Trekkies or Test Tubes: What turns Kids onto Science?   Wednesday, 5 May, 1999 7:00-9:00pm Harlequin Inn (Duke of Edinburgh), 152, Harris St Pyrmont, Sydney. Science in the PubTM returns to Sydney from Brisbane and Canberra for National Science Week! Funding through the Science and Technology Awareness Program has allowed us to stage sessions around Australia. This session will check out whether science fiction turns people on to science. Can it be a way to encourage kids into a career in science? We’ll be taking a long hard look at this and although the science will be serious, there is sure to be lots of fun. On the panel we have Professor Mike King, Director of the Centre for Graduate Studies and Adjunct Professor of Science Education, Charles Sturt University, and Dr Bryan Gaensler, Astrophysicist and Young Australian of the Year with our scintillating Science in the Pub compere, Dr Paul Willis, ABC Radio science broadcaster, ably assisted by Ms Bernie Hobbs, also from the ABC Science Unit. Bryan Gaensler spent eight years at the University of Sydney, gaining a Bachelor of Science degree, and then a PhD in astrophysics. His thesis, entitled ``Barrels, Jellyfish and Smoke Rings'', was on the shapes left behind by exploding stars. In late 1998 Bryan finally decided to eschew the Glebe cafe culture, opting to take up a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is busy researching neutron stars and supporting the Boston Red Sox. Bryan is a hard core fan of Star Trek and of science-fiction in general, and attributes much of his enthusiasm and passion for science to the endless possibilities that science-fiction suggests. He thinks he understands how warp drive works, can name all eight captains of the USS Enterprise, and hopes to learn conversational Klingon in the near future. Mike King, after being told that he was not very bright and being asked to leave school by his headmaster at the age of 14 in favour of "doing something useful with your hands", worked as a lab technician, bus driver, barman and very bad soldier. He quite liked being a lab tec. Mike returned to study as a mature entrant at the age of 28, studied Chemistry at London University and completed a joint honours degree in Chemistry and Education. He then became a devout Trekkie and taught science in an East End London Senior High School for 8 years, ending up as Head of the Science Department. His first position of responsibility in a school was "Head of Minibus" of which he is inordinately proud. Mike’s interest in Science continued and he completed a Masters in Biochemistry and a PhD in Science Education at the University of Sussex. Like many new PhDs in the late 70s, he slipped into academia by default, and taught Science Education at Sussex University for eight years before coming to Australia. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, primarily for his contribution to `Master classes in Technology' for school children. He has been Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and Professor in Science Education in Australia over the last decade. For his sins he also spent 6 years as the Associate Dean for Research Students and Head of the Graduate Division in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. In 1998 Mike was appointed to Charles Sturt University as Professor and Director of the Centre for Graduate Studies, a University wide position. More importantly, he was appointed as a guide for the Star Trek exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in 1997 which was great fun but took a great deal of explaining to his wife and certain senior members of the University community, many of whom did not recognise him "in uniform". They gave him many uncertain and quizzical glances when they visited the exhibition with their children and grandchildren. Most importantly, Mike adds, "My best first class bowling figures are 6 for 54, off 22 overs. My career has been a disorganised accident of events and I have loved every minute of it." and true to tradition, Bryan and Mike offer their Science in the Pub abstracts in verse! From Bryan How does science get kids hooked? It’s sure just not by reading books. The answer is in three things, you’ll see. The clue is the letters B, S and E. … and from Mike Poor verse is quite acceptable I'm told, that's very reassuring, So if I may, I'll make so bold, to say some stuff ensuring, That I make a case of what is wrong with science in our schools Of why its hard and not much fun to follow all those rules. Of Darwin and of Davey, of Faraday and Planck Of dead white males so talented, I'll try to be quite frank. But from a kids perspective it’s "what's this got to do with me? They'd never heard of Spice Girls, of computers or TV They wrote about electrons and things we cannot see. They lived their lives in a different world of sums and lots of writing. Not the world I know, the one I own, the one I must survive in. They are wrong of course, as we all know, but so it must appear If you're not turned on by science to them its all quite clear. It’s boring mum, it’s deadly. My mind just drifts away. I'd like to learn it, honestly, and will some far off day. The ideas and rules of science are timeless and essential to understand the world we have and for our lives are central. But how we come to learn them and try to cross this breach Is where we need to think again and change the way we teach. We shouldn't start with Faraday or with the HSC but with the world around us that's plain for all to see. With problems that they live with, with things they want to know From all those awkward questions from which the rules will flow Where do flies go in winter? Why is the sky so blue? Why is it so very dark in space and what's atomic glue? What makes spring and autumn? Why do babies nappies smell? Does the moon really move the tides, and what's a Cartesian well? Knowledge is only linear if you view it from the end And learning things in order can drive you round the bend. The way we learn is messy, unfortunately that's so. So perhaps some messy teaching is a better way to go? Is it just kids? Society? Or shall we blame our tools? Or perhaps there is a better way of doing things in schools? Another theory looming? A new theory at the hub? Lets talk about it very soon at Science in the Pub!
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.