The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

Joe Hope discusses flipped classrooms
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.

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Astronomy and more on day four

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
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. Read more about Astronomy and more on day four

Day 2: GM Food For Thought

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
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. Read more about Day 2: GM Food For Thought