Olympic legacy will make kids scientists

1:00pm Tuesday 6th March 2012 in News By Wendy Brading

A SENIOR Essex University lecturer has been involved in a nationwide initiative to create an Olympic legacy.

Dr Valerie Gladwell, a senior lecturer in physiology, has been advising the Wellcome Trust on the In the Zone project.

It will see every school in the country receiving a free experiment kit to allow students to learn how their bodies work during exercise, movement and rest.

The 5million project aims to create an Olympic legacy of an interest in science and movement. The kits, which are now being distributed to schools, contain equipment and resources needed to carry out scientific experiments related to human physiology.

They will help pupils explore questions such as whether having longer legs helps you jump further and what happens inside a persons body and mind when they take part in sport.

Dr Gladwell, who is based in the universitys school of biological sciences, worked with the Wellcome Trust project team as a sports science expert, advising them on the experiments for secondary school students.

She features in the Ive Got The Power zone for 16 to 19-year-olds, which explores how the body is powered during exercise.

She also helped to create the projects live data zone, where pupils will go online to enter their data, which can then be used by pupils and scientists in research.

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Olympic legacy will make kids scientists