News from the Teaching and Learning Centre

July 2020

Dear subscriber,

A few important items in this newsletter:

•  Do not miss the July 31 deadline to apply for the new ACDS funding available to help us build a repository of resources for teaching online science and mathematics.

• Read about the progress made by our Fellows towards their project on quality assurance. Get involved!

• Register for ACSME 2020 -- it is promising to be an exciting event!

As usual, we welcome your contributions of articles, and pointers to conferences and publications that may be of interest to the readership.

Best regards

Cristina Varsavsky

Funding for new ACDS project - get your application ready!

Applications for the new ACDS project to create a repository of online resources for science teaching and assessment close on July 31.

This project will develop a mechanism for sharing resources across ACDS member institutions. It will provide funds to create a repository of curated remote teaching and assessment resources developed across Faculties of Science, particularly those resources that would benefit teachers and students of large mainstream subjects. 

We are seeking academics to lead this development in four broad discipline areas: chemistry, life sciences, mathematics and physics. Up to $10,000 are available to each discipline leader to establish a framework for this repository and to gather and curate current resources. 

See further information including guidelines and application form here.

An update from our Teaching and Learning Fellows

Over the past few months, and despite the Covid-19 disruption, the Fellows Tina Acuña and Jo-Anne Kelder have been hard at work developing additional resources for the CER-STEM framework, updating the website, developing online workshops and planning for the (now online) ACSME 2020 conference. They are developing a new generic Minimum Risk Ethics template using the national online Ethics Review Manager (ERM) system. As the COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, Tina and Jo-Anne  are keen to re-engage with as many universities as possible, to provide support and resources to integrate the CER-STEM framework into curriculum development as planning commences for semester 2 and 2021.

 Read about their progress to date here.

ACSME 2020 - registrations now open

This year’s Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (ACSME) is promising to be an exciting event.

Interest in this conference has not faltered because of its new online format. This is evidence that this annual gathering is of great value to the community of science and mathematics educators. We have received a very healthy number of submissions for oral and poster presentations, and for Discipline Day workshops. These are currently being reviewed and authors should expect to hear about the outcomes by the end of the month.

We have an impressive lineup of speakers to analyse and discuss our experiences with going into emergency remote teaching, and what it all means for the future of science and mathematics education. Check them out here.

Registrations are now open, and close on September 18. Register here.

For further information, check the  ACSME 2020 website.

acdsteachinglearning@gmail.com