphones, it's more important than ever to make high quality educational material available on demand.
It certainly won't replace the need for teachers in the future, but I believe that it will make their job easier allowing more time to focus on the more challenging topics within a curriculum.
Q Is your material mainly aimed at education for children, or can you see it being used for adult based learning?
A The best part of this initiative is that we make education accessible to everyone. We have content that is designed for children and modules for teachers. Undergraduate and graduate students have also recorded short presentations about their research allowing the wider scientific community and the public to see the progress of their work.
