Summer School - Science teaching

Various “twinning” schemes have been mentioned in discussions this week ie matching up scientists with teachers so that scientists can be available either in person or virtually to add real life contexts to student learning. South Australia has its own scientist twinning scheme developed as the brainchild of then “thinker in residence” Dr Susan Greenfield.

 There is also the Australian Government Scientists in Schools  initiative. Jim Peacock, Australia’s chief scientist, highly recommended this scheme when he addressed the group on Wednesday evening. He also said that a register of available scientists and their field of expertise, is in the process of development.

 Some teachers at the summer school have been involved in these schemes and there is a great deal of variation in the specific details of how they operate - in one case the scientist is able to demonstrate experiments that the teacher has described and in another the scientist has worked with the teacher to develop curriculum. The possibilities are endless but the benefits are common:

• students get to see real scientists at work
• an up to date modern context is provided for student learning

This blog has been created for my reflections on the Summer School for Science teachers that I am lucky enough to be attending at Flinders University in South Australia. The Summer School is funded by the Australian Government as one of 5 similar summer schools. It is being attended by 200 science teachers from every state and territory in Australia and from all education systems. My intention is to link this blog to my main blog which focusses on ICT and learning and school leadership.