Real world experience for pre-service STEM teachers

Take part in the STEM Studio experience!

QUT secondary science and maths teacher education students are invited to take part in the STEM Studio pilot. We have one place left this semester and more places available in semester 2.

Learn how to engage and motivate students’ learning in Science and Maths through student-centred learning. Develop your teaching skills in an authentic and innovative teaching environment with the support of an experienced teacher, scientist and learning designer.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) Studio is a collaboration space for pre-service teachers to collaboratively design and deliver STEM modules to secondary school students. Develop and implement your own lesson plans in a real and innovative teaching environment.

This pilot program will be run at QUT with the intent to broaden to Step Up Project partner universities later in the year.

Why should you join the STEM Studio program?

• Become better prepared for the real world with experience in the real classroom
• Gain a teaching edge with new and innovative teaching techniques and environments
• Network with in-service teachers
• Design and implement an EEI using problem based design challenges
• Reflect on your teaching practice (through video analysis , survey responses from secondary school students & informal feedback from the in-service teacher)
• Gain hours toward the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Graduate stage
• Strengthen your application for employment as an ambassador for QUT’s STEM School Engagement programs.

“The studio experience was really great .. working with a bunch of students from a different school and not in a ‘prac’ situation – we were able to freely use different teaching strategies.” 4th year secondary education student.

Pre-service teachers who participate in the STEM Studio program before May 2015 will be sponsored to attend the “Creative Lab: STEM to STEAM: 21st Century Learning” (valued at $350) to be held 1st and 2nd May 2015. The program is a two-day, hands on, professional development activity for educators and includes Interactive workshops, Immersive Indigenous dinner at kuril dhagun, Networking opportunities, Take-home materials and a Certificate of Participation.

Other sponsored opportunities for Semester 2 to be confirmed.

What is involved?

You will work with another QUT pre-service teacher to plan and co-deliver your lesson plans over four weeks (60-90 minute sessions per week) to secondary school students visiting QUT.

The Final Countdown

Joe Hope discusses flipped classrooms

Canberra put on beautiful weather for our last full day at the NSTSS. After our morning ritual of visiting the on-campus coffee shop, we met the group at the Science Teaching Seminar Building for an engaging talk on ‘Flipped Classrooms’. While all three of us were familiar with the term, we were unaware of how frequently it is used in higher education and how successful the strategy can be. Joe Hope who is a Physics lecturer at ANU explained how he video records his ‘lectures’ for students to watch at home, followed by a weekly 3 hour workshop for students to apply their new skills and ask questions. Joe was an engaging speaker and all of the teachers were excited about learning how to implement a ‘flipped classroom’ in their school.

Astronomy and more on day four

After a morning walk across campus and discovery of a new coffee shop, we all perked up upon learning that we would be hearing from speakers from our major teaching area – biology. We had a series of talks from professors and PhD students from the ANU Research School of Biology. This was headed by Professor Stefan Broer, who discussed research in the area of insulin, transporter proteins and diabetes control. We also heard about drug resistance from Professor Richard Callaghan, spleen regeneration from Jonothan Tran, and herpes simplex virus proteins from Christina Salmon. This was an excellent array of current research within the field of biomedical science.

Gemma, Gabby, Prof KC Wong & Melissa

After a quick morning tea, Professor KC Wong from the School of Aerospace Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering gave us a fascinating talk on how we can inspire students to take tertiary pathways in STEM.

Day 3 – Parliament Bills and Playing with Chemicals

Day 3 kicked off with an excited group of teachers heading to the first excursion of the trip – Parliament House. Many in the group had not visited Parliament before, and we were all fascinated by the amazing architecture and the stories behind some of the materials used in the building.

Rick, Andrew and Marissa from the Parliamentary Education Office then entertained us with some Parliamentary role plays, where we all had the opportunity to be part of a senate committee meeting on water recycling. These role plays were upbeat and educational, and will be great to adapt and bring back to the science classroom. We also had the opportunity to visit the House of Representatives, the Senate, and to tour the chambers.

Day 2: GM Food For Thought

After locating the campus coffee shop yesterday, getting going on day two was a lot easier!

Water filtration workshop with Jeremy Smith

We began with a visit to the ANU Engineering Labs, where we heard from Dr Henry Gardner on computer sciences and how to best incorporate ICT in the curriculum. Henry also provided us with useful websites including interactive games and competitions that introduce students to coding. Following this, we had a taste of Engineers Without Borders through an experiment designing water filtration systems for developing communities. This session, run by Jeremy Smith was a great activity that we are excited to try out in the classroom.

Physics fun on day one!

Official welcoming: Gabby Gilmore, Andrew Laming MP, Melissa Blacklock and Gemma Sardoni

The first official day of the NSTSS kicked off with a warm welcome to the program from Vic Dobos (CEO ASTA), Damien Pierce (Director NYSF), and Andrew Laming (MP for Bowman). It was great to hear from three passionate science education advocates, who encouraged us to wholly embrace the program over the next week.

Following another lovely stroll through the ANU campus, we attended our first lecture, presented by Dr Kaylene Young on stem cell research. This lecture was both insightful and relevant to the three of us, as we share biology as a future teaching area.

NSTSS kicks off!

We (Gabby, Gemma & Melissa) headed off to the National Science Teachers Summer School in Canberra this morning on our cosy Qantaslink flight, then heading to our accommodation (Ursula Hall) at the Australian National University.

Meet the Step Up Ambassadors!

We would like to welcome our new Step Up Ambassadors, Melissa Blacklock, Gabby Gilmore and Gemma Sardoni, who have been awarded the Step Up / ASTA Initiative Award.

These outstanding pre-service science teachers are about to travel to Canberra to attend the National Science Teachers Summer School (NSTSS), which runs from 11-17 January 2015.

We look forward to hear from Gabby, Gemma and Melissa as they share here their insights from the event.

Welcome to the new Step Up blog

Please watch this space for updates and insights in the area of STEM education, in particular focusing on science and maths teacher education in QLD and across Australia.