• All activities
  • New study options
    • Engaging with practices of contemporary science
    • Inquiry science
    • Schools science project
    • Science in Schools
    • Science and mathematics specialist pathways
    • Science and Mathematics in the Classroom
  • Additional Experiences
    • AMSPP collaboration
    • ASELL for Schools - Victorian Node
    • Back to school
    • Communicating Science
    • Contemporary Biology and Environmental Science In Education
    • Contemporary Science Schools Network
    • Discovery STEM initiative
    • Maths videos
    • Multidisciplinary Science and Technology in Education collaboration
    • Reconceptualising Chemistry
    • Reconceptualising Rocks
    • Representing scientific practice at the Institute for Frontier Materials
    • Scientists as Partners in Education
    • Science Squad

Representing scientific practice at the Institute for Frontier Materials

Deakin University worked with the Institute for Frontier Materials to develop a series of videos and activities which highlight the work of materials scientists, to be used in pre-service teacher education.

Contacts

Responds to ReMSTEP innovation(s):

4

Specialist science and technology centre collaborations.

5

Opportunities for students to interact with scientists in world-class research environments.

Key points

• A series of videos and accompanying activities, that exemplified the work of contemporary materials scientists, were created
• An authentic environment, the Institute of Frontier Materials, was utilised for exploring the broader concept of STEM in practice
• Relationships developed across the education and science-engineering faculties

T This project, undertaken at Deakin University, aimed to represent the work of the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) through a series of videos and accompanying activities that exemplified the work of contemporary materials scientists.

In this sense it is different to other ReMSTEP activities, as no direct interactions between scientists and pre-service teachers (PSTs) occurred. Rather, the materials developed with the scientists will be used with PSTs to raise their awareness of the nature of such research and development and how it might be represented in the curriculum.

Limited trial-runs of the activities and videos have been run, and the materials are still in development. Once completed, they will be used in teacher education courses and will be made available to teachers in general.

This project exposes students to current contemporary research and development practice with an emphasis on the broader perspective of STEM: Science and Engineering. This is fundamental to what goes on at the IFM, where ‘blue-sky’ materials science research occurs side by side with industry funded applied engineering work. As such, IFM was seen to be an authentic environment and therefore an ideal context for exploring the broader concept of STEM in practice.

Another aspect of the activities was the parallel development of relationships across the education and science-engineering faculties, and with teachers and schools. For the IFM scientists, this was a way of introducing them to the various ways in which research may be represented and communicated in schools.