Inspiring young Australians: Getting emerging science into the classroom to ensure a future well-skilled workforce.

Background.

The Inspiring Australia report identifies that:

It is imperative for Australia to address identified skills shortages in the sciences by encouraging young Australian scientists to communicate science and young Australian students to further their studies and take up careers in the sciences.

Recommendation 11 of the Inspiring Australia report:

That a key focus of the national initiative should be raising awareness among young people of opportunities in science and research. The Australian Government’s investment in schools, higher education and research should be harnessed to achieve this.

Many of the jobs students entering high school today will end up in do not exist at the moment. How do we prepare students for this? This workshop will facilitate discussion on how we can get new and emerging science into the classroom to ensure a future well-skilled workforce.

Workshop format:

A chaired discussion between invited panellists and the audience. Expected audience size around 30-40 guests. Invited panellists may have a short time to introduce themselves and give a brief introduction.

•Examples of best practise

•Challenges

•How do we increase in students selecting scientific study and career pathways, to ensure a continuing supply of well-qualified science graduates.

•How do we co-ordinate current activities to promote science careers?

•What about students who aren’t going to be scientists or engineers- how do we engage with them and what outcomes do we hope them to achieve?

Possible points for discussion?:

•How do we increase in students selecting scientific study and career pathways, to ensure a continuing supply of well-qualified science graduates.

•How do we co-ordinate current activities to promote science careers?

•What about students who aren’t going to be scientists or engineers- how do we engage with them and what outcomes do we hope them to achieve?

•Why aren’t the students that are capable choosing science and maths? (how do we engage those that would think of choosing other professions like law.

My comments on this:

I’ve been involved in BioFutures, the Honeywell Engineering summer camp, Indigenous engineering summer camp, and other biotechnology and bioengineering student initiatives for a decade. Is this session about discussing what we’ve learnt via key points and lessons? From a personal viewpoint about preparing for a scientific career that hasn’t or hadn’t occurred or been established, this is particularly true for biomedical engineering in Australia, and especially 10 years ago when I started undergraduate study in biomedical engineering. In fact, I think bioengineering is still going through transition and identity-defining phases as a profession.

I’ve made some quick comments about the issues listed. I can elaborate further if people want. When I say “profession” below, I mean research, academia, and industry relating to biotechnology and bioengineering.

(1) There are some key challenges for emerging fields that I think are common – that of a small number of professionals who are concurrently competing against established fields for research money, university legitimacy (to run and teach courses), competing for facilities and equipment, and promoting the profession nationally and internationally. Finding to time to promote it in schools is a challenge for staff, and in my experience the responsibility has primarily fallen to university undergraduates and postgraduates. This is not so bad, as the “generational gap” is minimised by using university students and communication between these generations is more easy-going.

(2) I see trying to increase the number of students selecting scientific study can be linked to the effectiveness of sci-com activities and providing a broad range of ways to attract students to the profession. However, one size does not fit all. That’s why I am so proud of BioFutures as an example of a “smorgaboard” or “showcase” of the biotechnology and bioengineering profession, in that high school students get to learn about a range of topics, do diverse activities, and actually interact with researchers, academics, industry, and university students in science.

(3) Co-ordinating current activities is a hard task. For BioFutures and the various events that independent state-based biotechnology and bioengineering student associations, it was finally centrally coordinated a few years ago by AusBiotech. There is now a common logo, standard activities across all state associations, and a “corporate history” and “corporate identity”. However, some of the quick local decision-making has been taken away, as has the inspiration and innovation by the university students to try new activities to reach school students. I’ve found that here are pros and cons to centralisation of sci-com activities.

(4) I’ve talked to students at these events that thank us for showing them about the profession even if they were not interested in pursuing a career in it. For them it really helps them to see what the profession is about. It also helps that they talk to uni students in the profession in an open and honest way about career choices. They may pursue peripheral careers that might involve aspects of biotechnology or bioengineering (e.g. medicine, traditional engineering disciplines, IT (bioinformatics), law (IP law, health law)).

Are these relevant and/or interesting themes/topics for the workshop?

Inter-Arts Artist Initiated Residencies news alert from the Australia Council.

Closing date: 2 May 2011

Decisions advised: July 2011

Projects may start: 1 August 2011

The Inter-Arts office supports artists to initiate residencies for professional development working in interdisciplinary and hybrid arts. Applications are encouraged from artists in all states and territories, regardless of where the residency takes place. The Inter-Arts office will support artist-initiated residencies with $20,000. Your application must demonstrate: • artistic calibre (primarily assessed on the basis of examples of previous work and artist CV) • potential for the residency to contribute to your professional development and work in interdisciplinary and hybrid arts • effective approach to new collaboration and artistic risk to extend your practice • evidence that your project proposed for the residency period is well planned and achievable. You may propose residencies with a national or international host of your choice. Residencies should be three months or more, within the funding constraints of the program.

