Step Up sponsored pre-service teachers from Griffith and QUT to attend CONASTA 65, the Annual Science Teachers Association Conference held in Brisbane 2016. Here the students relate how networking ideas, immense amount of resources and new ideas for teaching science they got from attending the conference!
Step Up pre-service teachers were involved in the recent Moreton Bay STEM Fest which saw 240 students from Brisbane’s northside undertake an eight-week robot-building journey. Eight schools took part – Aspley State High, Bray Park State High, Burpengary State Secondary College, Dakabin State High, Deception Bay State High, Murrumba State Secondary College, North Lakes State College andRead more about Moreton Bay STEM Fest[…]
The Science Faculty at The Gap State High School is focused on nurturing their ‘students’ curiosity and developing their critical thinking and creative skills so that they can explore the world of scientific discovery and challenge themselves to investigate the world around them. The students learn to observe, investigate and work collaboratively to make predictions andRead more about Student experiences in the STEM Studio[…]
Improve your teaching tool kit with hands-on instruction on how to use Vernier sensors and Logger Pro for data-logging in the classroom. This two hour session will give you the confidence and ability to show students how to capture and analyse data using the range of Logger Pro sensors. Get hands-on and learn how YOURead more about Technology in the Maths and Science Classroom- Workshop for PSTs[…]
Day 2 started off with a keynote speaker by the name of Dr Alex Zelinski. Now IT is definitely not my forte but I found his presentation to be quite informative. He spoke about the work he has been apart of and if I took anything away from his presentation it is that STEM isRead more about Networking at CONASTA 65[…]
You want gas? Mark Newell’s workshop was a blast!! Microscale gas chemistry may not sound terribly exciting, but this workshop was an enjoyable introduction to controlled gas production and associated activities, developed by Bruce Mattson http://mattson.creighton.edu The techniques are simple, but ingenius; the equipment is cheap and re-usable. Start with a 60ml plastic syringe withRead more about You want gas?[…]
Learning to think! It is not enough for students to learn content we must teach students how to think well. This was the message that I gained from Peter Ellerton’s presentation, Developing an understanding of Critical Thinking and How to Teach it. Peter Ellerton proposed that teachers often ask students questions that require cognitive thinking,Read more about Learning to Think![…]
Day 1 of the CONASTA conference saw me attending a workshop run by Darren Hamley, a science teacher from Willeton Senior High School in Western Australia. Mr Hamley started off by telling me that he uses a condensed version of the Australian curriculum which leaves him plenty of time to run a research project with his giftedRead more about 3D printing in the classroom[…]
I am driven to teach secondary school science the same way I have practised science for the past 20 years. This requires that I use scientific method to inform my teaching. But what does this actually mean? In the context of the classroom environment, it might mean teaching content via problem-based, hypothesis-driven projects. Scientific methodRead more about My goals for CONASTA 65: Evidence, collaboration, progress[…]
Choosing my favourite workshop from the 2016 CONASTA 65 event is near impossible as I gained an enormous amount of knowledge from all of the workshops that I attended. One that stood out was “Delve into DNA: explore potential pitfalls (and possible pedagogy) of personal genomic information” presented by the fabulous Browyn Terrill from the Garvan Institute whereRead more about My favourite workshop- CONASTA 65[…]
