Mike’s News 5 Feb 2019

Dates to Note

  1. Already mentioned:  

1-28 Feb     Bikewise month. Many cities will run a bike-to-work day       www.bikewise.co.nz

1-28 Feb     Heart Awareness Month                     www.heartfoundation.org.nz/for-women

5 Feb     Safer Internet Day                              https://www.netsafe.org.nz/safer-internet-day/

5 Feb     Chinese New Year begins                  https://chinesenewyear.net/

7 Feb     National Periodic Table day               http://www.periodictableday.org/

11 Feb     International Day of Women and Girls in Science     http://goo.gl/7e6wpA

12 Feb     International Charles Darwin Day      www.darwinday.org/index.php

Moon      NM Feb. 5       1Q Feb. 13           FM Feb. 20         3Q Feb. 27

  1. Dr Philip Hume is giving 2 more lectures on Ornamental to detrimental: The invasion of NZ by non-native plants 11 Feb in Rotorua & 18 Feb in Wellington.

Info

  1. Culturally Responsive & Relational Pedagogy:
  1. Pedagogy:
  1. LEARNZ virtual field trips this term (scroll down below map to get the info) include Kapiti marine reserve, Tasman Bay for Sea week, a water cycle journey from mountain to farm to us, how to do a bioblitz at your school. Wow! See PLD later in this post for a learning opportunity on how to access these. http://www2.learnz.org.nz/core-fieldtrips.php

Resources

  1. Geology:
  1. Astronomy:
  1. Chemistry:
  • A Periodic Table Challenge to start our year of the Periodic Table. https://iupac.org/100/pt-challenge/
  • Fire risk across NZ will be skyrocketing – teach the chemistry of fire while making students aware of risks and how we can all help to manage them. Managing fire risk in the outdoors interactive: http://bit.ly/2sN3ElE  Science Learning Hub
  1. Biology:
  • A TED talk on how phages could provide new hope against the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
  • Infographic on Takahe conservation
  1. Physics:
  1. Literacy:
  • The National Library offers a service called AnyQuestions that helps students find good links for their research projects. Info attached.

AnyQuestions service from National Library

  1. EfS:

MoE/NZQA

  1. Guides for curriculum leaders on developing a local curriculum.

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Reviewing-your-curriculum/Leading-Local-Curriculum-Guide-series

Can You Help?

  1. Some HoFs will have TeachFirst teachers joining their science team this year. They will learn a lot about pedagogy through TeachFirst, but perhaps not much that is specific to science. How do we distill all our teaching experience into science mentoring for them? What do HoFs & others do? Have you found any good readings/resources/strategies useful for this? Please email me at stone@learningsolutions.co.nz if you have ideas to share. I will add them to a later post of Mike’s News.

Professional Learning & Development (PLD) Opportunities

  1. PLD from Learning Network NZ ph 09 835 0912
  • Women in Leadership – Auckland, 14 March, Mary-Ann Murphy. Info here.
  • Co-Teaching & Collaboration – Auckland, 15 March, Mark Osbourne. Info here.
  • The Learning Process – Auckland 18 March, Mark Treadwell. Info here.
  1. LEARNZ is holding a free, informal, online PLD session about their virtual field trips for term 1 on Tues 12 Feb at 3:30 pm. Learn about the places you will go, scientists you will meet & how to integrate these trips into your teaching and learning program. More info here.
  2. Online PLD from National STEM Learning Centre (UK) Linking STEM Learning to Careers – 3h learning per week over 4 weeks from 4 March. Free (or $69 for certificate & continued access after 6 weeks).
  3. Teachers Council is running PLD on Tapasā – teaching Pacific learners – for teachers in all sectors, on week days for 2h after school. This is the latest incarnation of the Pacific Education Plan – make sure your school is represented. Click here for dates and times. To obtain a registration form, email with your preferred date tapasaregistrations@educationcouncil.org.nz

Cheers, Mike