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Opinion: Science teachers can’t just ‘skip’ the content.
‘The enemy of our future prosperity is complacency. Past investments in skills development have underpinned our strong economy and enviable lifestyle, which in turn have diminished our sense of urgency’ (Finkel 2018, p.3). Students are increasingly opting out of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in Australian Schools, with broadly decreasing achievement trends in […]
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Mobile Home Design and Build
F-10 | Design and Technology | Physical Sciences (electrical circuits) In June 2020 with a pandemic descending I made the decision to purchase a used Ford Transit Van and embark on a design and building challenge to turn it into a campervan #vanlife Meet the Van. Phase One: Research and Design (R&D). Phase Two: Build. […]
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Astrofarmer
F-10 | Biological Sciences | Geography Problem: If humanity is to explore further into the cosmos, plants will have to be grown in-flight – as a food source and more… but the conditions required for plants to grow (such as water, light, nutrients and suitable temperature) are difficult to meet’. Overview Curriculum Links Teaching and […]
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Greening Urban Areas
F – 10 | Earth and Environmental Sciences | Geography Next time you’re walking through the city, ask yourself if you’re feeling very hot or cold and have a look around you – are there any trees? Grass? What colour are the buildings? How would you improve the streetscape to engineer a solution to the […]
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Gippsland Rainforest
Senior Secondary | Earth and Environmental Sciences In January and February 2021 I had the privilege of working at Jumbuk Park Nature Retreat in the Strzelecki Ranges. The work involved track clearance, using a digger, tree planting, mowing, flipping cabins as well as the creation of a Herbarium from all local plant species. And it […]
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Social Constructivism in the ‘adult world’
Constructivism has been around for a long time, with the main contributors to this theory being Kant, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. There is a wonderful ‘constructivist thinking timeline’ linked below which explores all of the various contributors, both large and small, to this pedagogical understanding of learning. According to Piaget (Piaget 1936), intellectual development is […]
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Patterns in Nature, Maths and Art
F-10 | Mathematics, Art. This Numeracy unit on Geometric Reasoning and Space (angles, location, shape and symmetry) was created with the aim of meaningfully linking the content descriptors of Art, HASS Celebrations, Dance and Mathematics through the theme: ‘Patterns in Nature, Maths and Art’. Overview Curriculum Links Teaching and Learning Sequence Geometry Fibonacci sequence 2D […]
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Learning is strictly making mistakes
The work of Jo Boaler (Boaler 2013) and Carol Dweck (Dweck 2006) shows us that the main hinderance to students learning maths is the belief that they cannot do it (i.e. an emotional response). This concept was introduced to me through the TED talk ‘How you can be good at maths, and other surprising facts about learning’ […]
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I feel, therefore I learn
As a scientist, I love hard evidence. I love to actually see the ‘this, therefore maybe that’ process in action, as a scan or a measurement or a double-blind experiment for instance. In fact one of the first obstacles I had to overcome in studying an Arts Masters (teaching) after having completed a Science Bachelor was bringing […]
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The outdoor classroom
A field trip or excursion is defined by Jose et. al. (2017, p. 271) as ‘a trip arranged by the school and undertaken for educational purposes, in which students go to places where the materials of instruction may be observed and studied directly in their functional setting’. Out-of-school learning can include non-formal institutions and organizations […]
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Lauren Swann 