Contact the Inter-Arts Office for more information and application forms and criteria at www.australiacouncil.gov.au/inter-arts.

The blurb for The Crawford Fund Fellowship is as below. Application details can be found by following the links to The Crawford Fund. Good luck to all applicants, and may you learn a lot during your time in Australia!

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The Crawford Fund is now calling for nominations for its Crawford Fund Fellowship for 2011.

The Crawford Fund Fellowship has been set up to provide further training for an agricultural scientist whose work has shown potential. This prestigious Award provides an opportunity for the successful candidate to spend a period of focussed study and training in Australia, with resulting benefits to the Awardee as well as to their country’s agriculture and to Australia.

Candidates should be below the age of 35 and from one of the following developing countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Is, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati, Vanuatu or Vietnam.

The training will take place at an Australian institution and will emphasise the application of knowledge to increase agricultural production in the Fellow’s home country. For information on previous Fellows, please go to http://www.crawfordfund.org/training/awards/fellow.html

The closing date for nominations is 1 April 2011. Nomination Forms and the Terms and Conditions are on our website at www.crawfordfund.org

If you have any queries about the Fellowship, please contact Marchien van Oostende at The Crawford Fund, email: moostende@crawfordfund.org

The Crawford Fund’s mission is to increase Australia’s engagement in international agricultural research, development and education for the benefit of developing countries and Australia.

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The brief blurb I was sent about the competition is as follows:

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Have you ever actively participated in a science lab that left a lasting impact on you? Have you ever taught an interactive science lab and watched as students lit up with understanding? Science would like to recognize efforts such as these with the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction, which has been established to encourage innovation and excellence in education by recognizing outstanding, inquiry-based science education modules. The prize is open to any module where students become invested in exploring questions through activities that are at least partially of their own design. Rather than a typical laboratory exercise that begins with an explanation and results in one correct answer, an inquiry-based lesson might begin with a scenario or question and then require students to propose possible solutions and design some of their own experiments.

Winners will be selected by the editors of Science with the assistance of a judging panel composed of teachers and researchers in the relevant science fields. Individuals responsible for the development of the winning resources will be invited to write a short essay that describes the resource for publication in Science in 2012. We encourage all members of the scientific community to explore their classrooms, departments, colleges, and universities for nominations in order for the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction to truly represent the best in science education.

To read the accompanying Editorial please visit http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6013/10.full

For more information and to download applications please visit http://scim.ag/inquiryprize

Please contact Dr. Melissa McCartney at mmccartn@aaas.org with any questions.

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Australian artists amongst the first in the world to be invited to a residency in the AlloSphere

The Australia Council for the Arts is delighted to announce a world first for Australian artists. The Australia Council is inviting Australian musicians, sound artists and media artists working in sound to apply for a 3-month residency in the AlloSphere at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Allosphere is a 30-foot diameter sphere built inside a 3-story near anechoic (echo free) cube. It allows for synthesis, manipulation, exploration and analysis of large-scale data sets in an environment that can simulate virtually real sensorial perception.

Scientifically, the AlloSphere is an instrument similar to the telescope, in that it enables scientists to see data in new ways that provoke insight. It’s used in fields ranging from nanotechnology to theoretical physics, from proteomics to cosmology, from neurophysiology to the spaces of consciousness, and from new materials to new media.

But it is has also been compared to a musical instrument or orchestra – something to compose for and to play. Artistically it offers the opportunity for the creation and performance of formally innovative new works and the potential to explore new modes of expression in an immersive environment, fusing elements of music, sound art, architecture, games  and more.

“The Australia Council is really excited about the possibilities that this residency opens up,” says Paul Mason, Director of Music at the Australia Council. “There’s a big community of musicians and sound artists worldwide who’ve been eager to get into the AlloSphere and see what they can create. There’s potential to work with sound in an entirely new way and to develop a whole new body of work that is truly original and innovative”

The Australia Council is the first organisation in the world to support a formal artist residency at the AlloSphere, providing Australian artists an unprecedented opportunity to work at the cutting edge of international research.

The residency is the result of a partnership between with the University of California Santa Barbara, where the facility is located, and the Australia Council’s Music Board and Inter-Arts Office.

The Australia Council invites proposals for innovative and viable artistic research programs within the Allosphere.

For more details about the AlloSphere, see www.allosphere.ucsb.edu.

or more details about the residency, click here, or contact Australia Council staff Morwenna Collett (m.collett@australiacouncil.gov.au) or Andy Rantzen (a.rantzen@australiacouncil.gov.au).

On an exciting note, my essay has been included in the Young Researchers for Health 2010 essay anthology. This was officially released with the occurrence of the First Global Symposium for Health Services Research, and is published in collaboration with the Global Symposium for Health Services Research, The Global Forum for Health Research, and The Lancet . The theme of this year’s essays were “health systems research: towards universal coverage”. My essay was entitled “Fostering better shared decision-making in universal health coverage in the face of hype, hope, and evidence”, and discussed the challenges to rational decision-making in the face of various informational and factional interests. You can order hardcopies or download the anthology from the Global Forum for Health Research website and find the Young Researchers for Health 2010 publication. Feel free to discuss any of the issues raised in my essay here on the weblog, or any other health service research issues.

