The Science Nomad

Resilience = Challenge + Failure + Motivation  As Part of my program in West Papua,I was able to combine teacher professional learning, student enrichment, as well as community development. The first location was in Tembagapura, a 30 min chopper flight at dawn into a mining community at 2500 meters. Here we ran student enrichment during the day, and teacher PD in the afternoons. We also ran the first the my science Oasis - where students/educators get to build their own hands-on science exhibits, creating learning tools, but more importantly building confidence and skills.  I was also able to work with the lowlands "campus" of the IB school located in Kuala Kencana just outside the town of Timika. THAT was a great experience.. mind you just coming down the mountain in a steel box lined with 32 mm Kevlar on the back of a truck ..aka . a BUS.. was an experience. Once I had wrapped with the teachers and students of the Kuala Kencana school, I had time to volunteer next ...

Part 2 - West Papuan Mount Zaagham School Project:  2017 Effective development initiatives have legacy - longer term impact. Form the Papuan project with Mount Zaagham School (MZS) - the PTA wanted a lot of enrichment activities. The Students were at a very good school, and we had great support from the PTA and school leadership. So we set an ambitious goal -  To make the world's most remote mini science centre ( that I know of) in about 6 hrs. I coined the name "Science Oasis".  If successful, the mini centre, the collection of basic exhibits would remain, as a small retreat, rich in self directed learning. And of course, every Science Nomad journeys from Oasis to Oasis. Some basic material sourced in the community (thanks Katherine) to feed into the Science Oasis project. When we originally scoped this part of the project with the PTA, I thought we have a few hours of after school program time each day. The older primary school students would assist in ma...

A year or so ago I had the great privilege of bringing my active maths program (AMP) to the academics  and masters of teaching candidates at the UBD ( university of Brunei Darussalum) . With ongoing support from the Director and staff of the OGDC ( the Shell Oil and Gas Discovery Center) I have been able to return again this year. Working closely with the academic leadership group at UBD we had time to develop a very strong development program. One designed to not only share new activities but also help candidates to become confident in using strategies to engage and entice students towards an enjoyment of mathematics, logic, and critical thinking. The main part of the program ran over 4 days. It was designed specifically to achieve some lasting impacts, both on the participants and the educational systems. Brunei, like many countries understands the need for strong 21st century skills. Mathematics, logical thinking, resilience and a problem solving mindset are among the ...

Its Just ASTEP to the right. The ASTEP program (Australia/Asia STEM Educators Progam) that I ran earlier this year, supported by the Australian Government through DET and DFAT, allowed me to share some approach and activities with STEM educators in several South East Asian countries. It was a great experience, and the workshops were so well received that I was asked back to run some more. This time I was able to work with almost all of the educators within one of  the great international schools within Vietnam. the AIS ( Australia International School) in Ho Chi Minh City). The professional development was able to coincide with the start of the new school year and the orientation week for the newly recruited primary school educators. The AIS is like many of the leading  international schools in the region, they are linked in with educational frameworks such as the IB PYP/MYP system. Many have an understanding of the need for both excellent core academic outcomes, ...