Education Award 2011 Winner

Awarded for his services to chemical education, especially in the field of classroom based research.

About the Winner

John Oversby took Chemistry at Leeds University, and completed his PhD there in the radiation chemistry of carboxylic acids. After a PGCE in York, he travelled to teach in Ghana for three years and then in secondary schools in the UK for a further 19 years. He taught across the sciences and mathematics to 16+, A level chemistry, and politics, and was Head of Information Technology. While maintaining his interest in academically elite chemists, he also taught many children aiming at vocational and other careers, appreciating their delight in chemistry lessons which were interactive and engaging. His pupils used ICT for plotting graphs and writing newspapers long before PCs were created! 

From school teaching he entered the world of science teacher education at Reading University nearly 20 years ago. His courses were intellectually demanding, where science subject knowledge was embedded in sessions dealing with topics such as modelling, questioning, and, of course, ICT. Fourteen years ago his past students, persuaded him to convene PALAVA, a voluntary teacher research group exploring and carrying out small scale research in classrooms. Recently, he has led a European project in the UK on History and Philosophy of Science for children, working with 11 year olds. 

He is now international coordinator of a European Comenius Climate Change Education Network, and Education Researcher employed in a local secondary school. In RSC, he is Secretary of Thames Valley Section. He is also Chair of the Research Committee of The Association for Science Education.