Plenary Talks Summary

Prof Baroness Susan Greenfield: Learning in a Changing World

Baroness Greenfield looked at how the brain and learning may be influenced by the changing world. She considered three areas of scientific evolution that impact the environment in which today's and future generations will learn: computing technology, where she argued that increased use of computer screens is likely to have an impact on how we learn and what we become skilled at; nano-technology, where she used dramatic video evidence of the impact of advances in silicone chip/brain interfaces on Parkinson's disease sufferers to illustrate the merging of the body and the outside world; and bio-technologies, where she argued that advances are leading to a homogenisation of generations.

Baroness Greenfield provided vivid illustration on the biological impact on the brain from an enriched environment and from the power of thought alone. She concluded by mentioning work she is doing to combat sexism and promote women in science, and that of the Royal Institution, which is planning to organise facilities for students to explore experimentation in areas outside the National Curriculum.

Michael Morpurgo and Jamila Gavin: From Story to History and History to Fiction

Michael Morpurgo & Jamila Gavin come from very different cultural backgrounds but have much in common. They both possess the power to transport us to magical worlds; worlds where historical research meets imaginative literature. They built up their fiction against backgrounds so familiar and well loved that the reader feels at home immediately.

Michael Morpurgo, born and raised in Hertfordshire, brought up on a literary diet of Asterix, Tintin and Robert Louis Stevenson, told us that he travelled the world with those wonderful authors. As a teacher, he fed his charges on stories, acting out ‘executions’ in the Bloody Tower and filling the children’s heads with tales of wonder.

 Jamila Gavin, born in the foothills of the Himalayas and brought up at a time of Partition, explained that she started writing ‘her own story’ and realised that, what to her was her life and current affairs, was History to her readers.

They both used a combination of research and personal knowledge, empathy and imagination they created worlds where children can lose themselves and also where they can find themselves. They create love of narrative – a place where story meets history.