Middle school students' perceptions of engineering

This paper focuses on implementing engineering education in middle school classrooms (grade levels 7-9). One of the aims of the study was to foster students’ and teachers’ knowledge and understanding of engineering in society. Given the increasing importance of engineering in shaping our daily lives, it is imperative that we foster in students an interest and drive to participate in engineering education, increase their awareness of engineering as a career path, and inform them of the links between engineering and the enabling subjects, mathematics, science, and technology. Data for the study are drawn from five classes across three schools. Grade 7 students’ responded to initial whole class discussions on what is an engineer, what is engineering, what characteristics engineers require, engineers (family/friends) that they know, and subjects that may facilitate an engineering career. Students generally viewed engineers as creative, future-oriented, and artistic problem finders and solvers; planners and designers; “seekers” and inventors; and builders of constructions. Students also viewed engineers as adventurous, decisive, community-minded, reliable, and “smart.” In addition to a range of mathematics and science topics, students identified business studies, ICT, graphics, art, and history as facilitating careers in engineering. Although students displayed a broadened awareness of engineering than the existing research suggests, there was limited knowledge of various engineering fields and a strong perception of engineering as large construction

Role of solids in heavy metals build-up on urban road surfaces

Solids are widely identified as a carrier of harmful pollutants in stormwater runoff exerting a significant risk to receiving waters. This paper outlines the findings of an in-depth investigation on heavy metal adsorption to solids surfaces. Pollutant build-up samples collected from sixteen road sites in residential, industrial and commercial land uses were separated into four particle size ranges and analysed for a range of physico-chemical parameters and nine heavy metals including Iron (Fe), Aluminum (Al), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni) and Copper (Cu). High specific surface area (SSA) and total organic carbon (TOC) content in finer particle size ranges was noted, thus confirming strong correlations with heavy metals. Based on their physico-chemical characteristics, two different types of solids originating from traffic and soil sources were identified. Solids generated by traffic were associated with high loads of heavy metals such as Cd and Cr with strong correlation with SSA. This suggested the existence of surface dependent bonds such as cation exchange between heavy metals and solids. In contrast, Fe, Al and Mn which can be attributed to soil inputs showed strong correlation with TOC suggesting strong bonds such as chemsorption. Zn was found to be primarily attached to solids by bonding with the oxides of Fe, Al and Mn. The data analysis also confirmed the predominance of the finer fraction, with 70% of the solids being finer than 150 µm and containing 60% of the heavy metal pollutant load

Why Become a Teacher? Exploring Motivations for Becoming Science and Mathematics Teachers in Australia

There is an identified shortage of mathematics and science teachers across Australia and many of these teachers leave the profession within 3 to 5 years of graduating. This paper provides important insights on what motivates people to become science and mathematics teachers in Australia. Data drawn from two surveys, one investigating why students might become a teacher and the other examining why teachers joined the profession, are explored to provide unique insight into an area of need. Using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rho, results suggest contribution to society and love of subject area to be among the top motivators for becoming a teacher. Financial reward and parental occupation were found to be less selected motivators. Although differences existed between the two cohorts suggesting motivations may change, similarities provide focus for future recruitment and retention of science and mathematics teachers for higher education institutions and education policy makers

Developing Mathematics and Science Teachers’ Ability to Design for Active Learning: A Design-based Research Study

This paper describes an approach to working with secondary preservice mathematics and science (M&S) teachers to develop their ability to design for active learning. It presents the design of a studio-style intervention that augments existing teacher education. It describes the way that these studios can be organised, with specific suggestions that a specialised learning designer, a subject matter expert, and administrative support be included to aid in the design for learning—on the justification that this can both improve the learning design as well as advance teacher learning. It describes a study in which 10 secondary M&S preservice teachers experienced this style of studio, through iterations of learning design sessions and teaching practice. The studio differs from existing models (such as the ‘clinical model’) through its focus on learning design, the structure of the learning network, and the way that it augments (rather than replaces) existing teacher education. The paper presents results from the study in terms of teacher self-efficacy and self-reported perceptions. It discusses a set of design principles that emerged through the process of developing and testing this model and proposes considerations for researchers or teacher educators looking to use a similar approach in future by focusing on the roles, tasks, and activities for members within the network

Evaluating Barriers, Enablers and Opportunities for Closing the Loop through ‘Waste Upcycling’: A Systematic Literature Review

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to ‘do more and better with less’, with numerous calls to action arising from the business sector concerning the substantial reduction of targeted types of commercial and industrial waste. Emanating from the original work on closing material loops by McDonough and Braungardt in the 1990s, over the last two decades the concept of ‘upcycling’ has increased in popularity as a targeted intervention to reduce material and energy use in business processes. Essentially upcycling involves reusing, repairing, repurposing and upgrading waste material to avoid the conventional endpoint of ‘disposal’. However, upcycling is still considered a niche practice and many business enterprises remain unclear as to how to use upcycling opportunities for better management of their waste. In this paper, the authors propose a Tiered Approach to Waste Upcycling for Business, as a strategic way for businesses to close the loop within their industrial processes and production chains. The paper comprises a systematic literature review of opportunities and barriers for enabling business enterprises to close the loop through waste upcycling. The review highlights the ad hoc, champion-based and highly variable use of upcycling practices and uncovers opportunities for more systematic and streamlined practices to produce value-added products from waste material. Synthesising the findings, the authors establish three tiers of ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘micro’ barriers and enablers that businesses can consider identifying upcycling opportunities for managing their waste. The authors also discuss key benefits of upcycling including improved quality and life of material, creating jobs and influencing positive consumer behaviour. The authors conclude the benefits of a structured approach to considering circular economy opportunities, towards improved waste management that is better for the bottom line, people and planet. With regard to future research in the field, the authors define a set of key theoretical constructs relating to waste upcycling, that can facilitate innovation and investigations into applying ideas

Co-design for Curriculum Planning: A Model for Professional Development for High School Teachers

This paper describes a model for teacher professional development as co-design for curriculum planning in which facilitators with design and pedagogical expertise iteratively work with groups of secondary school teachers, one school at a time, to plan whole terms of work, as a form of teacher professional development. It contains preliminary results from a design-based research study involving co-design with digital technologies teachers in two Australian secondary schools. It describes two phases of design involving workshops, strategies and instruments that work to facilitate effective co-design with teachers. Results from this pilot study suggest that the co-design for curriculum planning model leads to high quality teacher professional development for 21st century learning

What kinds of social network groups do teachers find useful?

This paper presents results from a survey of teachers describing their two most useful Facebook groups (n=108 teachers). It addresses a gap in the literature, in that many studies investigate teachers within certain Facebook groups, but little is known about the types of groups that teachers-who-use-Facebook find to be most useful. Analysis of the survey results looks at the privacy, thematic focus, and regional focus of groups that teachers report to be useful. The study also addresses the question of “what kinds of peer support do teachers find within these useful Facebook groups?” The results show that useful Facebook groups tend to be private, positioned at a state/jurisdiction/national level, and have a clear thematic focus. Results also show that within these useful Facebook groups teachers report high levels of pragmatic support, with lower levels of modelling of practice, reflection and feedback, meaningful connections, and emotional support (in that order). The paper discusses the significance of these findings with respect to issues of policy, design, and facilitation of Social Network Sites (SNSs) as well as teacher preparation for competencies to thrive within SNSs

Workshop: Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers

All governments are investing in improving STEM education. There is significant activity underway across the country in schools and education systems, by industry and universities to lift student engagement and attainment in STEM and to support teachers to improve student outcomes. The Chief Scientist’s report Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Australia’s Future highlighted the trends that our system is grappling with including the declining performance of Australian students against international benchmarks and the decline in participation in senior secondary sciences and advanced mathematics. As acknowledged in The National STEM School Education Strategy, reversing the trends in STEM performance will take time and considerable, collaborative effort. But what of the role of Universities in addressing this challenge? In 2013, 12 million dollars of federal grant funding was awarded to five major projects over three years that committed to take a lead role in Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers (ETMST). These projects sought to identify where significant change and impact can be made - going beyond traditional approaches that have involved providing more content, method and resources, and reconceiving what is possible through renewed collaborations between practising scientists, mathematicians and teacher educators - as we prepare the next generation of our nation’s science and mathematics teachers. http://www.olt.gov.au/maths-and-science-teachers Objectives Discuss shifts in higher education practice that can effect and support change through our preparation of the next generation of mathematics and science teachers nationally Explore key findings and implications of Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers projects nationall