the geoscience pathways project

Newsletter number 4: June 2013

The Geoscience Pathways Project During semester 1 senior students visited universities and engaged in field investigations while primary school students visited Marden Senior College for laboratory activities. Younger students enjoyed gold prospecting with our metal detectors at their home schools. Teachers participated in a TESEP workshop ‘Round and Round with Rocks’, locally delivered at the Marden Education Centre and supplemented with a field investigation to Sleeps Hill designed to suit the Year 8 Australian Science Curriculum;

Visits to Adelaide University: Marden Senior College Year 12 Geology students recently visited the University of Adelaide. They were addressed in the Mawson Lecture Theatre by Dr Katie Howard, about study and career pathways in Geology and Environmental Science.

Visiting palaeontology PhD student, Leanne Hally and Dr Diego Gracia-Bellido (Senior Research Fellow at the Sprigg Geobiology Centre), followed with a talk on the Cambrian explosion, followed by some excellent hands-on practical activities with trilobites. The visit certainly raised student interest in continuing their studies at the university and provided some excellent and timely support for their current SACE studies. Students were delighted to be given their own trilobite specimens to take home. Similar learning experiences are planned for students from Adelaide High School, the Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) and Blackfriars Priory School.

Visits to Flinders University:

Students have again been invited to complete a practical investigation in groundwater at Flinders University. The university hosts the Australian Centre for Groundwater Studies.

Students work with groundwater models to

complete an investigation as part of their studies in Year 12 Geology. These visits also raise awareness of the range of alternative study and career pathways in fields such as hydrogeology and environmental science


The study of water is an important part of the Year 7 program under the Australian Science Curriculum. Year 7 students from our partner schools can be invited to visit and work in the groundwater laboratory at Flinders University and be addressed by PhD students. (Science as a human endeavour.) Visits to Marden Senior College:

Recently a group of year 6/7 students from Upper Sturt and two other Adelaide hills primary schools visited Marden Senior College for a workshop on ‘Rocks and Minerals’. The students enjoyed a range of practical activities including making their own display cards of common rocks and minerals and sketching crystal shapes.

The visit to Marden was followed up with activities at Upper Sturt, including the measurement of the density of a range of minerals, gold panning and using metal detectors in a school wide ‘treasure hunt’.


Workshops planned for term 3 �Tuesday 13th Aug., 9:00 am – 2:30 pm PD2 Riding the climate Roller Coaster (geological evidence for climate change) �Wednesday 14th Aug., 4:30 pm – 8:30 pm PD8 Powerful Stuff (nuclear and alternative energies, �Friday 16th Aug., 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm PD6 Hot Rocks (geothermal and other alternative energy sources) �Wednesday 21st Aug., 8:00 am – 6:30 pm Conducted tours of the Waterloo Wind Farm near Clare and the Hallett Power Station (gas) at Canowie, provided by Energy Australia.

Note that to participate in the site visits it is required that teachers attend at least one of the TESEP workshops during the previous week. There are a limited number of places available in this tour so your early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment. For information and/or a registration form for any of the above workshops and the site tour contact : [email protected] For information about other TESEP workshops visit: http://www.tesep.org.au

Sleeps Hill Field Trip Cynthia Pyle recently developed a new student Investigation at Sleeps Hill, which is conveniently nearby the Adelaide metropolitan area. Booklets of information for teachers and student activities, designed for the Year 8 Australian Science Curriculum, are now available on our website. SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES As a participant in our project you might consider: � using funding support to subsidise buses for field trips, � arranging visits to universities, for student activities,, � visits by mentor teachers to team-teach in your school, � borrowing our gold pans and metal detectors etc, � utlising the support of our many community partners, or � a visit for student activities at Marden Senior College Free school Presentations The SA Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) can provide teachers and students with multimedia interactive presentations delivered free to schools. A list of presentations available to suit a wide range of primary and secondary year levels, can be seen at www.sacome.org.au. If you are interested in making a booking email Emma Hughes: [email protected] or call her on 8202 9999. Education Centre Updates is Geoscience Australia's newsletter for teachers It’s designed to keep us informed of recent developments in geoscience, teacher resources, upcoming events, and competitions for students. To subscribe visit: http://www.ga.gov.au/education.html


Remember our Aim We aim to increase student engagement in Science during the middle years, through our special focus on developing engaging teaching and learning activities across the range of Earth and Space sub-strand topics of the Australian Science Curriculum (F-10). We aim to increase student uptake of senior secondary science, particularly the Earth and Environment Science (EES) course when it’s launched in 2016-17. Through our collaborative efforts we will provide teachers with the background and confidence to successfully teach EES and thereby foster its uptake in our schools. SASTA and CONASTA 62 We recently showcased our project in a workshop at the annual SASTA conference at Immanuel College. The workshop was attended by 25 science teachers from across the state, many of whom expressed interest in joining our website. We will present a similar workshop at CONASTA 62, at the La Trobe University in Melbourne on Monday 8th July. These conferences enable us to promote our aims and freely share our work and resources with others. OUR NEXT MEETING: To begin planning for term 4 and term 1 of 2014, you are urged to attend our meeting on: Wed 4th September from 4:30 pm in the Geology lab. at Marden Senior College For catering puposes please RSVP: Len Altman: [email protected]

Enhance TV.com This new website, gives immediate access to a wide range of science-based, educational television, streamed direct via the web. You can browse over 11,000 programs across a diverse selection of learning areas and watch programs anywhere – at home or in class. You can create clips, lesson plans or link to study guides, then stream direct to the classroom there’s no hardware or storage needed. Highlights include the BBC series ‘HOW TO GROW A PLANET’. Find out more at: enhancetv.com.au/direct Please join our website Joining our website is free. All you need do is email your Word.doc description and photo of your school to our webmaster Amanda Vernik at: [email protected] You could get some ideas by visiting: www.geosciencepathways.org.au Funding fof the webmaster position for the Geoscience Pathways website (0.1) is provided by the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) and the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG). We thank these professional associations for their ongoing support.


Comic Book On Plate Tectonics

A geologist and her husband, a comic book writer, have teamed up to write a comic book on Plate Tectonics "The Adventures of Geo". They plan to produce more issues in the future, covering other Earth Science topics. If you are interested there is also an online flip book and a mobile version, as well as the low and high resolution PDF versions on their GEO Site.

Seis Seismometers in Schools Launch Mard Marden Senior College has been chosen as the venue venue for the upcoming national launch of the Aust Australian Seismometers in Schools Program. A d

A date has yet to be announced, but will most likely be in August. We are planning to develop a range of activities appropriate for various year levels, particularly Year 12 Geology and Year 9 Science (which focuses on plate tectonics).

All of Project participants will be notified as soon as a launc date is announced.

Term 3 and 4 SASTA PD Workshops

Year 7 Science: Earth and Space Science Friday 30th Aug., 9.00am - 3.00pm These workshops will support teachers to further develop science concept knowledge and understanding through in an experiential learning workshop.

Teachers will have opportunity to network with other Year 7 teachers, download resources and investigations that can be used immediately in the classroom and develop a richer understanding of science inquiry skills.

Ani Animated guide: Earthquakes

Th There is a newly released guide to how earthquakes occur, In in animated graphics and text which might well suit Year 9 plate tectonics at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7533950.stm

Our application for an NAB Schools First • Impact award • On Friday 28th June we will lodge our application for a • $30 000 ‘Impact Award’. We believe that this • application is much improved over our unsuccessful • 2012 application. Thanks to all those who helped. • Winners will be announced on 29th August •

the geoscience pathways project

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