Individual or independent or collaborative student-directed study that requires students to undertake research and present a project as part of a compulsory senior school programme of study that counts for the final State-based Certificate of Education is relatively new. One school that included such a programme as part of its senior school student development was Marion High School. Other schools might have had variations on that approach. Marion High School carried out a carefully timetabled programme that began in Year 9 with a thematic topic that required faculties to cooperate across the year to enable students to cross discipline boundaries to understand the chosen theme. That element of the programme was teacher-directed. In Year 10 'the bridging programme' required students independently, having made a contract with the teachers they wanted to work with, to cross two disciplines. It was timetabled well ahead of time for the mid-term. Pastoral care teachers helped students to understand the process of developing a contract that enabled them to cross two disciplines. They needed parental permission, particularly if they might be working outside the school, teachers' signatures and their own. Parents were informed. The work was displayed in the library for parents to come and see. Sometimes members of the Inventors Club examined the work to see the evidence of innovative approaches.Certificates were awarded. In Year 11, this student-directed programme was refined to a carefully precisely timetabled week of Independent Study in mid-term. So much depended on a teacher's willingness to believe in the value of interdisciplinary approaches and the capacity of the school administration to help parents to recognise its value. When the work was on display, teachers who saw the work often realised that some students were more inventive and creative than they had realised. The Physics senior added the option of this independent work being presented as part of the Oliphant Awards for Science. Certificates were awarded. Information about the philosophy, policy and practice required for this to be a successful interdisciplinary approach is in A Risky Business: Changing a Secondary School, by B.D. Hannaford FACE, produced in association with Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1986. Check the index for 'Independent study' and 'Learning' p 416 ********************* Other starting points might be an interest in projects outside of one's primary occupation. One such starting point, for example, has been the South Australian Living Arts Festival and the exhibition by scientists and visual artists in 'Not Absolute', held in the Flinders University City Gallery in the State Library. This annual festival and festivals like it in other states provide opportunities not only for the scientists and artists to participate but for visitors to the exhibition to become aware of exciting new opportunities for collaboration. **************** A different starting point might be what has been called ‘a Eureka moment’. Australia now has the Eureka Awards for scientists who have made outstanding contributions in their fields of science. It also has the Eureka flag for a historical starting point. However, the ‘Eureka moment’ often comes as a result of reflecting on an idea and suddenly being woken up with a flash of insight, perhaps by something that seems irrelevant, to a new possibility. A number of Eureka moments have been described in the biographies of scientists by Leslie Alan Horvitz in Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs that Changed the World, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 2002. In his introduction to the book Horvitz calls it ‘a sudden flash of light’. Among the scientists he writes about is Charles Townes and the invention of the laser. Horvitz does not include women
but the Kevlar vest to protect soldiers was invented by Stephanie Kwolek in
1966. In the nineteenth century Sarah Mather invented a submarine telescope and
lamp that allowed ships to survey different ocean depths. A research project
could start from this point. ******************* In the issue of the Education Review for February 2010 is an article entitled ‘Raging Planet’ by Syd Smith, Sarah Brikke and Phil Smith. As environmentalists, they are making suggestions about the role education can play in helping learners. They write of the possibility of making conceptual and practical connections, strengthening critical thinking skills, encouraging curiosity, exploring, experimenting and making connections that will bring with them ‘the appreciation of beauty and the adoption of caring behaviours, and clarify choices to retain or change behaviours.’ [p 19] Consider how many avenues exist within those elements of learning for students in groups, pairs or individually to take up research projects. Some students in some schools might be doing this already. In their local areas perhaps students might gather information about the efforts of businesses to change behaviours in the interest of a better society. That information, coming as it would from the ‘grass roots’, could complement official documents. If the school had a website, those student discoveries could be posted on it for others to compare with the situation in their own area. It would have the advantage of not being a repetition of the views of this or that lobbying group. Moreover, different areas face different situations and those factors could enter the picture. This article could be considered as a possible staring point for learners interested in environmental matters. See www.educationreview.com.au ********************* Other starting points may be essays by scientists. Such a starting point is A Light History of Hot Air by Laureate Professor Peter C. Doherty
In the draft secondary senior English syllabus, while there are non-fiction books suggested for reading and reflection, not one is by a scientist. Do they assume that scientists do not write for the general reader? |