Pharmacists, Doctors, Nurses, Oh My! Solving the HR Problem in Developing Countries

Global Health Council and the Results for Development Institute is holding an an Interactive Policy Roundtable to Confront 3 of the Top Challenges in Scaling Up Human Resources for Health

Time: Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010, 2-3:30 pm

Where: Global Health Council, 1111 19th Street, Suite 1120, Washington, D.C.

How can governments successfully plan scale up of their Human Resources for Health (HRH)? How can health systems structure incentives to draw healthcare practitioners into rural service? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed in an interactive policy roundtable hosted by the Results for Development Institute (R4D) and the Global Health Council (GHC). This roundtable is the next installment in the GHC and R4D joint series “New Visions to Improve Health Care in the Developing World.”

HRH are a vital component of well functioning health systems and an essential element in improving health outcomes across the globe. In fact, the PEPFAR reauthorization act calls for 140,000 new health workers trained in HIV/AIDS prevention, and the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) commissioned a taskforce to study the issues around HRH scale up for universal access. Although these actions are a resounding message for the importance of HRH, there is not a clear consensus on the policies and programs that must be in place for additional health workers and financing to contribute to and sustain health systems in the long term. This session will highlight three of these issue areas including Costs and Financing, HRH Management and Solutions to Geographic Inequity. These policy areas not only critical for meeting PEPFAR’s target and achieving universal access, but also for HRH scale up at large.

This session will allow the audience to break into small groups and discuss these HRH policy areas at depth. Each group will be facilitated by experts in HRH including:

Panelists:

Marty Makinen, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute

Jim McCaffery, Deputy Director for HRH/Health Systems Strengthening, USAID Capacity Plus Project

Marko Vujicic, Senior Economist for Human Development Network, World Bank

Estelle Quain, Team Lead for Health Systems Strengthening at the Office of HIV/AIDS, USAID Bureau of Global Health will act as a closing discussant.

Visit the Global Health Council webpage for this event at http://globalhealth.org/news/article/12899 for more information and for registration.

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The Diana Temple Memorial Lecture series was established in 2007, in memory of the late Diana Temple AM, one of the founders of Wisenet, the Women in Science Enquiry Network. Lectures are organised to broadly reflect Diana’s interests, which included pharmacology, public engagement with science and policy, the advancement of the role of women in science, and the environment. 

This year, the Diana Temple Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Professor Susan Pond from the Department of Pharmacology and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, on the topic of “Two worlds of personalised medicine”. The lecture will delivered as part of the University of Sydney Bosch Institute Distinguished Seminar Series.

WHEN: Friday 15 October, 2010, 1:00 – 2:00pm

WHERE: New Law School Lecture Theatre 101, New Law School, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW. http://web.timetable.usyd.edu.au/venuebookings/venueDetails.jsp?venueFilter=new+law+101&venueNameSwitch=0&venueId=1145&venueIdShort=1145

The 2010 lecture is supported by the University of Sydney Bosch Institute, the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS), and the Women in Science Enquiry Network (WISENET).

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The Lowy Lecture was inaugurated in 2005 by the then Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable John Howard. Other Lowy lecturers include Professor Robert O’Neill AO in 2006; Robert McCredie, Lord May of Oxford OM AC KT FRS in 2007; Mr Ian Macfarlane AC in 2008 and Marius Kloppers who delivered the 2009 lecture.

The 2010 Lowy Lecture: Science and Australia’s Place in the World.

We often hear about the importance of a prosperous and sustainable Australia. What do these terms actually mean and how might they be achieved? In this year’s Lowy Lecture, Dr Megan Clark, the Chief Executive of the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, will argue that Australia’s science capability is fundamental to our future as a nation and our place in the world. Where can Australia’s capability really be world leading? In tackling our national and global challenges, where must we have national capability? Government, academia and the private sector must work together to build critical mass in science capability to contribute to global solutions for the big questions. Where will Australia need new capability and how will we need to work differently in the future?

Date: Thursday, 18 November 2010

Time: 6:30pm arrival for 7:00pm sit down

Venue: Grand Ballroom, Sheraton on the Park, 161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney

Biography of the speaker: Dr Megan Clark began her career as a mine geologist and subsequently worked in mineral exploration, mine geology, research and development management, venture capital and technical strategy areas with Western Mining Corporation for fifteen years. More recently she was Vice President Health, Safety, Environment, Community and Sustainability and prior to that Vice President Technology, with BHP Billiton. Dr Clark served on the Expert Panel for the Review of the National Innovation System.

Please visit The Lowy Institute for International Policy website for more information and reservations details at www.lowyinstitute.org.