“Our failure to act on climate change could encourage an underground movement to take action and fix climate change through geo-engineering. It’s a real threat according to leading academics. And the ethics of geo-engineering were explored at a Victorian government backed conference in California earlier this year,” says science commentator Tim Thwaites.
Shock? Horror? Why should we be surprised? As climate provocateur, Bjorn Lomborg pointed out to Robyn Williams recently on the ABC’s Science Show, many geo-engineering possibilities are inexpensive enough to be with the reach of a billionaires like Bill Gates and Richard Branson —and Governments seem hamstrung about coming to agreement on any other action. This makes the ABC online drama project Bluebird timely, as it explores these very issues. Read the full article →
Over the next few weeks you can investigate the biodiversity of suburban Western Australia, see rarely-displayed historical specimens at the Australian Museum in Sydney, experience farmland conservation in action in regional New South Wales and attend an eco-action festival in Queensland.
These are just some of the events occurring in the International Year of Biodiversity. We are also supporting twelve projects around the country, and a new funding round has just opened! Read the full article →
11 am, 27 April 2010
From Australians stranded in Europe to fresh vegetable growers in Africa, people dependent on the world’s airlines have done it hard in the past two weeks.
If the eruption of one volcano in Iceland can disrupt us so badly, what could the Bluebird project do? You are about to find out.
From today, the ABC invites you to enter the world of the experimental science of geoengineering—the deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s atmosphere to counteract climate change. Bluebird AR, an interactive alternative reality story about geoengineering, will play out on websites, in the social media, on ABC programs, and all around you. Read the full article →
Len Altman
Creating new careers in the rocks
Geoscience is at the heart of some of humanity’s biggest challenges in the 21st Century: access to water; alternative energy sources like geothermal and hydro; and adapting to climate change. “So why,” asks Len Altman, “Are students in our schools more likely to learn about the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn than about the planet Earth and its history?” Read the full article →
Allan Whittome
Living science
Badgingarra Primary School is perched on a hill three hours north of Perth, looking out across fields of canola and wheat. The approach to the school is lined with sculptures of native animals and a model of the Solar System made in limestone, set amongst native plants. In the classroom the students are fine-tuning model racing cars they’ve designed and manufactured online. All this is due to the work of Allan Whittome. Read the full article →
(15-16 June)
It’s the anniversary of Darwin’s birth and of his theory this year.
Explore what evolution means in a changing world. Find out how your students can save the environment. Understand the reality of climate change. Discover new curriculum resources from ASTA, the Academy of Science, Bug Blitz and more.
You’re invited to a two-day workshop for teachers held as part of the national Evolution Festival. It’s on 15 and 16 June at Bio21 at the University of Melbourne. Read the full article →
Our colleague Kim McKay in Sydney has won a prize from the US AAAS for her children’s book on ’100 things you can do to save the planet’. Read the full article →
Clay Reid
Engaging techniques to cultivate scientific curiosity
He wanted to be a funeral director, but he wasn’t old enough. So, to fill in time, Clay Reid went to teacher college, and fell into a career he has made his own.
After twenty years of secondary science teaching, he is highly respected as an inspirational teacher and leader, both in his rural community and in the wider science teaching community.
Clay has been teaching at Clare High School in rural South Australia for the past eight years, and due to his efforts the popularity of science has increased dramatically over that time, as has the school’s overall academic results in science.
What’s special about his teaching? He says, “It’s about engagement, getting kids to turn up to class and expect the unexpected. And it’s about giving every student the opportunity to enjoy science whether they are planning to leave school at year 10 or go on to university.”
For his enthusiasm and dedication to secondary science teaching, Clay Reid receives the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools.
Read the full article →
Bronwyn Mart
Nurturing curiosity
Bronwyn Mart believes that science should have a central role in the primary school curriculum.
“Children are born curious about the world around them. We need to nurture and harness that curiosity from the early years of school. That’s why science matters in primary school. Taught well, it engages students and can act as a vehicle for literacy, numeracy and critical thinking,” she says. “Primary science lays the foundations for scientifically literate children who are able to grow into secondary school science and are more likely to make career choices that embrace science.”
Read the full article →
Cheryl Capra
Teaching children healthy scepticism
Cheryl Capra couldn’t pursue her passion for physics and astronomy as a career. Instead she turned to science teaching and, over a 40 year career, has taught at primary and secondary level and been involved in curriculum development.
But it’s in primary teaching at Albany Hills State School in Brisbane that she’s made her greatest impact. “Our students’ science studies extend from their classrooms and beyond this campus to our entire planet, even to the orbiting International Space Station and the cold, dark, unimaginable distances of the cosmos,” she says. Read the full article →
Mike Roach
In the early 1990s Mike Roach realised that space and astronomy ignited a passion in his students for learning about science.
Today, Mike has brought space science into much of the science curriculum at Hamilton Secondary School in Adelaide and runs an annual space science school in South Australia, now in its ninth year.
He is a passionate advocate for improving the science and technology curriculum and a mentor for teachers, both in his state and nationally.
Mike Roach’s innovation in science teaching and commitment to developing the profession has earned him the 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools. Read the full article →
Mark Merritt
Mark Merritt believes that primary science teachers have a critical role to play in instilling an enduring enthusiasm for science in their students.
“We need to make sure that future generations move into science research and science education. It’s vital that we start in the early years so we can embed in the children a love of science and knowledge,” he says.
Mark, who teaches science at the Marmion Primary School in the northern suburbs of Perth, has had a highly successful 21 year career in primary school teaching. He believes his next challenge will lie in teacher education – enthusing the next generation of primary school science teachers. Read the full article →
Mark Butler
From Star Wars Lasers to Science Teaching
Mark Butler realised he had a passion for teaching while researching high power lasers and lecturing at Macquarie University. But he didn’t want to preach to the converted, such as physics undergraduates. So, he turned his back on the possibility of working at Bell Laboratories on ultraviolet lasers and instead pursued a career in secondary school science teaching.
It was the right choice. After 18 years, his passion for teaching hasn’t waned. And while the physics community may have lost a fine researcher, today many of Mark’s students are studying physics at university, and others have gone on to greater things in research institutes around the world.
The success of his students is costing Mark. Each year he pays $250 to every student who achieves more than 95% in his Year 12 chemistry and physics classes. Mark proposes to use the grant associated with the Prize to continue to reward his high-achieving students! Read the full article →
