Operations

Each year in early July, when its 700 students are on holiday, Townsville State High School becomes the headquarters for one of the races in Australia’s V8 Supercar series. But before and after the race the Year 11 science students are hard at work, slopping their way through the nearby mangroves, and wading into the estuary that borders the school.

They are taking measurements to assess the impact of the race on the surrounding environment. Afterwards, the students report their results and pass them on to the local council and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The data is also assisting a program in which the biology students are collaborating with James Cook University as part of the National Estuary Restorative Study.

[Read more…] about Using a motor race to fuel interest in science: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Richard Johnson

Model pterosaurs flying overhead, a new insect in the terrarium by the window, a cool video on non-Newtonian fluids on the SMART board down the front—every time the students of Rostrata Primary School in Perth’s southern suburbs enter Mr Johnson’s science lab, there’s something new. Nothing keeps them away from school on science days.

The laboratory is the realisation of something Ric Johnson recognised in more than 30 years as a primary school teacher—the power of science to engage children in the classroom. The problem, says Ric, is that primary teachers are typically not confident in their own knowledge and ability to teach science. Many simply avoid it.

[Read more…] about A teacher’s laboratory becomes a primary source of inspiration: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools