Creative Science Teaching Using Simple Materials

The professional development workshops for school science teachers have been an important science communication outreach effort by CPAS for the past eight years. These workshops, known more popularly as Creative Science Teaching Using Simple Materials, take the Questacon tradition into classrooms in Australia and internationally, through the use of simple, familiar and easily obtained materials. The workshops give teachers the opportunity to experience creative science teaching through hands-on activities. The hands-on activities expanded my knowledge and encouraged me to search for simple methods and materials when teaching science. (Workshop participant, 2007) While the CPAS workshops for science teachers usually span a period of one or two days and mainly focus on teaching physics at secondary level, they also cater for specific curriculum topics and include elements of biology and chemistry for specialist teachers. Enrol for a workshop

See more pictures taken at Science Teacher Workshops

Some Recent CPAS Workshops for Science Teachers

(Reviewed by Sean Perera)

Forces Workshop for science teachers in the ACT

Duration	August/September 2006 & May 2007: A series of three afternoon workshops over a period of three school weeks
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon), Prof. John Rayner (CPAS Visiting Fellow), Prof. Aidan Byrne (Dean of Science) In collaboration with CSIRO
Participants	28 secondary school teachers in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

My students loved it. Like at the workshop, I set up stations around the room and we did all sorts of pressure activities at each station. They had an absolute ball. (Workshop Participant)

Residential workshop for science teachers from Indonesia

Duration	September 2006: Ten full-day sessions
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon), In collaboration with Questacon
Participants	9 high school teachers from Indonesia

We realise now that we don't have to always have sophisticated equipment to teach science. We can use simple materials...The workshop activities have made us more open minded to creativity and broadened the way we think. (Workshop participant)    

Creative science teaching workshop for science teachers in Sri Lanka 

Duration	November 2005: One-day workshop
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon) In collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka
Participants	66 secondary school teachers and teacher educators in Sri Lanka

The workshop showed us simple approaches to make science interesting by relating to simple everyday experiences...it will definitely change the way I teach science. (Workshop participant) Read more

Forces Workshop for science teachers in Townsville

Duration	July 2005: One-day workshop
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon), Prof. John Rayner (CPAS Visiting Fellow)
Participants	26 secondary school teachers Townsville, Queensland

I liked the hands on nature of it all. The accessible materials are certainly good for schools and some of them are pretty impressive with what you can do. (Workshop participant)

Creative science teaching workshop for science teachers in Launceston

Duration	December 2004: One-day workshop
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon)
Participants	18 secondary school teachers Launceston, Tasmania

Sue and Mike gave us material they had developed on using the movie Titanic, as a way of describing buoyancy. I thought it was a really good idea and I liked the way they went about making connections between science and everyday events. (Workshop participant)

Creative science teaching workshop for science teachers in Cessnock

Duration	June 2004: One-day workshop
Facilitators	Dr Susan Stocklmayer (Director of CPAS), Prof. Mike Gore (Founder of Questacon)
Participants	21 teachers from Cessnock Primary School, New South Wales

I think that they have been terrific. The concepts were easily demonstrated and you can see it very clearly. It has also given us a lot of ideas, that we can use in the classrooms, because they are simple and use simple materials. (Workshop participant)

Understanding Forces

This special six-hour workshop is designed for middle high school teachers who would like to refresh their own understanding of Newtonian forces and Newton's laws.  Through carefully constructed experiences, teachers are encouraged to discuss ideas about forces from ideas about Newton's Third Law through to drawing free-body diagrams.  Participants also discuss students' ideas with a plethora of hands-on experiences to address these ideas in the classroom. 

"The amount of information and knowledge given in this workshop was excellent!" - workshop participant, 2006.

"The loads of experiments and their explanations given as a take-away - I loved it!" - workshop participant, 2006.

Fields in Physics

This new workshop is coming soon and deals with gravitational and electromagnetic fields.

How to Enrol

For further information please contact Mary Hooper:

E-mail: cpas@anu.edu.au

Phone: 02 6125 0498
Fax: 02 6125 8991