Around 40 Science Teachers from public and private schools around Sydney and The Hunter will descend this Friday on the Lucas Heights campus of ANSTO.
They are coming to receive new tools to support the teaching of high school science, learn alongside some ANSTO’s scientists and see, first hand, some of the best science infrastructure in the country.
ANSTO are specialists in applied science, partnering with the medical and minerals industries, as well as academics and government agencies, to help answer their questions and solve their problems.
In addition to meeting our scientists, a close up look at ANSTO’s facilities is designed to open teacher’s eyes to the latest science career pathways, so they can pass this on to their students.
“There are many reports of late about young people not electing to study science at the senior level,” said Rod Dowler from ANSTO’s Discovery Centre.
“Studying science can lead to a career in anything from medicine design to minerals extraction or environmental analysis: and that’s just three of dozens of careers in our organisation alone.
“ANSTO has started these Teacher Professional Development Days to give teachers the latest tools – and the empowerment - to inspire the next generation of scientists.”
During the full day workshops, science teachers will:
- Receive a lecture from Dr Gail Iles, ANSTO Instrument Scientist and former astronaut instructor, on magnetic fields and superconductivity. Gail works in ANSTO’s Bragg Institute, which partners with companies and organisations from across the world, providing insights and solving their problems using some of the most sensitive nuclear techniques and maths models available in physics
- Take a behind the scenes tour of ANSTO that includes getting up close to Australia’s only nuclear research reactor, OPAL, the new Centre for Accelerator Science and the Bragg Institute with its many neutron instruments
- Undertake workshops on ANSTO’s free videoconference programs, which provide science students with the ability to interview a scientist, perform a simulated nuclear science experiment, practice HSC questions and collaborate with each other
- Receive a tutorial on ANSTO’s radiopharmaceutical production from Sarah Ballantyne, Quality and Compliance Manager at ANSTO Health. Sarah oversees production, engineering, quality, safety and compliance at a medicine plant that supplies 550,000 doses of Australian nuclear medicine per year