Mr. Sam Adam Berry BSc. (Hons)

Right, I haven't seen a film this good in a while. Put simply, I'm going to buy this the day it comes out in the shops. I loved it, it was highly amusing with silly humour, with a romance story and had some real though provoking moments (especially when considering how dependant on computers and machines we're becoming. I don't want to spoil the storyline so I'll just say what is in the trailer. Basically humans have trashed the Earth and there were robots that had the job of clearing all the rubbish up. However it got too bad and the human race had to leave to space; but they forgot to turn a robot off - WALLE. So this cute little robots carries on regardless for hundreds of years clearing rubbish up daily. But he starts to develop a personality and becomes highly inquisitive, consequently a little lonely. The the arrival of another robot called EVA would change his day to day routine forever.

Another thing, the little short films that PIXAR show before the films they make. They are always good, but the short that comes with WALL-E is brilliant. Had me crying it was so funny. Can't wait to watch this again on my future WALL-E DVD lol

Disney and PIXAR have done a good job me thinks.

Love to all,
Sam xx

OK, I'm sorry it's been a while but I have been having the time of my life pretty much 24/7 and I haven't had enough time (or wanted to spend time) writing about it. So I've finished Uni now and got my results. For those who knew at the time I was worried about an exam (I passed but not by very much, coupled with the bad results I got from semester one it has brought my overall to a 2-1); I'm still very pleased with this result.

Also Jujitsu has been going really well. Entered into the BJJA Nationals in the under 75kg continuous fighting event. It was a knock-out tournament and I was knocked out at the semi-semi finals where by the luck of the draw I fought the guy who would then go on to win the gold medal. What made me feel slightly gutted was that I was only beaten by 1 single bloody point, grrr. So now, he's my target in the International South-End Competition where you can bet that I'll be next year.

So I'll keep you updated when I can be bothered lol

love love xx
Sam :D

I cried in this film :P Hasn't happened in a while. So the film isn't related to the film Rambo at all and is all to do with the films psychological effect on one child. Basically the lead boy is a son to a family who follows a christian religious cult (or brethren). This boy goes to a community school and so to preserve his innocence is not allowed to make contact with the other students or watch the TV programs that they watch in class (even the educational ones). So when the boy is sent out of the class during a TV session, he meets his to be friend; who was sent out for being a nightmare child. So they begin talking and end up back at this childs house, where the boy sees a movie, Rambo. He is amazed and this film sets his creativity and imagination through the roof. He and the other boy 'Lee Carter', decided to film a film and enter it into a young film makers competition. But there was to be trouble in the way, as everyone in the school finds out about the film and wants to be a part in it.

This film delves into how a parental influence on a child's development, really can change the way a child behaves and interacts with others. The fact that the family was part of a brethren meant that the mother was being told how to bring up her child, but they never had the child's best interest at heart; something that the mother realises at the end of the film. I really liked this film, and I'll probably get this one on DVD, so go and see for yourself - another film that should not be missed.

love love xx
Sam :D

Another fantastic Easter School. OK, was a bit of a dipstick and forgot to ask the teachers if they had parental consent for photographs. Consequently, I don't have any photos with kids in them. However, I didn't get the opportunity to take many as I was having so much fun learning about the sciences (especially the Audiology department), I didn't take many photos anyway.

This time round, I was a night mentor. However, because of limited communication between Physics and the "legend" who was collaborating with the departments at the University to organise this; we were not sure how many assistants were coming for the physics event - so my services were employed for the day as well (keeping me active all day). I also had to take over a mentor group for the last day because one of the mentors had to leave, no problems - the mentor team was great - although I let them have complete control of their presentation and now wished I had monitored it a little more, they delved into a stereotype and played on a view of themselves that they claim the area was famous for. I made a little mistake, however, on the way up to the Physics building... On the way to the building of the kids asked me what the dome things were on the top of the building. I said that they were astronomy towers but not to worry about them because astronomy isn't real physics they just gaze at the stars (sorry guys, it just came out - to my astronomy friends).. Lo and behold, when the event is revealed, Ian introduces the astronomy department to take care of the event.

