New Zealand Science Teacher

Science providers and educators meet-up a success

25/05/2016

Last week, the Royal Society hosted the Science Providers Mini Expo, designed to get organisations providing for science education - both commercial and otherwise - and science teachers interacting.

Paula Hay, who is on the Capital City Science Educators (CCSE) committee, a subcommittee of the NZASE (New Zealand Association of Science Educators), was at the mini-expo wearing her workday hat - she is education sector specialist at N4L (Network 4 Learning), the crown-owned entity tasked with improving digital learning opportunities around the country, by connecting schools to the managed network and providing a content and services platform.

Paula was at the expo talking to educators about Pond, the online community “connecting and empowering educators.”

She says that the event was almost like an expo of LEOTC providers for science.

Paula says that the standout highlight for her was “the buzz in the room. Just having a space where so many education providers, experience providers, could be together and talk to each other, as well as talking to teachers, was really great.”

“It was great to see a good mixture of ‘hands-on at your school’ providers, and ‘go and visit something outside the classroom’ facilitators.”

Experience providers like the zoo were at the expo, for example, says Paula, providing lots of diversity, as well as providers like the Eureka! programme, which runs science communication competitions.

Paula says that the expo would have been a fantastic opportunity for newer providers like the Sustainability Trust, who are developing their education programme.

Well-established organisations like Victoria University were also at the expo, telling teachers about their outreach programme.