News

News | CSIRO | Science periodicals | Online Encyclopedias

• Case Study 1: Experiential learning for middle years' students in Environmental Science
• Case Study 2: Skilling up our students to work scientifically
• Case Study 3: Developing a community of problem solvers
• Case Study 4: Inspiring the Next Generation of Scientists
• Case Study 5: Arts Infused Science - Bridging the Divide
• Case Study 6: What's the hook to engage students in secondary science?
• Case Study 7: Is advanced biotechnology within reach of most high schools?
• Case Study 8: Developing Effective Senior School Partnership Programs
• Case Study 9: Fuels for the 21st Century
• Case Study 10: Geology Park for Schools in Western Australia
• Case Study 11: Videoconferencing: A Shared Learning Experience
• Case Study 12: Raising the Confidence of Teachers to Tackle Technology
• Case Study 13: Searching for Answers: A Forensic Approach
• Case Study 14: Waterproofing - a school and community approach
• Case Study 15: Digital Dreaming - Technology tells traditional stories

New science resources from the EdNA database

The following table is automatically generated from the latest science entries to EdNA’s database.

New to EdNA:

Sustainability

Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative

(http://www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi/index.html)
The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative website includes resources, case studies and contacts.
There should be many science-related aspects of sustainability.
The resources are divided into Curriculum, Energy and Audits, and Audits include water, energy, biodiversity and greenhouse emission calculators.
There are many case studies now available in pdf format, organised by State/territory

Landcare CarbonSMART

(http://www.carbonsmart.com.au/Default.aspx)
Individuals and families - and, of course, students and classes, can now assess their carbon footprint online through Landcare CarbonSMART's emissions calculator. (Requires Flash)
Calculate, Reduce and Offset!

Queensland Government Natural Resources and Water

This department has a number of useful pdf-based resources available in different sections of their website.
From the Resources for school teachers page one can access

• Catchment management resource (Level 5 science)
• Land management resource (Level 6 science)
• Water cycles and catchments resource (Level 3 science and SOSE)
• Dungbusters resource (Levels 2, 3, 4, 5 SOSE and science)

Worldmapper - The world as you've never seen it before

And it's true!
(http://www.worldmapper.org)
A website featuring maps of the world with country volumes representing the target data - has to be seen to be believed! Maps organised into the following categories, usually with a number of maps within each category: Basic, Movement, Transport, Food, Goods, Manufacturers, Services, Resources, Fuel, Production, Work, Income, Wealth, Poverty, Housing, Education, Health, Disease, Disaster, Death, Destruction, Violence, Pollution, Depletion, Communication, Action and Exploitation. Maps enlarge. Other options include a (colour) pdf poster, view an index map for comparison (a 'normal' map), an Excel file with or without map and view technical notes. All free!
Most maps are now available.
Good value!

Scientists in Schools

(http://www.scientistsinschools.edu.au/)
Link up and learn: Register today for Scientists in Schools - a new learning experience that allows scientists and schools to work together across Australia
Check the CSIRO managed website for details or to register
Website includes notes on:

• What's involved?
• What's in it for me and my students?
• Police checks and security
• Support materials
• The registration process
• Frequently asked questions

Science Podcasts available here!

The Education Podcast Network (http://epnweb.org/index.php) has hundreds of podcasts covering a huge range of subjects available for download.
There are currently nearly 80 science podcasts, including episodes of The Science Show, Ockham's Razor, Microbe World Radio and many, many more.
Something for the students to listen to on the way home!
WEBSITE CAUTION: "This web site is intended for professional educators and all audio content should be previewed by the teacher before being made available to students."

The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research National Measurement Institute has over 40 one page (pdf format) Fact sheets available.
(http://www.nmi.gov.au/index.cfm?event=object.showContent&objectID=07D9A558-FB1B-268B-CD3FEA364338A1F4)
These sheets all follow the same format: The Challenge followed by NMI's Response. Useful additional resources for any science topics relating to measurement. Quite a few sheets refer to aspects of environmental monitoring and sports drugs research.

Science by Email
(http://www.csiro.au/sciencemail).
CSIRO offers this FREE weekly, electronic newsletter that keeps classroom teachers around Australia up to date with amazing science news. Every Science by Email newsletter also contains an interersting science experiment that uses easily obtained items and is trialled. A recent readers’ survey indicated that Science by Email is enjoyed by teachers, students and parents alike, with primary and secondary science teachers across Australia using it regularly in their classrooms. One teacher said, “I use it every week. The kids love the activities and I use the news as reading group material.” Go to www.csiro.au/sciencemail to sign up. Science by Email is supported by mecu, a socially-responsible credit union.

