31Aug-29Sep	Auckland Climate Festival celebrates climate action. https://bit.ly/45i7mEo
11-18 Sep	Māori Language week www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz
11 Sep	Hochstetter lecture on the Kaikoura Earthquake, Nelson. Details here
12 Sep	Hochstetter lecture on the Kaikoura Earthquake, Dunedin. Details here
13 Sep	Hochstetter lecture on the Kaikoura Earthquake, Christchurch. Details here
13 Sep	ASTA’s Expo of EOTC Providers. Teachers please register attendance here
14 Sep	SLH webinar on adapting resources for the primary classroom. 4pm. Sign up here
15 Sep	Deadline to Apply for Regionally allocated PLD
16 Sep	Alison Campbell’s Schol Bio Prep Day, Sancta Maria College, 10-2pm Register here
16 Sep	International Day to Preserve O3 www.uneptie.org/ozonaction/events/ozoneday
16 Sep	World Cleanup Day, NZ has a clean up week all week.
19 Sep	Hochstetter lecture on the Kaikoura Earthquake, Palmerston North. Details here
20 Sep	MOTAT’s online History of Robotics workshops. 9.30am or 1.30pm. Sign up here.
21 Sep	PLD at Rosmini College on incorporating mātauranga Māori into ESS. registration link
22 Sep	Entries close for Interface’s Minecraft comp https://interfaceonline.co.nz/minecraft2023/
23 Sep	Spring Equinox NZ https://www.rasnz.org.nz/in-the-sky/sun-rise-and-set-1
24 Sep	World Rivers day http://worldriversday.com/ (last Sun Sep)
24 Sep	Tsunami warning siren test at the beginning of daylight savings, (last Sun in Sep)
25 Sep	uLearn registration closes https://ulearn.nz/
25Sep-1Oct	Chinese language week https://mhaw.nz/
Moon	NM Sep 15      1Q Sep 23      FM Sep 29      3Q Oct 7

1. For Māori Language Week this week
   • Some online activities to practice your te reo Māori https://animations.tewhanake.maori.nz/
   • Article on Canterbury place names [Mere Manning]
2. Ak teachers remember Alison Campbell’s Schol Bio workshop at Sancta Maria College next Sat.
3. Canterbury uni is celebrating International Microorganism Day at Tūranga library Chch 10am – 1pm on Sun Sep 17. This special free event will include short talks and hands-on activities with free FoldScopes, origami microscopes, for keen microbiologists in training to take home.
4. Cafe Scientifique Tauranga will take a tour of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 18 Sep at 7:00 PM. Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club. Register here.
5. Emma Stoddart is looking for a Wellington Secondary School to host the biology teachers’ BEANZ PLD in term 4. Please contact her at info@iym.org.nz if you can help.

Info

1. Mātauranga Māori
   • New lesson from Science Alive Mātauranga on invasive species. Access here. Sign up here.
   • Canterbury pūrākau https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about/capitalworks/campus-plan/cultural/
2.  Pedagogy:
   • Effective routines to open and close lessons from Edutopia
   • Pupils lacking resilience is a common concern, but there are ways to address it. This research-based model breaks down the 4 essential elements of resilience & provides practical strategies to cultivate it. https://twitter.com/ImpactWales/status/1696460937593508002/photo/1
3. Professional reading/watching/listening:
   • Podcast Ologies with Alie Ward
   • RNZ interview with Dr Kate Thomas on exercise physiology
4. Student opportunities:
   • Students are invited to join Chemeca, the chem engineering conference with their teachers on Tu 3 Oct, 9:30 – 1pm (with lunch) at Hilton Auckland, 147 Quay St, CBD. Free. Please register here
   • Women in Engineering are offering free NCEA exam revision hubs in the school holidays on Ak Uni campus. L2, 25-28 Sep, 9-12 or L3 2-5 Oct, 10-12. Virtual one-on-one support sessions continue too, book those here https://womeninengineering.auckland.ac.nz/wen-tutoring
5.  Literacy:
   • June 2023 School Journals have articles on whale fossils, rahui, marine reserves, Antarctica, a climate scientist and fact or opinion https://instructionalseries.tki.org.nz/content/search\
6. Digital support:
   • Some graphic organisers pre-made in Google Drawing with a help guide of how to create some yourself.
   • Founder/CEO of Khan Academy, Sal Khan’s TED talk on the opportunities of artificial intelligence. https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_how_ai_could_save_not_destroy_education
7. Choose the best images of the year from 68 finalists in the NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year awards – for the People’s Choice award. [No instructions obvious: Scroll down to view photos in the comp, scroll right to see other photos in the same story]
8. United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2024–2033 as the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development.

Resources

1. Biology:
   • Cosmos article about those deadly mushrooms https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/deadly-mushrooms-and-friendly-fungi
   • An article about sequencing the Y chromosome https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/y-chromosome-fully-sequenced-scn/index.html
2. Agricultural and Horticultural Science:
   • LEARNZ virtual field trip on apple breeding https://www.learnz.org.nz/primaryindustries192
   • An article about traditional crops, modern horticulture and local knowledge coming together
3. Earth & Space Science:
   • Alan Gilmore’s new book on the Southern sky.
   • Interpret this data on the tides https://www.sciencerockhill.com/data/so-when-is-high-tide
   • USA has an Earth Science week in Oct. We can order the 2023 Earth Science Week Toolkit  for just the cost of shipping and handling, $9.50 in the USA.
4.  Chemistry:
   • Interpreting a heating curve for ice being heated to steam https://www.sciencerockhill.com/data
   • STEM online provides free interactive teaching and learning resource for NCEA externals. A module for 91391 (Properties of organic compounds) is now complete, and 91390 (Thermochemical principles) is not far off. https://www.stemonline.auckland.ac.nz/
5. Physics:
   • A new site with resources on Crash Science in the Classroom. There is lots of modern physics that is engaging for students. [Andrew Chubb]
   • IOP on the teaching of energy https://spark.iop.org/collections/energy-new-curriculum
6. Primary & intermediate:
   • An activity to find the angle of the sun relative to locations on a school building to determine proper placement for solar panels. https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83841/overview
   • The NZ Pacific Collection of Picture Books has a list of suggested books lots of lesson ideas for each one https://pacificpicturebooks.co.nz/links-to-curriculum/
7. Nature of Science:
   • Resources for use in developing critical thinking processes [Alison Campbell]: https://thinkingispower.com/
8. New standards
   • A conversation on FaceBook recently brought out contexts good for applying different kinds of investigations: The formation of limestone caves; The environment; Food chemistry; Stomach acidity; Sea level rise – using glaciers & linking it to climate change & bivariate data analysis
   • A tool for evaluating scientific claims https://thinkingispower.com/floater-a-tool-kit-for-evaluating-claims

Technician

1. Making slime needs a quality PVA glue. With changes in commercial formulations, Theresa Jones has started using PVA powder (bought from ECP). “It is cheap, easy to make up, and keeps well. Makes a better slime which is translucent, so really pretty, which we all know is of paramount importance.” Her slime recipe https://edu.rsc.org/experiments/pva-polymer-slime/756.article

Professional Learning and Development

1. Education Hub is hosting a webinar on AI – recent developments, implications for teachers, strategies to engage effectively. 7:30 pm Sep 18. Register here (recording will be posted here too).

Cheers, Mike

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