About us

A life of learning

Maria started her own education in Athens, Greece. She completed two separate degrees in physics and in music and started her career in teaching at the newly formed Experimental Music High School of Pallini.

She subsequently moved to the UK and completed her PhD in Cardiff University, School of Physics and Astronomy, on the Acoustics of the classical guitar, under the supervision of Dr Bernard Richardson.

Her personal journey brought her to a teaching career in the UK. Since 2000 she has worked in many secondary schools in the UK and eventually at the University of Birmingham as a lecturer and school liaison officer.

Throughout her career she always engaged with students outside the classroom. Growing tomato plants from NASA, bringing lunar rocks to schools and collaborating with GE Aviation to encourage girls into engineering, these are a few of the projects she ran to enthuse and inspire her students.

Maria has worked effortlessly to break down the stereotypes and artificial barriers society imposes on young people. She has been a STEM ambassador since 2015 and a member of the Institute of Physics and The Ogden Trust.

Collaborations & Projects

GirlsGetSET (2011-2015): a scheme Maria ran in her school in collaboration with GE Aviation which aimed to show girls the opportunities open to them if they consider a future career in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET). The scheme targeted girls aged 11 to 18 and consisted of multiple interventions in SET which were delivered over an academic year. The girls engaged with the scheme throughout their secondary education, consistently gaining in confidence and improving their scientific skills. Many of Maria’s students who participated in the scheme are now accomplished physicists, engineers, and research scientists.

Cleeve Hill Physics Partnership (2013-2015): a partnership of local secondary schools, established and coordinated by Maria and funded by The Ogden Trust. The aim of the Cleeve Hill Physics Partnership was to enhance physics teaching and learning across all secondary school years. Students improved their skills by participating in physics enrichment events such as theme days, lectures, trips to science museums and many more.

CREATIONS (2015-2018): a project funded by the European Union, aiming to develop creative approaches based on art for an engaging science classroom. Maria’s work included the creation of new resources and the delivery of workshops in primary schools where art is used as a tool for physics teaching and learning.

Playing with Protons (2016-2018): an education initiative led by the CMS experiment at CERN bringing together primary school teachers, science education specialists and CERN researchers. The aim is to develop creative approaches for primary students in order to engage them effectively with physics, discovery and innovation. Maria’s work included the organisation of the trip to CERN for twenty primary school teachers from the UK who participated in the programme and the delivery of some of the sessions that focus on teaching particle physics to primary school children.

STEM4YOUTH (2016-2018): a project funded by the European Union, aiming to bring secondary school students closer to science and technology. Maria was a member of the advisory board for this project.

Physics at WOMAD (2017-2019): Since 2016 WOMAD festival has opened its doors to Physics, starting with the Physics Pavillion and expanding every year with the Lab, the Discovery Zone and the cosmodrome. The physics events are organised and funded by CERN and Lancaster University with the support of the Institute of Physics. Maria joined the physics team at WOMAD in 2017, running workshops for young children and giving talks for adults.

Sci-Arts Creative Teaching (2019-2020): a project that has grown from the EU-funded project CREATIONS (Grant Agreement No.66517). It has been developed by a team from the University of Exeter, Science and Technology Facilities Council, University of Birmingham and the Institute of Physics. Maria’s work included the creation of new resources and the delivery of workshops in primary schools where art is used as a tool for physics teaching and learning.

Handmade With STEAM (2021-today): a collaboration between scientists, inventors & artists that aims at encouraging young students towards creative thinking and hands-on experience.

Publications

• Alexopoulos A., Pavlidou M., Cherouvis S. (2019), ‘Playing with Protons’: a training course for primary school teachers at CERN., Phys. Educ. 54 015013

• Pavlidou M., Lazzeroni C. (2016), Particle physics for primary schools - enthusing future physicists., Phys. Educ. 51 054003

• Pavlidou M., Richardson B. E. (1997), The string-finger interaction in the classical guitar: Theoretical model and experiments., Proc. Int. Symp. Musical Acoustics, pp. 55-60