CSIRO Explore & Educate
(http://www.csiro.au/csiro/channel/ichr.html).
CSIRO offers a range of valued science education projects that might suit your needs – including the well known CSIRO Double Helix Science Club and CSIRO Science Education Centres.

Australia Advances Set
(http://www.csiro.au/promos/ozadvances/)
New from CSIRO Publishing: The Australia Advances series, which showcases up-to-the-minute scientific discoveries that are shaping our lives. Science that is fighting disease, protecting endangered species, engineering new crops and saving the environment. You can view the stories online by clicking on the link at the bottom of each story page – large files, require QuickTime player – or purcahse as a DVD, each of which contains more than 30, 2-3 minute video stories.

Available on three DVDs for AU $99.95 or singly for AU $39.95 (purchase online).
Life and Living covers stories on animals, insects, human health and more.
New Technology covers gene technology, textiles, industry and more.
Our Environment covers salinity, mining, crops and more.

Accompanying teachers’ notes and worksheets included on the DVD have been written to add value by linking the stories into the National Curriculum Framework.

NOVA Science in the News

• Science for sustainable reefs
  Pollution, overfishing, coastal development and climate change are putting the world’s coral reefs under increasing pressure. With millions of people relying on them, how can science help make our reefs sustainable?
• Rocking on with hot rocks geothermal energy
  Geothermal energy is a clean, green resource with the potential to power Australia for centuries.
• Hunting for dark energy with the WiggleZ
  Mysterious dark energy is thought to make up a large part of our universe. But what is dark energy and how will the WiggleZ help us understand it?
• Simply astronomical – the Square Kilometre Array
  Australia is playing a leading part in plans to build the world's largest radio telescope.
• Flying beyond our means – air travel and the environment
  With aviation’s emissions growing faster than any other transport sector our impacts on the environment are heading sky high.
• A sense of things to come – smart sensors and the environment
  Monitoring reef systems or catchments for environmental change can be a big job; sometimes too big for humans to handle without a bit of technological assistance. Now that assistance is increasingly available in the form of smart sensors.
• Making our mark – ecological footprints
  Ecological footprints are being used to measure our impact on Earth and the results aren't good.
• Life on Mars?
  Recent discoveries on Mars have re-kindled the long-running debate between scientists about the existence of Martian life.
• Cancer immunotherapy – redefining vaccines
  As the leading cause of death in Australia, scientists are giving cancer a shot.

All up, there are currently over 80 topics available - Click the More Nova topics link at the bottom of the homepage. A good site to direct senior students to for their research. Also includes email alert for new topics.

COSMOS - A magazine of Ideas, Science, Society and the Future
(http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/)
From their email alert:

COSMOS, the glossy quality bi-monthly magazine that is already the biggest-selling Australian science magazine, turned one year old this week. To celebrate its first birthday, the COSMOS team has launched an online service with daily science news stories and a new feature article every week.

National Geographic Education
(http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/)
Access maps, photography, lesson plans and activities. Lots of good stuff for both you and your students. The Forces of Nature interactives are here (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/). These are excellent, but, as indicated above, may be slow to load.
(added to Lynx 06.04.05)

Highlights from Nature
(http://www.nature.com/).
Podcasts now available.

Science magazine
(http://www.sciencemag.org/),
or the associated Science online website
(http://www.scienceonline.org/).
Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Podcasts now available.

Scientific American
(http://www.sciam.com/).
Includes annoying ‘subscribe’ pop-ups.

New Scientist
(http://www.newscientist.com/).
Also includes annoying ‘subscribe’ pop-ups.
and have a look at
New Scientist Environment
(http://environment.newscientist.com/home.ns)

For the more technologically minded, there is Popular Science
(http://www.popsci.com/popsci/).
Website includes many images and can be slow to load.

Science Education Review
(http://www.scienceeducationreview.com/)
From the website:

Problem: Great ideas for teaching science are appearing in the literature, but how can I access them? With a busy schedule, how can I best keep up-to-date?
Solution: Read less, learn more. Subscribe to: The Science Education Review

Encyclopaedia of Life

(http://www.eol.org/index)
Pages currently include huge graphics and are very slow to load!
A potentially useful resource, with some possibility of becoming involved oneself.

Wikipedia

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
From the Wikipedia website:

Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into the largest reference Web site on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This Web site is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link.

Not only an excellent reference, but perhaps your class can update a reference?

Encyclopedia of Earth

(http://www.eoearth.org/)
From the Encyclopedia of Earth website

Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Earth, a new electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other's work. The articles are written in non-technical language and will be useful to students, educators, scholars, professionals, as well as to the general public.