By Gabriella Vukman
Thanks to the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), Seville Primary School students hosted a Science Expo on Tuesday 15 August.
A morning of show and tell with the other classes, followed by an afternoon expo for friends and family, prompted much excitement among students.
An osmosis of concoctions concerning bicarb, static electricity, alka-seltzer tablets, vinegar and food dye filled the science room along with the curious smiles of onlookers as they passed through.
Auslan and relief teacher Joe Mac said “to receive funding has been really, really beneficial.”
“This is the first time that we’ve actually received funding to be able to do something like this,” Ms Mac said.
The expo was conducted as a part of National Science Week, a nation-wide festival that is supported by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), the Australian Science Teachers Association and the ABC.
National Science Week is designed to encourage and celebrate the sciences.
School captain Lily, said that she enjoyed conducting “the actual experiments” rather than “just writing stuff down.”
“Instead of doing all the writing, I like doing actually something that you can use with your hands,” classmate Emma said.
Statistics show that active learning such as participating in experiments is an effective and long-lasting method of learning.
“Practical experiments are fantastic and when they’re fun they’ll want to do more,” Ms Mac said
“When they have to explain it, that helps them understand.”
Funding from ASTA was put towards purchasing the ingredients for the experiments as well as for having enough supervising staff on hand.
“It would be really expensive to take all these things out of the budget,” Ms Mac said.
Upon being asked what schools and governments should do to better facilitate science in education, Ms Mac said having a “designated” science teacher and science room is important along with funding.
“Teachers have to be well trained in science too.”
Grades 5 and 6 class teacher Zoe Mcdonald notes the excitement of the students and said “they were most excited to show it off to the other grades.”
“It’s great because there’s been a lot of collaboration…[and] they’ve got a lot of ownership over what they’re doing,” Ms Mcdonald said.
