Culture, history and society
Honorary Fellows: Paul Cook
For his excellent work as a science technician in the education sector and his diligent work with students through numerous outreach workshops and projects.
Paul Cook is the senior lead technician at Ark Burlington Danes Academy and lead technician for the Ark Academy network.
He has worked as a senior/head technician for many years in various schools in Essex and across London covering all three sciences to A-level but with a specialism in physics.
He is an Association for Science Education (ASE) technician committee member and registrant champion for the Science Council and was The Ogden Trust’s first technician fellow.
Cook has a real passion for presenting demonstrations to help inspire and enthuse students by making scientific theory visible and understandable to all. He does this to a wide range of students across a number of schools in the network and beyond.
He believes that excellent technicians are vitally important to the practical impact of student learning within science and that the profile of Science Technicians should be raised at every opportunity.
He has worked for GATSBY as a technician advisor and as mentioned is the Ark’s network lead science technician, going into schools to help technicians and working with them to identify apparatus and set it up so that it can be used in lessons.
This is a role he is looking to continue and expand upon and this year it led to him being invited to the UAE to present in schools in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Cook runs hands-on practical CPD workshops across the country for technicians and teachers with some hosted at Ark Burlington Danes Academy and is involved in primary school outreach projects and presentations.
He has regularly presented workshops at ASE conferences and has run a physics workshop at the ASE National Technician Conference in York for several years that has always been fully booked.
He also supported the IOP’s Oxford summer school for non-specialist teachers.
In recent years he has become a multi-award-winning technician including a Rolls-Royce special Merit Award for work with ICT in science lessons and schools, and the Wellcome Trust award as a National Expert STEM technician.
In 2015 he was presented the annual Technician Award by the Salters' Institute.
In 2017 he won a Technician of the Year Award from Gratnells and in February 2019 he was honoured to be the first science technician to have been elected to become a fellow of the Institute of Physics.