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April 2022
This month is Citizen Science Month so we will be focussing on some great content and resources around Citizen Science throughout April. Check out our website and excursion of the month below and keep an eye on the blog and our socials for more to come! Did you see our Environment blog posts for March?
Call for workshops for the Annual Conference close on Wednesday 13 April. Have you thought about submitting a workshop?
SASTA news
SASTA Award Nominations close on 13 May
SASTA members are eligible to be nominated for a SASTA Award which will be recognised at the Annual Conference in July. Have you considered nominating yourself or a colleague for a SASTA Award?
- Credit Union SA / SASTA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Award
- Helen Castle Memorial Scholarship
- SASTA Medal
- SASTA Honour Award
Find out more about the awards and previous winners or nominate yourself or a colleague here.
SASTA Annual General Meeting
The 2022 Annual General Meeting of members of the South Australia Science Teachers Assocation Inc. will be held on Friday 29 April at 10.10am via Zoom.
Current financial members will receive details about joining the AGM online and how to vote via email.
Know Your Country
Are you aware of the Know Your Country campaign?
Designed to petition for more Indigenous representation in schools, we can all do our part in many ways. One is using the free email banners in your signature, or, like we did here at SASTA, add to the collection of photos showing where you are. We're proudly on Kaurna Yerta (Kaurna Land), and always aim to include indigenous representation in our work.
Head to the Know Your Country website and include your classroom and access their teaching resources. https://www.knowyourcountry.com.au/
Professional Learning
Soil Science and Viticulture with Wine Australia
Friday 20 May
This workshop is aimed at teachers who want a fresh and innovative approach to teaching Biological Sciences and Earth and Space Science.
Using grapevine management (viticulture) as the theme, we are able to teach science content such as plant life cycles and soil science with a context that applies to so many regional and rural families around South Australia within the wine industry. You will receive ideas for several activities, experiments and fair test investigations, learning resources and free gift to take home to help you get started in the classroom. For more details and to register click here.
The SHE Task
Friday 27 May
This workshop is aimed at people who want to further their skills in setting, assessment and providing feedback on the SHE task. It also will cover the writing and marking of SHE questions for tests and examinations. There will be time to examine your own student work and participate in some cross-moderation and marking of work/drafts.
For more details and to register click here.
7-10 Australian Curriculum Science:
How can we design and assess differentiated tasks?
Friday 10 June
This session will only focus on Australian Curriculum 7-10 Science courses – these are so critical for making sure we are retaining students in Science in the senior years. It is essential that we equipment students in these year levels with confidence and the skills needed to explain, analyse and be critical.
You will have an opportunity to work on your own tasks, share with the group, moderate your own student work and engage in professional discussions about marking – so please bring plenty! To register click here.
Teaching Science through creation of interactive VR Inquiries
Friday 24 June
You are invited to participate in a hands-on, practical, and highly interactive professional learning experience that introduces the teaching of Science through an applied use of VR technology. No prior technical knowledge or experience of VR is required.
You will first participate in a fun interactive immersive experience. This ‘engage’ activity provides insight on the experiential strength and educational merit of the immersive environment. Second, you will ‘explore’ pre-made exemplars of VR inquiries and consider how these VR products apply rigor for engaging learners to think and work scientifically. Third, as pairs you’ll learn how to create an interactive VR Science Inquiry. Finally, as an ‘explain’ activity you and your buddy will present your VR project to the group. The workshop concludes with an open forum to workshop any other questions.
For your classroom
What is citizen science?
Citizen science occurs when members of the general public take place in crowdsourcing, data collection and data analysis for scientific enquiry. Many citizen science projects are active in South Australia right now – you can find them on the Atlas of Living Australia Project Finder!
Insect Investigators
Insect Investigators have worked with educators at the South Australian Museum to create a teacher resource that you can use to explore insect biodiversity with your class!
- Free download
- Linked with the Australian Curriculum for years 4-7
- Adaptable for any other year level
- Lesson plans
- Worksheets
- Insect glossary
You can find even more insect resources, including videos and identification guides, on the website. Whether or not you are running a Malaise trap as part of Insect Investigators 2022, you can use all these resources to bring some six-legged learning into the classroom.
Junior Field Naturalists
This is an exciting club for students from age 6-14. Perfect for kids that have a fascination with NATIVE ANIMALS and NATURE – mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, insects, spiders … anything to do with the wonderful world of nature.
Students can join them for their monthly gatherings, show and tell sessions or field trips. Parents attend meetings and field trips with their children and are responsible for their supervision.
Find out more on the website.
Oliphant Science Awards
Coordinators, have you registered / re-registered for the 2022 competition? Student registrations close on Friday 20 May. You can find all the Key Dates here.
Judging registrations are open!
As you may know, The Oliphant Science Awards now includes Multimedia, Science Writing and Scientific Inquiry as electronically submitted & judged project
categories. Therefore if travel, distance or date availability is an issue these categories are the way to go.
