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An integrated first-year geoscience experience to foster sustainable earth science education
Get PDFGeoscience-literacy in our community has never been more important. Geoscientific perspectives, guidance and problem-solving abilities are critical for addressing one of the most acute challenges facing society today – environmental sustainability; however, the importance of geoscience for society rarely features in geoscience education. For many students, their first and only exposure to learning about geoscience is as a stand-alone elective in their first year of study at university. While student interest in global environmental issues is high, enrolments in geoscience are comparatively low, and in many instances, in sharp decline.
To develop emerging geoscientists who can recognise and promote their fundamental role in tackling contemporary sustainability challenges, geoscience education requires a revamped first-year undergraduate experience that elevates the social relevance of the geosciences. We highlight our holistic and integrated first-year geoscience experience at The University of Western Australia, in which we meaningfully teach geoscience in the context of broader societal issues to better communicate the significance of geoscience for a sustainable future. We use a range of teaching strategies to increase classroom equity and science engagement. By refocusing the narrative on “why” we teach geoscience to align with contemporary student values, we promote broader and more diverse participation. A future without geoscience is unsustainable
Understanding how industry conceptualises a valuable science graduate
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The Australian Government consistently incentivises increasing the STEM capabilities of our workforce, with the recent Job-Ready Graduates Package illustrating this (Department of Education, Skills and Employment, 2021). However, science graduates struggle to find employment post-graduation, while industry struggles to recruit sufficiently skilled science graduates (Deloitte Access Economics, 2014). It appears universities may be insufficiently preparing science graduates for the workforce.
AIMS
In this study, we explore the idea that miscommunication between universities and industry may contribute to the “problem” of science graduate “job-readiness”. Does industry truly understand what they want from science graduates? Can they clearly articulate it?
DESIGN AND METHODS
This study asks science industry employers about their conceptions of graduates who thrive in their workplace. We ask them to describe this graduate’s qualities and capabilities and explain how they demonstrate value to employers.
RESULTS
The results reveal surprising conceptions of “job-ready” and “industry-valuable” graduates, across a range of science industry contexts. The results also suggest ways universities can better prepare graduates to demonstrate their value to employers.
CONCLUSIONS
In this interactive session, we will examine how our conceptions compare with the results from industry perceptions. We will discuss the current terminology of “job-readiness” and consider ways we can improve industry-university collaboration around “industry-valuable” graduates.
REFERENCES
Deloitte Access Economics (2014). Australia’s STEM Workforce: A Survey of Employers. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-australia-stem-workforce-report-010515.pdf
Department of Education, Skills and Employment (2021). Job-ready Graduates Package. https://dese.gov.au/job-read
Is citizen science a tool for public engagement?
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Citizen science projects are those that involve non-scientist volunteers in the scientific process, for example, in data collection, project design, data analysis, or co-creation (Bonney et al., 2016). Citizen science is therefore often described as ‘engaging’ or ‘empowering’ the ‘public’ although it is unclear whether the projects are truly designed to do so.
AIMS
Our research aimed to explore how scientists perceived citizen science and interacted with their volunteers.
DESIGN AND METHODS
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 Australian biologists, using qualitative thematic coding methods to analyse the data (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006)
RESULTS
Almost all participants defined citizen science as involving non-scientists in data collection. This definition acted as a barrier for scientists who did not see how citizen science could suit their research objectives. Biologists who had experience running citizen science projects felt that volunteers benefitted from the partnership, but recognised that most volunteers already had a high level of existing engagement with science.
CONCLUSIONS
While interviewees perceived many societal and experiential benefits of contributory citizen science, deliberate design is needed to realise the full potential of citizen science for public engagement.
REFERENCES
Bonney, R., Phillips, T.B., Ballard, H.L. & Enck, J.W. (2016). ‘Can citizen science enhance public understanding of science?’. Public Understanding of Science, 25(1), 2-16.
