Glasgow Science Centre is one of Scotland’s leading visitor attractions – drawing in tens of thousands of visitors each year and inspiring children and adults alike with interactive science and technology exhibits, shows and events. We’re also playing a key role in shaping Scotland’s STEM education landscape.

Learners taking part in the Adding Value course at Glasgow Science Centre. A teacher helps a young boy with his work while sitting at a desk

From our STEM Learning Pathways to our Learning Labs and STEM Futures programmes, Glasgow Science Centre is helping children and young people to build positive relationships with science and technology.

We’re also delivering education programmes to local communities in Glasgow and beyond with our Adding Value course, which is credit rated at SCQF level 3, with three credit points.

Adding value

In the free, eight-week Adding Value course, participants learn maths that they can use every day, and are encouraged to improve their skills with casual, friendly classes that help to build learners’ confidence and motivate them to pursue further learning.

Through games, activities and worksheets, the classes teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, division; shapes and measurements; fractions, decimals, percentages and collecting and presenting data.

The course is delivered in four-hour weekly sessions at the Glasgow Science Centre and is funded through the UK Government’s Multiply Funding. Interpreters are also available to support learners who do not speak English.  

Benefits

Designed for beginners, the Adding Value course is aimed at community groups with limited maths ability, including new Scots, who are looking to grow their confidence and expand their skills. 

The course helps learners to formalise their maths knowledge. It can help parents – particularly parents who received no formal education in Scotland – support their children with their maths homework and other school-based learning.

It also gives learners a qualification to put on their CV, giving them formal accreditation and helping to boost their employability.

Science Learning Coordinator Éirinn Fitzgerald, who delivers the Adding Value course in the Glasgow Science Centre, said: “Having delivered Adding Value, I have seen first-hand the positive impact this course has had on people’s lives. It has been a privilege to watch our learners’ confidence grow through realising their maths abilities; empowering them to seek further opportunities in their own lives or even support their children’s learning at home. Our Adding Value course is just one way that Glasgow Science Centre is giving back to local communities and being a real centre of lifelong learning – for children and for adults.”

Glossary Term

Authority

Appears at Level 12 only where it is used in the phrase ‘demonstrate substantial authority’, reflecting a recognised high level and depth of expertise/expert knowledge and understanding, along with confidence. It does not mean ‘exercise authority over staff and resources’ etc, as that could clearly apply at earlier levels.

Glossary Term

Exercise

Used in connection with management and/or supervisory responsibility, denotes a requirement of a formal, substantive role.

Glossary Term

Directive

Applied to ‘supervision’, signifies a task or activity that is guided.

Glossary Term

Graphical Data

Encompasses maps, plans, diagrams, tables and graphs.

Glossary Term

Synthesis

Combine discrete elements into a coherent whole.

Glossary Term

Analysis

Examine in detail with a view to explanation and interpretation.

Glossary Term

Present

Set out, put forward, deliver information using a variety of mediums as appropriate.

Glossary Term

Hypothetical

Supposed, assumed for the sake of argument.

Glossary Term

Straightforward

Clear and uncomplicated activity, but not as demanding or systematic and therefore not as advanced as ‘routine’.

Glossary Term

Creativity

Often used in combination with ‘originality’. There is overlap in definition, but the defining characteristic of creativity appears to be imagination.

Glossary Term

Originality

Often used in combination with ‘creativity’. There is overlap in definition, but the defining characteristic of originality appears to be independence.

Glossary Term

Professional

Used throughout as an adjective and applied to terms including level, skills, techniques, practices, contexts, and issues where it bears broad interpretation as ‘behaving appropriately/doing things properly and well and to notions of accepted, (including externally) prescribed standards’, as well as narrow, relating to a specific occupation designated as a profession. In this latter sense, the term applies in all contexts including academic study, eg footnoting properly.

Glossary Term

Unfamiliar

New territory for an activity.

Glossary Term

Routine

Used as an adjective throughout and applied to terms including skills, tasks, elements, practices, contexts, methods and problems where it describes activity that is standard, usual, unvarying, customary, common.

Glossary Term

Everyday

Slightly more advanced and beyond personal but a known experience/activity encountered/applied regularly - less advanced than ‘familiar’.

Glossary Term

Familiar

Often encountered or experienced; common; something one has a good knowledge of - more advanced than ‘personal’ and ‘everyday’, not as advanced as ‘routine’.

Glossary Term

Personal

An experience relating only or primarily to the person – one would expect to start here then widen out into the rest of the world, so not as advanced as ‘familiar’.

Glossary Term

Critical

Fully informed, capable of supporting in-depth analysis and assessment.

Glossary Term

Discerning

Using judgement to recognise differences but not fully equipped/informed to analyse and discuss them in depth, so less advanced than critical.

Glossary Term

Awareness

Consciousness, including a background consciousness. Can be a starting point for further exploration.

Glossary Term

Appreciation

A sense, perception, a hold, fix or grasp of one or more of the various aspects of a subject/discipline/sector.

Glossary Term

Understanding

A thorough and firm grasp of a subject/discipline/sector or an element or elements of it, derived from education/study, experience and reasoning in appropriate combination. Can be defined as ‘know why’, as opposed to ‘know that’. More holistic knowledge of processes and contexts, so more advanced than appreciation and knowledge.

Glossary Term

Simple

Undemanding activity not necessarily part of a formal structure - not as advanced as ‘basic’.

Glossary Term

Knowledge

Facts, ideas, theories and concepts in a subject/discipline/sector acquired through experience and/or education – a surer grasp than appreciation so more advanced.

Glossary Term

Basic

Activity is early stepping stone on a structure or framework that can be built upon – more advanced than ‘simple’.