Newsletter 37
14 Aug 2023
Our latest newsletter! #37
Read below to learn about so many fantastic links or download our PDF - Update from our Geoscience Outreach Officer
- CONASTA – Adelaide 70 – GPP represented!
- Free Rock and Mineral Identification Class Sets
- PALMS offers Free Incursion Visits in SA
- The Origin of Animal Life – SA Museum Educational Sessions
- Resources for teachers
- Thank you to our sponsors
- 2022/2023 Committee Members
Update from our Geoscience Outreach Officer
Our Geoscience Outreach Officer, Kelly Sharrad, has been working hard to engage South Australian Schools in offering the Stage 1 and 2 SACE Earth and Environmental Science subject. This year, 4 new schools taught the semester 1 Stage 1 EES course with two of these schools confirming they will offer the Stage 2 EES course in 2024. Furthermore, Kelly has engaged 8 schools across South Australia that are offering the Stage 1 EES course in 2024. Moving further beyond next year, 4 schools are keen to offer Stage 1 EES in 2025 with 1 school for 2026. This success is mainly due to offering all resources required to teach the subject is provided to schools for free. This removes a significant workload burden for the average teacher, which is even more important with the current teacher shortage we are experiencing due to workload issues.
CONASTA – Adelaide 70 – GPP represented!
This year Adelaide had the pleasure of hosting CONASTA, the national science conference, that travels around the Nation. With the first keynote speaker focusing on the unique Ediacara Biota of South Australia, there was a direct focus on the Earth sciences. Education Outreach Officer, Kelly Sharrad, attended the three day conference which included a booth and presentation. Kelly had 23 meaningful conversations with teachers from both South Australia and other states throughout the three days. She also presented the Stage 1 EES course as a workshop where 12 teachers attended to hear what Geoscience Pathways Project was offering schools. Kelly also had the opportunity to network with other geoscience focused outreach including Geoscience Australia, CoRE and AusEarthEd which included discussion of opportunities where we could all work together to further the education of Geoscience in schools.
Free Rock and Mineral Identification Class Sets
As part of the Geoscience Pathways project we offer free class sets. Thank you to Luke for spending his time organising the next batches of class sets
Each set weighs up to 5kg and contains 10 samples of each of the following... rock types
Igneous (Intrusive) - Igneous (Extrusive)
- Metamorphic
- Sedimentary
- Ore
Additionally, at least 5 minerals containing 10 samples each, fossils and opal. Contact geoscience.pathways@gmail.com
PALMS offers Free Incursion Visits in SA
After great success last year
PALMS will be offering some incursions again in Whyalla during the last week of Term 3. If you would like to know more get in touch via their
online booking request form or
email if you have any queries.
The Origin of Animal Life – SA Museum Educational Sessions
Below is the information about Dr Felicity Coutts educational sessions at the SA Museum, after running a few of her first sessions she received this feedback:
It was really good, when we went to go see the different fossils I enjoyed it a lot, because we got to see fossils from over +555 million years ago and it was so cool because we could also touch the fossils and bones. I also enjoyed it when we found an ice wall where we could put our hand in it. And lastly I liked it when we learned about the big extinct animal like the big wombat. Overall it was really fun and I learnt a lot from Felicity. - Atong (Student)
Download her flyer below and book soon as she is very popular!
Resources for Teachers
R-10 science teachers:Our Geoscience Pathways website provides a range of resources suitable for teaching topics in the Earth & Space strand of the Australian Curriculum: Science (V 8.4). In addition, it is strongly recommended that teachers of R-10 Science refer to the excellent resources offered by Australian Earth Science Education. These are available for free download from
https://ausearthed.com.au/# 11-12 teachers of SACE Earth & Environmental Science:Our Geoscience Pathways Project is currently focused on supporting the uptake of SACE EES in SA schools. Our resources are available here:
http://geoscience.msc.sa.edu.au/Content.aspx?p=1069We also offer the free support of our Geoscience Outreach Officer (Kelly), who can provide expert advice and directly assist teachers (and schools) to introduce this exciting and timely new SACE subject into their senior secondary curriculum offerings. Kelly Sharrad:
ksharrad@gmail.comFunding Update
We are excited to announce that we have secured some funding and in kind support for 2023 that has been paid.
Our sponsors currently are:
However to continue our work we still need sponsors…
PLEASE SUPPORT US - Gold sponsorship $10 000 pa
- Silver sponsorship $5000 pa
- Bronze sponsorship $2500 pa
For information about sponsorship contact:
lenaltman9@gmail.com2022/2023 Committee Members
The following are the members of our current Geoscience Pathways Management Committee who were elected at our AGM in March 2022 – we will soon organise our next AGM, anyone is welcome to join:
Len Altman (Chairperson)
Kelly Sharrad (GOO, Open Access College)
Luke McKay (GPP Coordinator)
Amanda Vernik (GPP Webmaster, GPP Secretary)
Graziela Miot da Silva (Flinders University - Earth Scientist)
Nick Wilkins (Flinders University)
Bronte Nicholls (Adelaide Botanic High - Teaching EES)
Tamara Cave (Tate Museum)
Lewis Subelli (Uni of Adelaide - Pre service teacher)
Alan Collins (University of Adelaide - Professor)
Carol Aldous (Flinders University - Earth Science Teacher Education)
Sarah Chinnner (BHP)
Zoe Hewett (Department for Energy and Mining)
Alan Brenchley (TafeSA)
Adam Davey (TafeSA)
Thank you to our members for their dedication and support to the Geoscience Pathways Project.
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