Hastings-Monash school community project

Monash ethics clearance number: 2003/697

Key investigators: Professor Marilyn Fleer and Gloria Quinones

The project partnership team headed by Prof Marilyn Fleer piloted and subsequently rolled out an innovative school-community Science and Technology ‘Challenge’. The Challenge involved a ‘cluster’ of primary schools in the Hastings region of Victoria, where students explored and photographed their environment, and produced, disseminated and displayed postcards containing challenges around the theme of science and technology. Following evaluation and refinement the kit was produced, enabling the Challenge to be widely rolled out in schools and after-school programs. The Challenge will be affordable and sustainable, providing an evidence-based, best-practice program that will promote ongoing student and teacher engagement with science and technology in their schools and in their community.

Challenge resources kit

As an outcome of the project a Resources Kit has been produced to enable the challenge to be widely rolled out in schools and after-school programs. It includes the following handouts:

• School Resources Kit (pdf 284Kb) - overview
• Challenge postcards (38 postcard images and questions) (pdf 2.7Mb)
• Challenge card discussions (doc 75Kb)
• Disposable camera results (doc 258Kb)
• "My thinking book" (doc 41Kb)

This challenge resources kit has been designed by our research team to support you in introducing new ideas about science and technology learning in your classroom. It is based on the knowledge and experience gained from our pilot program. The groups involved were prep/year 1 and year 3/4.