This month's question:
How would you like to support others to lead
change in 2014? Reply to samnetaustralia@gmail.com
or complete the linked survey
that was handed out at ACSME 2013.
2013 South Australian Science Excellence Awards – Early Career
STEM Educator of the Year – Tertiary Teaching
Congratulations to two SaMnet Scholars - Natalie
Williamson, award recipient, and runner up Maria Parappilly.
2. Conferences & publication
EduRe ’14
– The International Virtual Conference on Education, Social and Technological
Sciences will be held on March 13-14, 2014. No need to travel as collaboration
and sharing will occur online. Abstracts due December 10. All papers accepted for the conference will be
published in a peer-reviewed journal.
WARNING:
Beware of hoax requests to publish your work (editor’s note: I have already received one
regarding my ACSME submission). Check the publisher, particularly if they
require you to pay ($35) to publish. Helpful links: here
and here.
Past: ACSME 2014; SaMnet Scholars
meeting held 12n-1pm on Thursday 19 September at U of Canberra. Good Keynotes
at the conference from the Chief Scientist, Brian Schmidt, Ian Chubb, Roy
Tasker, and others.
Future: February 2014
SaMnet Leadership-development workshops. Register your interest in hosting a
workshop with samnetaustralia@gmail.com.
Match up:
Emma Bartle,
Stefan Huth, and Chris Thompson - to talk about recognising one's own
leadership in relation to teaching. You all have a chemistry background.
4. SaMnet activity
SaMnet scholars, steering committee
and friends gathered for lunch on the Discipline Day of ACSME, September 19. 25
persons attended, networked, and completed a short survey.
The survey asked: - what was the single most
important thing that SaMnet had done in supporting you; what functions of
SaMnet you would like to see continued; and which of those functions you would
be willing to assist with. Good response.
Not too late, click here
to give your answers!
Volunteer to...
-
Host a SaMnet leadership-development
workshop for your city
-
Put in 2 hours / month to draft one
section of the newsletter
-
Act as a critical friend for a
developing leader
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(SoTL)
Walter
Buchannan (President of the American Society of Engineering Education) on Rick
Ries’s Tomorrow’s Professor Blog.
“Whatever path we follow, educators need to
ensure that the education that is received is not watered down to fit the
circumstances.”
Anita Gibbs in a
recent issue of HERD
Gibbs suggests that the scholarship of publication should be
"about reflection and analysis of the space in between teaching and
research, and focus on the interdependency of teaching, research, learning and communicating
learning" [ emphasis in the original] (p.688).
6. Leadership insights
Judith Sherven
Are you anxious beforehand? Afterward? During?
Sherven unpacks reasons for anxiety and why speaking up is still important.
Practical tips are recommended.
Bronwyn Fryer,
Harvard Business Review
“The great irony of existence is that what makes life
worth living does not come from the rosy side. We would all rather be
lotus-eaters, but life will not allow it. The energy to live comes from the
dark side. It comes from everything that makes us suffer. As we struggle
against these negative powers, we’re forced to live more deeply, more fully.”
7. Team in Focus: Building and linking quantitative skills across 1st
year biology and maths courses Louise
Kuchel, Peter Adams, Kelly Matthews, Michael Bulmer, and Vilma Simbag
This pilot
project addresses the challenges
of building the quantitative skills (QS) of first-year science students by:
•
making QS more explicit in biology units;
•
forming QS links between units;
•
implementing approaches that build QS across units;
and
•
linking QS from statistics and science-mathematics
units to biology units.
The project
specifically aimed to identify the needs for,
and current practices in, teaching QS in first year
biology. It also trials new strategies aligned with STAT1201
and SCIE1000.
Recommendations
from the project include:
- Provide mechanisms for student self-evaluation of QS preparedness in 1st yr science units with some centralised support resources.
- Develop a program-wide approach for QS in science.
- Provide opportunities for science and mathematics academics to collaborate and further link QS across units.
Specific
Recommendations for units have been to explicitly state QS as a learning
objective, emphasise a clear connection between maths/stats and science in
lectures and practicals and develop new practicals and resources that
incorporate QS.
Louise Kuchel is Lecturer at the School of Biological
Sciences, University of Queensland. She led this SaMnet project. Peter Adams is Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Science, University of Queensland. He has held numerous OLT and ARC grants.
Kelly Matthews is Lecturer in Higher Education, Teaching and Educational Development Institute, University of Queensland. She has held numerous teaching and learning grants.
Michael Bulmer is Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland. Michael has held numerous teaching and learning grants.
Vilma Simbag is the project manager based at Teaching and Educational Development Institute, University of Queensland.
8. Classifieds
Publish on aspects of your SaMnet project – on
the learning innovation or a case study of your efforts to drive change. Let us know in SaMnet HQ what you are aiming
to publish and what data that we have been gathering from your project, and
others (permission needed), that
might be helpful. Your write up might be
suitable for IJISME or another journal we can identify.