Fereday, J. & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). ‘Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development’. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80-92
What does empathy look like to you? Investigating student and staff opinions
Get PDFEmpathy is a key factor in successful human interaction. Many contemporary issues can be linked to a lack of ability for individuals to truly understand the perspectives of those that they interact with. In the context of teaching and learning, if teaching staff cannot truly understand the complex lives of their students, it is likely that students will be unable to reach their full potential and proceed into society as fully realised members of their respective communities (Levin et al., 2012; Robertson et al., 2015; Tudor, 1993). As such, any intervention that increases the ability of teaching staff to connect to the students, benefits not only the student but also the workforce they go on to contribute to (Haertel et al., 1981).
What is unknown, however, is how teaching staff perceive their role in this empathic relationship, especially in the sciences (chemistry, biology, physics, etc.). It is additionally unclear how these perceptions are affected by either subject area or the teaching staff’s previous teaching and life experience. This project would seek to interview teaching staff across a range of disciplines in order to unpack their views around empathy and how best to employ it in their teaching practices. Largescale questionaries undertaken with undergraduate students would allow a comparison between the perceptions of students with the teaching staff. Ideally, the results of this project would allow for a better understanding of how empathy can best be supported and embedded into the practices of teaching staff both within a university context but also into all teaching practices across society.
REFERENCES
Haertel, G. D., Walberg, H. J., & Haertel, E. H. (1981). Socio-psychological environments and learning: A quantitative synthesis. British Educational Research Journal, 7(1), 27-36.
Levin, D., Hammer, D., Elby, A., & Coffey, J. (2012). Becoming a responsive science teacher: Focusing on student thinking in secondary science. National Science Teachers Association Arlington, VA.
Robertson, A. D., Scherr, R., & Hammer, D. (2015). Responsive teaching in science and mathematics. Routledge.
Tudor, I. (1993). Teacher roles in the learner-centred classroom. ELT Journal, 47(1), 22-31.
Investigating the shift to online delivery of final exams and how this impacted the student experience
Get PDFA closed-book and paper-based final examination is the most common summative assessment administered in universities around the world (Williams & Wong, 2009). However, with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in early 2020, educators were forced to transition to open-book online final exams operated through a range of learning management systems (Dicks et al., 2020). Although online exams are not novel, their use in chemistry courses on such a large scale was undeniably so, with many students and staff having limited experience with them (Nennig et al., 2020).
This study aimed to examine the impact of the online delivery of chemistry final exams, driven by the rise of a pandemic, on both the exam questions and the experiences of academics and students at The University of Sydney. Semi-structured interviews were conducted involving students who had taken both paper-based and online chemistry exams, as well as those who had taken only online chemistry exams. They were asked about their experiences and strategies used to complete exam questions. To date, only students have been interviewed, but interviews with academics will also be conducted. Thematic analyses were conducted on these student interviews, by first using inductive coding on one interview to generate a codebook that was applied to the rest of the interviews. While the exam questions were also analysed for exams written in 2019 (paper-based exams), 2020 and 2021 (online exams) as part of the study, this talk will focus on the experiences of students as extracted from the interviews, such as the various origins of stress when taking online exams and unique exam strategies employed in online exams.
REFERENCES
Dicks, A. P., Morra, B., & Quinlan, K. B. (2020). Lessons learned from the CoviD-19 crisis: Adjusting assessment approaches within introductory organic courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00529
Nennig, H. T., Idárraga, K. L., Salzer, L. D., Bleske-Rechek, A., & Theisen, R. M. (2020). Comparison of student attitudes and performance in an online and a face-to-face inorganic chemistry course. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1039/c9rp00112c
Williams, J. B., & Wong, A. (2009). The efficacy of final examinations: A comparative study of closed-book, invigilated exams and open-book, open-web exams. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00929.
Evaluating the online teaching experience of University of Sydney staff from 2020-2021: What are the lessons learnt?
Get PDFThis study aimed to address the broad concern of how teaching staff in the higher education sector were impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021. Importantly, we sought to extend this to consider how reflecting on these experiences has informed future practice or plans for innovation. Invited participants completed an online qualitative questionnaire composed of reflective questions. Respondents (14) included members of the research team from the Faculty of Science and Business School, The University of Sydney. Subsequent deductive thematic coding was undertaken with a focus to identify common experiences and challenges raised (Ryan & Bernard, 2003).
In this presentation, we will give an overview of the key findings from this study including the challenges and lessons learnt. In this study there was a degree of concern raised about making the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. This was primarily related to increased workload and lack of engagement with online teaching. However, as respondents went through the process of change, they reported feeling more positive and confident about their ability to use EdTech and make changes in a short space of time. The research has demonstrated a strong resilience of staff in adapting to unforeseen changes such as that experienced by all during the pandemic.
REFERENCE
Ryan, G. W. & Bernard, H. R. (2003). Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods, 15, 85-109
Teaching science students to communicate: A participatory workshop
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The aim of this workshop is to help participants learn how to teach science students to communicate using high impact, simple activities. The workshop will be engaging and participatory; we will learn by doing!
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
The workshop facilitators have recently completed an edited book for Springer Nature (Rowland & Kuchel, 2022). The book includes a wide variety of practical communication-teaching exercises, which can be easily implemented in existing science courses by science academics. In this workshop, participants will experience a set of these activities; they may include improv theatre, speaking, drawing, writing, listening and argumentation. Bring your enthusiasm and leave your fear of failure at the door.
CONCLUSIONS
Participants will learn new techniques and approaches to communicating science. We hope you will be better able to teach your students about how to communicate after you complete this workshop.
REFERENCE
Rowland, S. L. & Kuchel, L. J. (2002). Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide. ISBN: 978-3-030-91627-5. Wien, Austria: Springer Nature
Seeds and indehiscent fruit of Anarthriaceae and Australian Restionaceae: a gallery of micromorphology
No full textThe diaspores of Anarthriaceae and Australian Restionaceae are seeds or small nuts and are illustrated by scanning electron microscopy or multifocus microscopy and considered in relation to a previously published phylogeny based on plastid genes. Loculicidal trilocular capsular fruits are the basal condition in the restiid clade, but indehiscent fruits have evolved many times. In the Australasian members, indehiscent fruits are found in Anarthriaceae (Hopkinsia); Restionaceae: Centrolepidoideae (Aphelia); Sporadanthoideae (Calorophus); Leptocarpoideae (Empodisma, Winifredia and the whole of the Leptocarpus and Desmocladus clades). Seeds of dehiscent fruits show a diversity of surface ornamentation with distinctive surface patterns characterising genera such as Lyginia, Chordifex and Loxocarya. Pericarps are membranous in subfam. Centrolepidoideae but in the Leptocarpus clade range from hyaline in much of Leptocarpus to hard and woody in Alexgeorgea and Hypolaena. Pericarps are parenchymatous in most of the Desmocladus clade, but woody in Catacolea. Indehiscent fruits are mostly shed with tepals and floral bracts attached or, in Baloskion and some Lepidobolus species, also with the subtending glume. Seed weights were not comprehensively sampled but vary from 0.08 mg in Centrolepis to >600 mg in Alexgeorgea, with most in the range 0.3–3 mg [dry weight]. The smaller weights are mostly either in perennials of habitats with more reliable rainfall or in ephemeral annuals that avoid drought by their brief growing season, but the association between seed type and habitat has not been investigated. We see no convincing evidence to link to Restionaceae the fossil taxon Restiocarpum and the Milfordia pollen that occurs with it in Eocene–Oligocene sediments of Queensland
Diospyros venablesii W.E.Cooper (Ebenaceae), a new and endemic species from the Iron Range area, Cape York Peninsula
Get PDFDiospyros venablesii W.E.Cooper is described and illustrated with notes on habitat, distribution and how to distinguish it from the most similar species, Diospyros laurina