2013 Early Career Teachers Conference

9:00 AM

1 Hour

Every teacher has valuable skills and experience they bring to their teaching. It is important to ask ourselves what we believe science is for. If we can identify why we teach what we teach, we can tailor our Learning Design to meet our goals. In this workshop we identify our values and find where these are emphasised in the Australian Curriculum: science. Looking at the 'essence' of science helps us to see how we work with content makes a difference to both teachers and students. There will be opportunities for considering the implications for our practice as teachers

Presenter: Lyn Jefferies

9:00 AM

1 Hour

What is the Australian Curriculum: Science? What do I teach? What activities can I do? Where can I find relevant and engaging activities and resources? This workshop will allow you to answer these questions and more. Participants will explore unit materials that exemplify inquiry approaches to teaching and learning. The workshop will provide teachers with explicit curriculum materials, investigations, planning tools and contemporary pedagogical strategies to enable them to successfully plan using the Australian Curriculum: Science

Presenter: Kate Dilger

10:30 AM

1 Hour

• Why Assess in Science? • Assessment for and assessment of learning • What to assess – Australian Curriculum focus • How to assess – what types of tasks, what tools and how to record the assessment data?

Presenter: Verity Gobbett

10:30 AM

1 Hour

By using Rubrics you will be able to gather peer-to-peer assessment; students own assessment; assessment of your teaching; assessment against the Australian Standards and receive feedback on students’ leaning/teacher’s teaching. You will be able to gather an understanding of Rubrics at the workshop by complete an easy task. You will be given a cd of information and a number of typed examples of Rubrics. The workshop is based on an open/shared discussion

Presenter: James Young

10:30 AM

1 Hour

Student experience in middle school science determines their future interest in choosing senior science subjects, and subsequent career pathways. Teachers can engage students of different abilities and backgrounds by facilitating a challenging classroom that incorporates hands-on activity. This presentation uses a Year 8 Energy Unit to demonstrate possible formative and summative assessments using such pedagogy. It will also outline the impact of utilising an assessment rubric to deliver effective student feedback

Presenter: Kate Morgante and Grace Napoli

11:30 AM

1 Hour

Interweaving curriculum requirements, school priorities and the learning needs of a diverse range of students provides a broad base for planning, implementing and assessing learning experiences. A wide range of pedagogical approaches that addresses the different nature and needs of learners across R – 7 will be included

Presenter: Bronwyn Mart

11:30 AM

The workshop will look at how the 5Es instructional model can be used to engage students in the science curriculum. Using a year 8 “Nature of Matter” topic and a SACE Stage 2 Scientific Studies unit on the “Nature of Science” as examples, the workshop will particularly focus on practical activities and ICT resources that can be used to facilitate the “Engage” and “Explore“ phases of the 5Es model

Presenter: Dr Chris Soar

11:30 AM

1 Hour

This workshop focusses on both incorporating inquiry based learning (through interesting and out of the box ideas) and developing new pedagogies for the classroom. Participants will make their own paper rockets for launch and utilise the inquiry based approach to launch the highest rocket. Will your rocket beat the rest? Then, participants will see (and experience) some possible new pedagogies they might be able to take back to their science classroom.

Presenter: Matthew Heskett

1:00 PM

1 Hour

Science Inquiry Skills enables students to access a continuum of explicit skill development and when interwoven with the four sub-strands in Science Understandings a plethora of possibilities arise. This workshop will include examples of investigations across R – 7, include common materials that can be adapted for various year levels as well as hints for providing a cost effective program.

Presenter: Bronwyn Mart

1:00 PM

1 Hour

This focus of this workshop is phenomenalogical science - learning science through direct observation. Participants will leave equipped to teach an entire unit on electromagnetism - using a sequenced series of simple, practical, engaging and cheap demonstrations and activities that students can make and be fully involved with. This is science teaching at its best - direct and effective with no distractions. Suitable for Middle-School and SACE Stage 1 Physics.

Presenter: Brent Banham

1:00 PM

1 Hour

This session will look at some strategies and resources that can help you to successfully incorporate ICT into curriculum to enhance student learning. Content will include: · Flipping the classroom · Edmodo · Scootle Although Science will be the focus of the session, the ideas presented can be applied in any curriculum area.

Presenter: Jeremy LeCornu

2:00 PM

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A 45 MINUTE SESSION Create the “hook” that get children interested in science and don’t want to miss your lesson. Magic tricks can be full of science. Learn about polymers, super absorbent polymers, memory plastic, etc. In this workshop you will learn how to put an egg into a bottle without touching it, suck water into a glass, change three pieces of rope of different lengths into three ropes the same length, get a drink bottle to disappear etc. You will be given a DVD with 20+ science based magic tricks that you can learn at home

Presenter: James Young

2:00 PM

1 Hour

Using science demonstrations effectively as a teaching tool is an artform all of itself – and that is what we will look into during this session. Drawing inspiration from some inspired but little known science demonstrations we will look at a range of ideas and resources around the effective use of demonstrations in the classroom. A wikipage will be provided for participants to share ideas following the workshop.

Presenter: Brent Banham

2:00 PM

1 Hour

Suitable for all year levels (45min) This workshop will explain how to enrich your science lessons through the addition of live animals and other biological specimens that are available form the Nature Education Center. Fun hands on activities for all year levels of schooling.

Presenter: TBA

2:45 PM

1 Hour

This workshop will allow participants to experience how engagement can influence learning. We will investigate the research about engagement with learning and the impact this could have on behaviour management in classrooms. In addition we will investigate how this directs us to bring together the Australian Curriculum with the high challenge pedagogy of TfEL to develop interested, resilient students who are engaged with science.

Presenter: Lyn Jefferies

2:45 PM

1 Hour

This workshop will provide teachers with expert tips for making lab work safe and engaging for students. Teachers will look at lesson strategies that really work such as: always have an interesting fact related (loosely) to the topic to get them in, the grosser/juicier the better, particularly something about their world. They will explore lab management techniques that puts the onus on the student to work safely and responsibly. They will also be given examples of good practical lessons that work!

Presenter: Belinda Hawker

3:45 PM

THIS WILL BE A BRIEF 15 MINUTE QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS