Day 3 – Parliament Bills and Playing with Chemicals

Day 3 – Parliament Bills and Playing with Chemicals

Day 3 kicked off with an excited group of teachers heading to the first excursion of the trip – Parliament House. Many in the group had not visited Parliament before, and we were all fascinated by the amazing architecture and the stories behind some of the materials used in the building.

Parliament

Rick, Andrew and Marissa from the Parliamentary Education Office then entertained us with some Parliamentary role plays, where we all had the opportunity to be part of a senate committee meeting on water recycling. These role plays were upbeat and educational, and will be great to adapt and bring back to the science classroom. We also had the opportunity to visit the House of Representatives, the Senate, and to tour the chambers. Read more about Day 3 – Parliament Bills and Playing with Chemicals

Day 2: GM Food For Thought

Day 2: GM Food For Thought

After locating the campus coffee shop yesterday, getting going on day two was a lot easier!

Water filtration workshop with Jeremy Smith
Water filtration workshop with Jeremy Smith

We began with a visit to the ANU Engineering Labs, where we heard from Dr Henry Gardner on computer sciences and how to best incorporate ICT in the curriculum. Henry also provided us with useful websites including interactive games and competitions that introduce students to coding. Following this, we had a taste of Engineers Without Borders through an experiment designing water filtration systems for developing communities. This session, run by Jeremy Smith was a great activity that we are excited to try out in the classroom. Read more about Day 2: GM Food For Thought

Physics fun on day one!

Physics fun on day one!

Official welcoming: Gabby Gilmore, Andrew Laming MP, Melissa Blacklock and Gemma Sardoni
Official welcoming: Gabby Gilmore, Andrew Laming MP, Melissa Blacklock and Gemma Sardoni

The first official day of the NSTSS kicked off with a warm welcome to the program from Vic Dobos (CEO ASTA), Damien Pierce (Director NYSF), and Andrew Laming (MP for Bowman). It was great to hear from three passionate science education advocates, who encouraged us to wholly embrace the program over the next week.

Following another lovely stroll through the ANU campus, we attended our first lecture, presented by Dr Kaylene Young on stem cell research. This lecture was both insightful and relevant to the three of us, as we share biology as a future teaching area.

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Meet the Step Up Ambassadors!

Meet the Step Up Ambassadors!

We would like to welcome our new Step Up Ambassadors, Melissa Blacklock, Gabby Gilmore and Gemma Sardoni, who have been awarded the Step Up / ASTA Initiative Award.

These outstanding pre-service science teachers are about to travel to Canberra to attend the National Science Teachers Summer School (NSTSS), which runs from 11-17 January 2015.

We look forward to hear from Gabby, Gemma and Melissa as they share here their insights from the event.

Read more about Meet the Step Up Ambassadors!