The remaining categories will be due for judging in August. Our new partnership with Science Alive! for our Open Day means that our onsite judging day will now be on Wednesday 3 August at the Adelaide Showgrounds. Find out more here.
Resources
For all resources available from SASTA, see www.sasta.asn.au/resources
Have you pre-ordered your Study Guides yet?
As per previous years, these will be due for delivery in June 2022.
- School orders - Advance bulk orders for the 2022 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.
Stage 1 & 2 Topic Tests - available now!
Find out more about
SASTA is excited to make available sets of Topic Tests that may be used as formative or summative Skills and Applications Tasks (SATs) in Stage 1 & 2 Biology, Chemistry and Physics. These tests are of the highest quality and feature a comprehensive range of questions including science understanding, science inquiry skills and science as a human endeavour.
You can also bundle your Stage 1 & 2 Topic Tests with Trial Exams! All trial exams are new for 2022 and the Stage 1 Trial Exam prices have been reduced.
Contributions from the science community
Mary Anning Art Prize
The aim of the Mary Anning Art Prize is to have young South Australian artists create an original piece of artwork that tells us something about the prehistoric life of South Australia. It is essential, to be eligible, that the artwork explores an element of South Australia’s rich and remarkable prehistoric past, and that the artist lives in South Australia.
Submissions are now open. Find out the details here.
Virtual Reality made easy for Teachers
Practical hands-on learning using iVR for teachers with their classes (Years 7-10). Well suited for Science, Design & Tech, Arts and or HASS teachers
Virtual Reality Made Easy for Teachers is an intensive hands-on Futures Technology PD Program for teachers. The program comprises 3 x 3-hour workshops each spaced 2 weeks apart and delivered across School Terms 3 or 4, 2022. The program enables teachers and their students the means to become proficient and purposeful users of cutting-edge immersive Authoring VR technology (iVR).
For more details click here.
To express your interest in the program contact Dr Paul Unsworth: paul.unsworth@unisa.edu.au
Circular fibres pitchathon for senior students
Created through a collaboration between CSIRO and Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), the Circular fibres pitchathon is part of an upcoming symposium: "Threads + Opportunities: Science engineering sustainable fibres, for closing the loop in Australia". Open to high school students, and TAFE or undergraduate students, the pitchathon is a challenge to generate and pitch an idea for sustainable fibres and textiles. The competition opens on 15 March 2022 and entries close 2 May 2022. Find out more.
How Cool is Your School
Join the Mapping Competition ‘How Cool is Your School’ in 2022 and be in with a chance to win great prizes (no drones required).
This competition is a simple set of lessons where your students use satellite data to map the amount of green shade on your school grounds.
Students will calculate the percentage of shade and create a map that meets cartographic (mapping) conventions. The maps the students create are then entered into the competition. Find out more here.
Commissioner’s Digital Challenge
The ‘Commissioner’s Digital Challenge’ is a free recurring year-round digital challenge designed to engage children in learning foundational digital skills.
The three digital challenges on offer cover three key digital skills learning areas: Learn to Speak Robot, Space to Dream & Zoom Out!
For more information visit the website.
National Science Week Grants Now Open
School Grants
Your school could get up to $500!
These grants are designed to support teachers and schools deliver engaging STEM events and activities that align with the National Science Week vision. They are intended to be a contribution to the running of a National Science Week activity or event in a school not the sole means of support. Applications close 22 April. Find out more information here.
Community Grants
The South Australian Coordinating Committee of National Science Week is pleased to offer a number of community grants (upper limit of $2,000) to support events during or close to National Science Week in August. The grants are open to any individual, community group, organisation, business, industry or university to help celebrate science. Applications close 2 May. Find out more information here.
Resource Book of Ideas is now available!
The schools theme for National Science Week this year is Glass: More than meets the eye, in recognition of the UN International Year of Glass.
The 70pp teacher resource book has just been published by the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) and is available to download for free. The book includes lesson plans, demonstrations and tips and ideas for teachers of classes from Foundation to Year 10. There is also a companion student journal and a poster to download and print.
Andy Thomas Space Foundation Challenge
South Australian schools are invited to participate in the Andy Thomas Space Foundation Challenge. Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will be competing for nine prizes of $4,000 each.
The 9 selected schools will use the prizes to implement their Challenge Proposals. This will involve developing and implementing a project that describes how Space Technology and the Buzz Aldrin Foundation ‘Giant Mars Map’ can be utilised to link to the Australian Curriculum and stimulate student interest in Space. Applications close 27 May. Find out more information here.
Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize
Sponsored by the University of Sydney, the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize encourages students to communicate a scientific concept in a way that is accessible and entertaining to the public while painlessly increasing their science knowledge or, as prize patrons Dr Karl and Adam Spencer like to say, "Learn something without even noticing". It is intended to support budding young scientists across the nation, who will be our future leaders in research, discovery and communication.
Students are required to make a two-minute film that focuses on a scientific concept, discovery or invention, or their own scientific hypothesis. For full details visit the website.
Contact SASTA
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
