Recognising some of our Science Educators

We're sharing some of the achievements and journeys of our science educators. Read on to find out more, including their favourite science fact!

Stefania Pulford, Thebarton Senior College

What inspired you to become a science teacher?

My love of learning, helping others and physical science is what inspired me to become a science teacher. I remember having an epiphany when I was in third year university studying geology and geophysics, when I was helping some of my peers identify specific mineral features under petrographic microscopes, that maybe I was focusing on the wrong career path. I realised that while I absolutely love geology and the idea of uniformitarianism (using understanding of recognisable features today to explain formation of features in the past), that what I really enjoyed doing was helping others see how amazing these concepts are. From that point on, I decided I was going to complete a graduate diploma in teaching after I finished my initial degree, and I really have not looked back.

Helping students appreciate their observations and apply understanding from these observations to make meaning in other circumstances still makes me incredibly happy.

Can you tell us about one of your proudest accomplishments or a new program/idea you’re running with your students?

Over the last 3 years, I have been working on improving engagement for neurodiverse learners. 

Approximately 20% of the population are neurodiverse. This can affect engagement in a range of ways for individuals but in particular, engagement and understanding of tasks can be really difficult. I have been researching different ways individuals can process information and refining how I provide instruction and scaffolding to make it much more accessible for a broader range of students. This means that I have been using visual techniques to enhance understanding of sequencing and visual processing, and been providing much more flexibility in how students can present their understanding at a Stage 2 level (specifically in Physics). So far, I have been seeing mixed results; it definitely depends on the student’s specific needs, the task itself and other distracting circumstances that I have little influence over. Despite this, I have found that the fact that I am willing to model an environment where I am happy to trial and adapt, has created a learning space where students are much more willing to try and give it a go. It has also created much stronger student-teacher relationships, where students are much more comfortable attending and interacting in the first place. 

Another area of research and professional development I have been focusing on that is intrinsically linked to better engaging a broad range of learners is the connections individuals have with others and their ability to bounce back in the face of challenge (resilience). I have been participating in active learning to develop activities in the classroom that encourage a shared responsibility in the learning that happens and helps foster social interactions that can connect learners to each other. This has involved multiple iterations of how to engage my students in learner created knowledge and shared content generation where I have also tried to encourage and facilitate conversations between learners, so that they can share and respond to their own feedback. So far, this has shown some really amazing results, especially in creating learning environments where students help each other solve problems and participate in classroom discussions really organically.

The third area that I have focused on to develop strategies to support neurodiverse learners is around generating student questions, especially in the design practical (Senior Science course requirement). I am currently experimenting with providing visual prompts (and physical apparatus) to generate student curiosity and questioning when trying to generate design and deconstruction prompts. I have only just started this particular journey and look forward to sharing my observations in a future STEM Conference.

I really love researching and implementing new practice ideas. What I love about teaching most is the opportunity it provides for me to learn. Learning how other people learn is absolutely fascinating and getting to experiment with different models, allows me to foster my own curiosity, modelling exactly what I want my students to do.

What advice would you give fellow science teachers?

I think that it is really important for all of us to network with other teachers. I have been attending and presenting at conferences for over 10 years and it is something that I will continue to do for my entire career. The best way to find new ways to do something and to problem solve is to ask other people what they do and engage in discussions that promote further curiosity. I am constantly getting inspiration from my peers and through the process of speaking to others about what I am trialling, it helps build and reshape my own understanding of how learning works. My students have benefited from this immensely but so has my own professional practice.

Tell us your favourite science fact

Electrons (and quantum entities) can behave differently when being observed (as either a particle or a wave), depending on the experimental circumstances and how they are detected (wave-particle duality).

Lisa Cibich, Saint Ignatius' College

What inspired you to become a science teacher?

I have always loved Science as a child, I loved dinosaurs and marine life and was fascinated by chemical reactions. I enjoyed applying science to fix things and to build things and whilst at University I could not just apply myself to one aspect of science and therefore teaching seemed the best option for me to be able to share my passion each day with young people inspiring them to take on Science.

Can you tell us about one of your proudest accomplishments or a new program/idea you’re running with your students?

I have had the privilege of introducing Stage 1 and 2 Nutrition at my previous school and now at my new school working collaboratively with like-minded staff to bring science in a new field to students.

What advice would you give fellow science teachers?

Keep finding the relevance for students, have students determine why they are learning, provide opportunities for students to become confident in science literacy and numeracy to become critical thinkers.

Tell us your favourite science fact

My favourite is telling students that their egg before fertilisation was actually carried inside their maternal grandmother whilst pregnant with their mum! Therefore they were also in part carried by their grandmother.