At the end of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign during World War 1, Lance Corporal William Scurry saved thousands of lives with his one simple invention. As the ANZAC soldiers prepared to withdraw from the disastrous 9-monthlong Gallipoli campaign, Scurry came up with the idea of setting up a large battery of rifles that would discharge automatically…

Despite longstanding calls to integrate school science and mathematics, concerns remain about how to achieve high-quality learning in both subjects. In reporting on a teaching approach that aimed to achieve this outcome, the authors focus particularly on the teacher's role. The Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Science project (IMS), an Australian…

In this paper, we discuss what creativity may look like in the science classroom and what we learnt from teaching with student-generated diagrams to promote creativity in Year 7 Science lessons. As a result of this study, most students were able to communicate a deeper understanding of complex phenomena and were able to apply this knowledge both…

This article provides insights into the experiences of two teachers who were part of a project centred on inquiry approaches to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. The project required teachers (from a range of different schools) to develop integrated STEM inquiry projects for their students. It brought together…

This paper, the third in a series on Earth System Science Education, describes various pedagogical ways forward when science teachers are addressing the curriculum implications of the recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS). Parts I and II introduced the key ideas of ESS and the implications for the Australian Curriculum:…

This paper details a digital technology solution to a problem that arose during a science lesson in an early years class. The teacher used the opportunity to enable the children to apply their knowledge and skills of a software application developed in a recent ICT class. Using the age-appropriate app, the students could communicate their learning…

The Advancing Science and Engineering through Laboratory Learning (ASELL) for Schools program has been instrumental in getting schools across Australia to reconsider the effectiveness of the laboratory learning activity (LLA) in science education. In Victoria, the ASELL for Schools project has collaborated with another nationally funded program,…

The use of the valence-shell electron-pair repulsion (VSEPR) model is essential for understanding aspects of bonding, molecular dipoles, inorganic complex ions, isomerization and stereochemistry, the lock-and-key mechanism for enzyme activity, and many other ideas. This paper describes how different approaches can be used to help students learn…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a requirement of school science education in Australia. Numerous student-centred strategies have been referred to as inquiry-based teaching (IBT), resulting in a lack of understanding of the exact nature of inquiry-based science learning within the science teaching profession. This article describes three essential…

Constructing Direct Current (DC) electric circuits is simple and engaging for primary students, but that is not all there is to learning about electricity. Mandatory learning in the Australian Curriculum: Science (ACARA, 2018) expects Year 6 students to explain some of the processes underlying electric circuits. The abstract nature of key…

We suggest that two interpretations of time -- linear time and cyclical time -- that complement each other when planning lessons, can be used in both Western and Indigenous science. The idea of time in the Australian Curriculum: Science is examined and seen to be primarily associated with the Western science tradition, so it is suggested that the…

In this article I present a practical model that primary and secondary teachers might use to help students explore the intrinsic connections between science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The analogy of a Russian nesting doll (matryoshka doll) can be used to stimulate classroom conversations about the nature of STEM and lead to…

In this paper, the authors introduce a research instrument (Draw a STEM Learning Environment: D-STEM) and its accompanying rubric (the D-STEM Rubric), both of which were developed based upon relevant research studies. The authors describe their usefulness to school principals in commencing conversations with their school's STEM [Science,…

It takes a special kind of teacher to enlist in a Bush Blitz TeachLive expedition: camping; long days hiking or wading through marshland; catching arachnids, lizards and insects; and all the while managing to remotely teach students back in the classroom. The latest instalment of Bush Blitz TeachLive sent five Northern Territorian teachers to…

The Australian Curriculum (n.d.) describes chemistry as having three interrelated strands, Science Inquiry Skills, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Understanding. It also states "... the three strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science should be taught in an integrated way". This article will explore a model for integrating…