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Royal Society Committee on Science and Technology EducationMinutes of the Education Committee Meeting
Thursday 31 March 2005, Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research, University of Waikato
Present: Alister Jones, Robyn Baker, Richard Price, Pam Williams, In attendance: Peter Spratt Apologies: Barbara Benson
Unable to connect to teleconference: Alan Parris, Lavinia Bonnie
Minutes of previous meetingThe minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
Matters arising:Work Plan report The committee expressed its congratulations and thanks to the staff of the RSNZ for the volume and standard of the work being carried out (summary appended), and requested that this be brought to the attention of the RSNZ Council.
Māori/Pasifika Symposium This one-day symposium was held on 4 March in partnership with the Māori sub-committee of the Health Workforce Advisory Committee. Alister Jones reported that it was a very successful event, particularly in that it facilitated discussion and sharing of ideas between groups that previously have not done so.
General business: Work Plan 2005-06
Sustainability/environment issues As this is the beginning of the UNESCO Decade for Education in Sustainable Development, it was agreed that the committee should undertake work in this area, especially in research into Māori student/community involvement in land development/environmental issues.
The committee agreed that there is a need to define some of the issues surrounding interaction of CRIs and local iwi/Māori with schools through environmental projects, with a view to facilitating more effective engagement. There are many things that happen and are written that can be considered as a ‘resource’ for teachers but are not being accessed or fully utilised. It involves teachers having knowledge or matauranga that supports the issue and resource; and teachers being able to link and adapt it to their programme to meet the needs of their students and to justify the use of it.
Māori/Pasifika into Sciences It was agreed that the preparation and promulgation of case studies of current programmes would be useful. These would be published at least on the web. Peter Spratt was asked to scope this activity. Action: Peter Spratt
Presentations to school students The value of such activity was discussed and it was suggested that RSNZ produce an email invitation to member/partner organisations asking them to contact us when they have secured their overseas/exciting speakers for their conference so those people have the opportunity to help NZ youth along a science path. Action: Peter Spratt/Pam Williams
Meetings Agreed to hold face to face meetings in late July and mid-October with two teleconferences in addition.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 4.15pm.
Report to RSNZ Science and Technology Education Committee 31 March 2005StaffingThe restructuring of the Education team has been completed with existing staff accepting new positions and one further appointment being made. The restructure has identified the areas of focus for the RSNZ – students, teachers, community – and the new positions and their roles reflect these areas:
Specialist: School programmes Kathryn Hicks Specialist: Student programmes Debbie Woodhall Specialist: Outreach Cris Westrupp Education Officer Allison Taranchokov Administrator Lavinia Bonnie, Matthew Smith Facilitating editor (0.2FTE) Colin Walker
We also have Jessie McKenzie, a redeployed primary Principal, working at RSNZ for 2005; Jessie’s school was merged last year and under the Principals’ CEC she is able to work with us for the period of her redeployment. Her tasks are to:
NZ Science Mathematics and Technology Teacher Fellowships 58 Teacher Fellowships started at the beginning of this year; one is due to start in July. Reports from the 58 2004 Teacher Fellows are being evaluated. Initial indications are that all were very successful; highlights have been included in the 2004 Annual Report on the Web.
CRESTWe have received $200,000 over 3 years from the Todd Foundation to support the development of CREST. This funding will enable us to put CREST online, run teacher development workshops, provide a small venture capital fund for CREST projects and further promote CREST to teachers and students. We have also received $5,000 from the Eastern and Central Community Trust to promote CREST in the East Coast-Hawkes Bay area.
National Waterways ProjectPositive responses were received to both the MoE NWP and BAF ‘RSNZ Whitebait Connection’ milestone reports presented in December. A hui for the facilitators was held in February. Most work will focus on curriculum support this year, for example:
A successful event with Minister Marion Hobbs was held at Otari School on World Water Day 26 March.
Realise the DreamA very successful Genesis Energy Realise the Dream was held 6-10 December at Victoria University. 39 NZ and 4 Chinese school students presented their research and technological practice and engaged in a week of activities.
Young AchieversJonathon Platt, winner of the IPENZ Award at Realise the Dream, took first place in the Engineering section of the Taiwan Science Fair.
We currently have four students accompanied by Realise the Dream Chief Selector Bill Radford at the Youth Science Creation Fair in Beijing.
E=mc 2Planning for this competition is well underway with over 40 schools registered and the itineraries for the two prizes, trips to the UK and Europe for the winning teams of three students and their teacher, being completed.
Nanotechnology presentationsWe were contracted by MoRST to deliver a programme of presentations on nanotechnology to students. These were given by EU researchers who were in NZ for the Advanced Materials conference. While the timing (9 – 15 February 2005) made organisation difficult, we succeeded in involving 595 students and 37 teachers from 30 schools at 6 centres – Wanaka, Ashburton, Christchurch, North Shore, South Auckland and Wellington.
Alpha and GammaAlpha 123 Freshwater aquatic plants written by Tracey Edwards of NIWA and Gammas Osteoporosis and Tsunami have been published.
Code of Ethical PracticeThe Code of Ethical Practice for the use of animals for teaching and research in schools has been approved and an Approval committee is being established. The Ministry of Education has contracted RSNZ to prepare guidelines and exemplars for the use of animals in schools by the end of June.
Tertiary Study PathwaysWe still await statistics from one University. MoRST has been informed of the delay.
Supporting Māori/Pasifika into sciencesThe symposium, opened by Hon Annette King, Minister of Health, was held, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, on 4 March to identify mechanisms to support and encourage Māori and Pasifika into the sciences at tertiary level. The symposium presentations are now online at: http://www.hwac.govt.nz/Māorisymposium.htm Kathleen Logan will develop a policy document for RSNZ, and we need to identify actions from this for the committee work plan for the 2005-06 year.
BAYERBoostA scholarship scheme to provide environmental holiday work for senior secondary and undergraduate students is being developed with financial support from Bayer NZ. We intend to have the scholarships operational for the 2005/06 summer holidays to provide paid work for up to 5 students studying environmental sciences.
Social Sciences Committee Middle Management SymposiumA very successful inaugural symposium was held last year in Wellington for school middle managers, and the Social Sciences committee is providing another in Hamilton in July this year.
Partnership activities with Subject Associations:NZASEThe implementation of the newly developed NCEA Level 2 Certificate has encountered a barrier with NZQA refusing permission to use assessment materials despite these being widely available and currently used. The NZASE will produce new tasks as quickly as it can, but this has been a severe impediment to the development process.
The NZ Science Teacher continues with Colin Walker as facilitating editor on a 0.2 part-time basis.
TENZPreparation of the TENZ Update for Term 4 2004 awaits the report of the meeting to form the TENZ Council. The e-list tenz-talk and the membership database continue to be maintained.
Royal Society of New Zealand Science and Technology Education Committee
Research into student/community involvement in land development/community environmental issues As this is the beginning of the UNESCO Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, it will be useful to determine base line data on the level of student involvement in community environmental and land development issues; this work will be guided by committee members Pam Williams and Liz McKinley.
Preparation and promulgation of case studies of current programmes encouraging and supporting Māori and Pasifika into tertiary sciences and technology Following on from the combined RSNZ/Ministry of Health symposium on this issue, the committee recommends the employment of a writer to portray the current programmes in such a way as to act as a model or template for other institutions to adopt. This can then be published on RSNZ website and a number of copies printed for distribution to key audiences – Government and tertiary institutions.
Science Education Research Symposium This symposium is hosted by Colleges of Education/Universities and provides an excellent forum for emerging researchers to present and discuss their work.
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