[Catalist] Reply to Errol Hunt’s EMAIL to me via ASTA

[Stephen Zander]

Hi Eric,
Your message has made it through to us.

With regard to your comment, I think the frequency of discourse has reduced significantly due to the workload of teachers in schools, who generally only have time to respond to the catalist email during breaks and out of school hours. I know from my own experience I seem to be dealing with upwards of 60 to 70 emails a day, much of which is coming from parents and students, or purely related to school administration. Seems colleagues don’t talk to one another so much as they use to, it is much easier sending an email from one office that is next door to another.

With regards to Errol’s email, I thought such a course once existed in WA but went by the wayside some years back in one revision of the WACE, ATAR or whatever its name was at the time, when the number of courses was reduced to 50 or so. I taught something similar in the NT and SA some 25 or so years ago and was a popular subject for students not wanting to pursue an academic program towards University entrance and should be available for students today, after all students have the options of doing General Maths and General English, why not General Science. But to be realistic, there are so many other course options available to students these days at year 11 and 12 that such a course would struggle to get up, even being a subject that fits the current focus on STEM. Errol’s reasoning for such a course is spot on, anything to increase the scientific literacy and awareness amongst members of the community would go a long way towards making politicians and others more accountable for what they do and say.


Kind Regards

Dr Stephen Zander


From: Catalist <catalist-bounces at lists.stawa.net> on behalf of "SYME Eric [Thornlie Senior High School]" <Eric.Syme at education.wa.edu.au>
Reply-To: Catalist <catalist at lists.stawa.net>
Date: Sunday, 8 October 2017 at 5:16 pm
To: Catalist <catalist at lists.stawa.net>
Subject: Re: [Catalist] Reply to Errol Hunt’s EMAIL to me via ASTA


Hi Michael et al



I have noticed a big decline in the frequency and depth of discussion on Catalist since about 2008.



It hasn't let me post for many years now, not sure why, tried to take it up with the then webmaster but no luck...not sure if this will get through hence the brevity.



I miss the discourse, humour and collegiality and hope it picks up in the future.



Regards

Eric Syme

________________________________
From: Catalist <catalist-bounces at lists.stawa.net> on behalf of Michael McGarry <mmcgarry44 at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, 8 October 2017 8:19:03 AM
To: catalist at lists.stawa.net
Cc: errolhunt at iprimus.com.au
Subject: [Catalist] Reply to Errol Hunt’s EMAIL to me via ASTA

Greetings Errol,
Your Question: “I have an idea about teaching science in Australia, and I’d be really interested to hear what science teachers thought of it. Do you think that ASTARIX would be an OK forum for this? Could generate some discussion even if my idea isn’t actually a good one!”
My Answer: Given that peer review is an integral step in the scientific process, I encourage you to post your “idea about science teaching” to ASTA’s ASTARIX 2.0 e-Forum.
Also, given significant and evidenced decline in e-posts and replies on Science education research and pedagogy to STAWA’s e-forum CATALIST, ‘concerned’ WA science colleagues foresee these two important science e-forums degrading into science ‘e-bulletin boards’.
A recent perceptive e-post to STAWA’s e-Forum CATALIST by Leon Harris on STEM education in Australia, generated good discussion and debate and alerted us to this excellent URL: https://www.stem.org.uk<https://apac01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stem.org.uk&data=02%7C01%7Ceric.syme%40education.wa.edu.au%7C693896129477432ff30d08d50de2c53b%7Ce08016f9d1fd4cbb83b0b76eb4361627%7C0%7C0%7C636430189984471385&sdata=mQ%2FxKV0A6q6wWPMksONf5Sld%2F2Nsw5aH65WSd%2FQ2OUI%3D&reserved=0> [Thanks go to Roy Skinner.]
CATALIST URL: http://lists.stawa.net/pipermail/catalist_lists.stawa.net/2017-October/author.html<https://apac01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.stawa.net%2Fpipermail%2Fcatalist_lists.stawa.net%2F2017-October%2Fauthor.html&data=02%7C01%7Ceric.syme%40education.wa.edu.au%7C693896129477432ff30d08d50de2c53b%7Ce08016f9d1fd4cbb83b0b76eb4361627%7C0%7C0%7C636430189984471385&sdata=MR0jsHK%2BBlfgjxp%2BXcI073iwI%2B%2By8LLI89pTrV7x5Dk%3D&reserved=0>
Best Wishes,
Michael John McGarry
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