Also a bit naughty with the water rockets. The astronomy team had told the kids that to keep a straight line, they should make the rocket spin in the air; I argued with my mentor group to ignore this because the accuracy to do this was too high and a mistake would just cause a wobbly projectile (especially in wind). To prove a point, I grabbed a bottle and did absolutely no modifications to it - it went the furthest (wasn't planning that one), the kids found it hilarious how the astronomy's rocket came 3rd last too :P In fairness, the kids did like me showing them how to find the north star by the star constellations in our night sky; also found it fascinating to learn that the left star on Orion's belt is in a fact a nebula - then I had to explain what that was, I'd like to think I gave them a new found interest in astronomy, which is in fact an amazing subject in it's own right.

I was slightly disappointed with the physics department, if I'm honest. A few of the kids turned round to me and said that Physics was boring.. The chemistry, Biology and Audiology departments had some cool practical content (including looking in each others ears, performing a lie detector test on each other and making rubber bouncy balls). In physics they were asked to study some toys and decide wether they would work in space... the kids got bored (and so did I). If I'm still working for Outreach next year, I want to get more involved with the Physics department, because I believe that it is the most interesting subject of the lot and they should be doing stuff with lasers in these Easter schools (so many of the kids were asking me about lasers, had a great time explaining as much as I could).

As far as I'm concerned, Ian Dunne (pictured here), is the greatest asset to science in education we could ever ask for. He made scientific concepts and ideas fun and enjoyable to learn. The kids loved him, evident from the final talk at the end of the event. He shows that you can make science fun and is very enthusiastic about his work in education. Those of you who know me well, will know that I had a bad experience in education as a slave teaching assistant in a school department which lacked a lot of discipline. I was put off teaching but working on these Easter schools and talking to many teachers from different schools has made me realise that I had a one-off bad experience and it may have made me overlook a challenge that I would love to pursue. I am going to consider staying in education now, especially after I explained how a laser basically worked to a bunch of 14 - 15 year olds and the teacher said that I would make a good teacher.

In summary, this Easter school was a huge success and I had fun along the way. I look forward to the ESF summer school and I'm going to ask if I can be part of the Physics summer school - always interesting as organised by Pearl John. I have enjoyed working for the University outreach team this Easter, thank you so much. The other mentors were great too made some new friends and had a great laugh on the way too - didn't sleep much though lol.

Bye for now,
Sam :D

A simply brilliant Easter School this year, my best so far. I had lots of fun and again left the Art department wishing I had undertaken an Art Degree. And if you're a mentee and wondering why I haven't named a photo of you, it's because I can't legally identify you in a picture without parental consent (since I don't have that in writing - I can only display the picture).

So for three days me and my mentor group visited the Winchester School of Art where we undertook a project of climate change and human impact on the environment through the use of digital photography. We had to take pictures, photoshop them and present them. Some of the pictures on here are such pictures that were from my project, I will upload pictures from the kids project when I receive them; but some of the pictures were comparable to undergrad university work, the kids were brilliant.

We did karaoke in the first evening (had soo much fun), and they watched Run Fat Boy Run on the second night; I didn't stay for it all - I ran back to go on MSN lol. So not only were the days fun-packed; despite listening to an passionate artist give deep insight into the meaning of his photographic projects (way too much even for me, let alone a 15 year old), we did cool stuff in the evenings too. I loved every minute of this years Easter school and hope that the one to follow next week matches the fun and enthusiasm from this one.

As you can see, I may have encouraged a little "studentness" with the idea of the post-its on the teachers door, but it was funny to watch and the aim of the Easter schools is for the kids to find out what being a student is really like; a great laugh.

As expected, I tagged along mainly with Wendi and the Staunton lot, we had a great laugh and I got feedback from Wendi that the girls thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the University (mission accomplished lol). I can't thank Kate enough for allowing me to help with these events, they are so much fun and you get to feel like you actually do make a difference to the kids views on University. So I look forward to working next week on the April Easter School and I'll report it in a similar manner.

Bye for now... love love xx
Sam :D