John Innes Centre

colony of bacteria

This could be a flower, but it's really a colony of bacteria. Image by Keith Chater, JIC

SAW Artwork

by Ellie Brown, age 8

Toxic Cake

A nice slice of cake,
just for you,
with yellow and white and pink and blue,
all flimsy and blobby,
glistening in the sun,
but you wouldn’t eat it,
it’s not like a bun,
it’s toxic and horrid,
and terribly bad,
if you ate it you’d die,
now that would be sad.

by Alistair Brand Age 9

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Science, Art and Writing

February 2009

A new book is being published by the SAW Trust, presenting art and writing inspired by science from the John Innes Centre and Institute of Food Research.

Science, Art and Writing (SAW) is a UK-based science education initiative that breaks down traditional barriers between science and the arts. SAW uses themes and images from science as a starting point for scientific experimentation, art and creative writing and in doing so stimulates creativity and scientific curiosity. The stunning science images and the artworks inspired by them have been collected together in ‘SAW Showcase’, published by the SAW Trust on February 28th.

In 2008 Professor Anne Osbourn led a series of projects aimed at taking research science from the Norwich Research Park-based John Innes Centre and the Institute of Food Research into Norfolk schools using SAW as a vehicle. The John Innes Centre and the Institute of Food Research are Institutes of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, who, along with the science outreach organisation Society in Science, provided funding for this set of SAW projects. 

“SAW is truly inspirational.  The children’s work is really outstanding, and I am very impressed by the quality of the poetry and artwork in this book.  As someone who has not specialised in science I can also add that I have learned a lot and quite simply had not previously been exposed to the beauty of science” commented David White, Chief Executive of Norfolk County Council.

‘SAW Showcase’ is the printed outcome of the SAW projects and illustrates the beauty and originality of this approach to science education. SAW is a fascinating initiative which results in a positive view of science by young people.  ‘SAW Showcase’ contains over 150 pages of colourful scientific images and the art and poetry that these images inspired.

This book, along with the book from the very first SAW project (‘See SAW’), is available to purchase from the Association for Science Education website:

SAW Showcase

See SAW

For more about SAW please visit www.sawtrust.org

 

Contacts:

JIC Press Office:
Andrew Chapple, Tel: 01603 251490, email: andrew.chapple@bbsrc.ac.uk

The John Innes Centre, www.jic.ac.uk, is an independent, world-leading research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 800 staff. JIC is based on Norwich Research Park and carries out high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels. The JIC also trains scientists and students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and communicates its science to end-users and the general public. The JIC is grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.