The recent inclusion of the "Depth Study" in the New South Wales (NSW) Years 11 and 12 science curriculum has generally been well received by secondary science education leaders. The Depth Study is designed to present an opportunity for students to engage in inquiry-based learning (IBL). However, the integration of this new curriculum…

Senior secondary students were tasked with generating slowmation representations of biological processes they had already learned about during Year 11 VCE biology. The slowmation task therefore connects work with representations to review of course material. Results indicate that students negotiated between the textbook (and some teacher-specific…

This paper argues that, despite its difficulties, climate change can (and perhaps needs to) be taught rigorously to students by enquiry rather than through transmission and that such a method will enable students to make judgments on other issues of scientific controversy. It examines the issues and barriers to the teaching of climate change,…

This article reports on the explicit introduction of metacognitive strategies by an early career science teacher to support the application of mathematics skills. The research investigated the effectiveness of these strategies with three Year 11 physics students using an action research approach. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected…

Interdisciplinary teaching is a teaching method that is not as easy as other teaching methods to integrate into the everyday school schedule. This paper serves as an example and gives explanations on how this didactic approach can be applied. The lessons described were conducted successfully with a Year 11 class at a secondary school in which the…

The measurement of solar UV under water is not a simple process. In the underwater environment the difficulty of obtaining useable data is greatly amplified due to the optically complicated and at times unpredictable nature of water itself. The following practical exercise designed for use in the Year 11 and Year 12 Physics classroom aims to…

This is the first of two papers that draw on a study of the national BHP Billiton Science Awards, a peak competition funded by BHP Billiton and administered by CSIRO. BHP Billiton, CSIRO and ASTA together oversee the strategic direction of the Awards. This paper reports an analysis focussed on the outcomes for students of participation in open…

Nationally and internationally, context-based programs have been implemented in an attempt to engage students in chemistry through connecting the canonical science with the real world. In Queensland, a context-based approach to chemistry was trialled in selected schools from 2002 but there is little research that investigates how students learn in…

Giving students the opportunity to extract, manipulate and visualise DNA molecules enhances a constructivist approach to learning about modern techniques in biology and biotechnology Visualisation usually requires agarose gel electrophoresis and staining. In this article, we report on an alternative DNA stain, Nile Blue A, that may be used in the…

A summer school in Science and Technology was held in January 2008 for nineteen Indigenous students commencing year 11 who were identified as having high academic potential in science and mathematics. Known as the Aboriginal Summer School for Excellence in Technology and Science (ASSETS) the summer school was held at the Australian Science and…