May 2021

SASTA and the Oliphant Science Awards are proud to be partnering with Inspiring SA and the Premiers Reading Challenge (PRC) to support this year’s STEM Reading and Design Challenge.

The challenge encourages students to read about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in the lead up to Science Week. The Premier's Reading Challenge booklist contains excellent STEM books and to enter the STEM Reading and Design Challenge, students need to read at least one book from the Premier’s Reading Challenge booklist from any of the following categories: STEM, Science, Science Fiction or Nature.

Using the text as inspiration, they then either Create, Invent, Design or Review according to their age category. There are great prizes to be won in 4 age categories. There are many opportunities for students to combine their OSA project work with the STEM Reading and Design Challenge - find out more here.

Check out our latest post - SASTA: How it all began...

We'll be releasing a new 70th Anniversary blog each month. If you have any stories or reflections you would like to share about your involvement with SASTA over the years, we'd love to hear from you! Email tegan@sasta.asn.au for more information.

The theme of the conference is 'Setting up for Success'

“The new teacher assumes full pedagogical and legal responsibility as soon as they enter the school. No other profession has such high expectations of its newest members.” (Tynjala & Heikkinen, 2014)

The aim of the conference is for our early career teachers to walk away equipped with the resources and best practice strategies for building their confidence and capabilities. Submit your workshop by Friday 2 July.

The aim of this workshop is to provide teachers with the WHY, and the HOW of capability-based science learning.

Thinking Science will provide teaching strategies, processes, structures and tools for science teaching and learning that is inclusive, curious, inquiry-based, engaging, active, interdisciplinary, audacious and authentic. Find out more here.

By the end of the day, attendees will have:

• A collaboratively designed inquiry unit
• A collection of teaching strategies and resources aligned to 7-10 science curriculum
• Templates for tasks that encourage big thinking in science

This workshop will unpack the Why? How? & What? of a unit of work from the Department for Education’s new Science Curriculum resources, with the aim of teachers being able to implement the units in their classrooms as they are released. This Secondary workshop will focus on an example unit from Year 9. 

This is the second in a series of workshops unpacking these units of work. Look out for further workshops in Term 3.

Cool Australia – Snappy Science

These Snappy Science resources have been created to boost science education in primary schools across Australia. Each lesson is designed to support teachers with the scientific knowledge, ideas and resources to stimulate a sense of wonder and curiosity in their students. Many of the big issues that Australian society will face in the future are around technology, energy, resources and climate change. All of these require students to engage with science – but most of all to enjoy science! These Snappy Science resources can also be used to engage families in fun science and learning for life. You can download a student friendly version of each activity and you can also check out the Snappy Science Digital Library.

Each activity details the links to the General capabilities, Australian Curriculum content description, time required, resources required, safety advice and keywords. Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines their resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum. Access to the resources is free through signing up via an email account.

Nature Education Centre

The Nature Education Centre (NEC) is an Adelaide based not-for-profit organisation that provides a hands-on approach to learning about the environment. Nature Education Centre welcome all schools, kindergartens, childcare centres and educational institutions in the Adelaide metropolitan area as members. (Please note, they do not take individual membership).  NEC makes school visits, and loans animals, natural history specimens and a range of fascinating kits to members in order to get young people interested in the study of nature. Visit the Nature Education Centre or have their Education Officer visit your school with a range of exciting native animals for your students to study and touch. Talks are suitable for children of all ages and provide a valuable hands-on learning experience. They can tailor talks to your chosen topic within the Australian Curriculum. Popular topics include:

• Native Australian Animals (including insects, frogs, reptiles and marsupials)
• Minibeasts
• Habitats
• Special features / classifications / adaptations
• Lifecycles / changes

Click here for information on their talks.

• School orders - Advance bulk orders for the 2021 Study Guides can be placed with Rebecca via office@sasta.asn.au or via the SASTA website. 
• Student / individual orders - Pre-orders for students/individuals are available on the SASTA website. All pre-orders must be paid for when ordering.

As per previous years, these will be due for delivery around June 2021.

Have you seen the latest blogs on the Oliphant Science Awards website? In March we covered:

• Multimedia: Researching your idea & script writing

• Photography from a judge's perspective

There will be more to come each week so keep an eye on the website and our Facebook page! 

The Oliphant Science Awards competition is celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2021! Check out our latest article from 1995 Oliphant Science Awards Trophy Winner - Kyra Reznikov

If you have any stories or photos you would like to share from past competitions please contact Tegan (tegan@sasta.asn.au).

South Australian Science Teachers Association
249 Henley Beach Road Torrensville SA 5031
P 08 8354 0006  F 08 8354 0008  E office@sasta.asn.au
www.sasta.asn.au