Fellowship

Before we go to Auckland 14 Feb for our CORE 2 days we have been asked to consider the following question
What are the biggest challenges that face teachers wanting to give their students quality science educational experiences? How do you think that they can be overcome?

I am going to brainstorm a bit here and come back later.Points I want to consider.
What ARE quality science educational experiences? how will I recognise one if it jumps out at me?
How do I make science relevant?I found this in 'Students' attitudes to secondary science and science teaching: A synthesis of findings comparing recent NZCER research with Scion research (Scion is my host organisation and it was great to see that they are interested in the school side of science) -A summary of research for Scion - Andrew gave me a copy -"What was most important was when science content was related to 'real life' or 'real life applications.' Students most memorable recollections of school science often related to experiential science such as field trips and science camps,practical and 'hands on'activities, memorable experiments such as dissections and playing with chemicals, and 'student lead work' such as science fairs and camps.
In the section of this report which asked students what comprises positive experiences of teachers in science ,things like teachers who have a passion for science/enthusiastic/fun, have teaching skills and knowledge of the subject, able to get the message across/variety of explanations/positive teachers offered a mixture of learning and teaching methods and teachers who were genuinely interested in students learning came out.

I will read more but this has given me a good start.
Picture today is Arhopalus ferus