Science

What should Australian schools and teachers focus on in order to improve students’ general understanding of mathematics and science? In her final Teacher column of the year, Dr Sue Thomson explores newly released TIMSS 2019 data to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of Australian students at the national level.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) measures how well Year 4 and Year 8 students from around the world are performing in science and mathematics. In this infographic we look at Australian student achievement over time.

Australian students have performed significantly better in the latest cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in Year 8 mathematics and Year 4 and Year 8 science – but not in Year 4 mathematics – than they did in 2015. Here, we take a closer look at the results.

In this monthly series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online catalogues. This month’s theme is science education.

At the start of the millennium, students around the world participated in PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) for the first time. Twenty years on, what can the wealth of data collected so far tell us about education in Australia?

Teachers are asked to respond to new and uncertain situations all the time – from keeping abreast of subject knowledge updates to making quick pivots when a lesson isn’t quite going to plan. Dr Rebecca Collie joins us in this podcast episode to discuss teacher adaptability.

Queensland educator Chris Buswell is passionate about integrating technology into science. He’s partnered with local universities and schools overseas to improve student outcomes in STEM and joins us in today’s podcast episode to discuss his work.

National Science Week is going to look a little different this year with pandemic restrictions still in place in various parts of the country. Here, we look at how three schools are celebrating science and technology in their communities.

National Science Week – an annual celebration of science and technology in Australia – is going to look a little different in schools this year due to COVID-19. The Australian Science Teachers Association coordinate school involvement in the event, and have had to make significant changes to what celebrations will look like this year.

Year 10 gifted and talented students at St Matthews Catholic School in regional New South Wales collaborated with academics at the University of Sydney on a research project. In today’s episode we speak with Professor Patrick Brennan and Brooke Colley about how the collaborative nature of this project strengthened students’ STEM skills in areas like data analysis, experimentation and scientific writing.