The Science Nomad

Its always good to try new things. I believe this, deeply, and it's what I encourage educators and students to embrace, as part of the learning process. I even try new things myself .. from time to time. This week, I teamed up with the great Indonesian educator and humanitarian - Ines Setiawan - and the SHINE network ( that she has forged) to try an online platform (TheCN), to reach across Indonesia, and into some of the least advantaged schools and homes. Something Ines has been doing for many years, In preparation for the trial, I rebuilt my office, converted my bookshelves into a video broadcast rig - my CAMELS ( Camera And Microphone Extended Learning System)   and selected a few activities that required only the most basic of ingredients. Ines, put the word out through the SHINE network that we would be running the Hands on Science activities, and circulated the ingredients that would be used during the workshop. By the time Friday night ( midnight my time in ...

The adaptations of the camel to its arid extremes are legendary. It carries for the nomad much that would otherwise be left behind. They reach with ease those locations that other modes of transport would never even consider. It is fitting then, that This Science Nomad will be using Camels on the next EDventure. Indonesia , Australia's most populous neighbor, has almost 1 million teachers across its 30 plus provinces, and thousands of islands. While I have worked with their science centres, helping encourage the establishment of the Indonesian network of Science centers, I have not had the chance to work with many of the teachers there. One teacher known to many across the world, is the energetic, polyglotic passionate educator Ines Puspita. In addition to teaching at an international school, supporting community market gardens and sustainability programs, Ines leads a project to help support the teaching of science across the diverse and  dispersed corners of the country. ...

Good life : Good design - Lessons from the Lahu Two Lahu women elders warm themselves while the community  meets at the dancing circle Between running Professional development workshops for Science centre staff  (Thailand) and before starting a series of Teacher enquiry programs (Malaysia), I got out of the big cities and headed up into the hills and Nature Parks of North Western Thailand. I Stayed at a fantastic off grid - eco-lodge, and with their help organised a short trek out into the hills, see the real country, to sleep out, and visit some of the remote hill tribes. Of course I expected some great experiences, in the jungle, the trekking, the food, the skill of my guide, and the warmth of the villagers. I was not disappointed, but these are stories for another time and place. Yet the more profound insights that I was left with were diverse examples of what might - in a formal western context - be called great design. I will share 3 examples, that span the tradit...

I have always felt that there are many components to what we call "learning" that in a structured educational system are often sequenced into progressive hierarchies. Certain concepts and skills are linked, and definitely need foundations. Yet some of these sequences, or progressions  don't always reflect our capacity, or readiness to develop them. Curiosity shouldn't be phased out at 6, anymore than logical thinking should wait until your 16. This is a story of 7 year old, that reminded me of this. During February 2017, I was honored to be given the role of Visiting Scholar - at Petrosains - a major science centre based in Kuala Lumpur (KL) Malaysia. I worked with them near 15 years ago, soon after they were established, to help them manage and develop their capacity around exhibitions, and exhibit production. Now, 15 years on, we have both - progressed and matured ( well... they have). They now run a very strong mix, of a destination science centre attraction ( in K...

2009 saw the Facebook,the iPhone and the Nuffield report  "Education for All"  released for mass consumption. All of these had been under development for several years beforehand, but sadly, only the fist two have gone on to be widely appreciated and adopted globally. The report  "EDUCATION FOR ALL THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR 14-19 YEAR OLDS", looked at the readiness of graduates for a variety of pathways to employment and further study. It contained a number of disturbing findings - and 5 major recommendations. The findings for Britain, now almost a decade old, are echoed fresh and almost daily from many countries around the world.  The recommendations remain as compelling and relevant as ever,  But there are pockets of progress, the future of education is here, its just poorly distributed. I think it useful to revisit these recommendations and explore some initiatives that are working in the spirit of these strategies. In the execut...

I was often told to leave my calculator outside during maths classes - especially during exams. But I don't recall a prohibition on elastic bands. Over the next 6 months, as  @TheScienceNomad  I will be getting the chance to travel extensively across South East Asia. Working with Teachers, science centres, and training universities. A strong focus of these workshops will be on hands on, curiosity driven, enquiry learning. Science, natural phenomena, spatial reasoning, maths, logic, creativity, design, problem solving, and computational thinking will all get a run. The more I get time to think about these "different topics" the more the processes of equipping people to lead their own learning into them, converge. I'm rediscovering my love of geometry, and structure and logic, and rushing now to develop some extra activities to put into the backpack before I go. The Humble Peg Board, rolled off my shop floor this evening. Its Dental Floss friendly, and can be us...

The Tesla electric vehicle has captured the minds and wallets of many. Named after one of the major protagonists in the electric power tug or war - Tesla Vs Edison, the modern Tesla car and energy storage systems are - in some paradoxical ( and I'm sure unintended ways) making Tesla spin in his grave - we can only hope it is synced to 50 Hz.  The modern Tesla systems ( cars/motors, batteries and PV capture) , certainly interface with the now pervasive AC world, but are essentially part of a DC ecosystem. It does seem to be a cruel irony, the bind the name of a great advocate for AC - Nikola Tesla - with such a strong DC brand.  So, when it can time for me to do some development work as part of my creative fellowship, with the Wonderment Walk Victoria project, I needed a portrait to fuel the process. What better test subject, than Nikola. Under the fellowship, I am exploring applications of ancient - but not widely understood - pin hole optics, the deeper phenomena o...

STEM education is gaining support and advocates, and a growing depth of research rigor. Integrated units, cross-curricula projects and the like are finding their way into some of the early adopter classes and schools. Technology ( digital devices) and computer science resources are being brought in as tools to support learning and problem solving tasks in what traditionally were distinct subjects. Yet, across many of these initiatives, primary and secondary, the focus on ensuring the students have some of the basic skills, and mental techniques to excel in the various - manipulative steps - physical, mathematical and meta-cognitive is sometimes left to chance. Spatial reasoning, is a core to these problem solving strategies. It is being researched, advanced, and integrated into many informal learning programs such as the ones I will shortly be delivering across several Asian countries during the next few months. These simple, but trans formative activities have been strongly pro...

The Discovery - Science and Technology Centre in Bendigo , has been providing a critical focus for community and informal learning in the region for many years. In common with many small not for profit projects, its fortunes have ebbed and flowed over the years. It navigated a very tricky period in recent years, coming to within weeks of being closed. The great team and staff, volunteers and managers and the wider community rallied around the project, and it has emerged, with a new lease on life. But even leases need to be renewed. The leadership group now driving Discovery along, have identified the revitalisation of there early childhood facility -Kaleidoscope - as one of the next areas to receive significant attention, along with longer term planning for general exhibit renewal, science communication training for its staff and volunteers, and exploring opportunities to be integrate even better into the bustling STEM and innovation sector in this regional centre. I was honoured to ...