Neerim District and Mooroopna Secondary College professional development Days

As part of veski’s inspiring students (& teachers) program, two professional development sessions were held for science teachers on Tuesday, 21 April 2015 at Neerim District Secondary College and Wednesday, 29 April 2015 at Mooroopna Secondary College.

Teachers from surrounding secondary colleges and feeder primary schools were invited to attend both sessions as part of our schools commitment to acting as centres of excellence in their regions. STEM teachers from primary and secondary schools in the Gippsland area joined the Neerim District workshop and teachers from the Hume Region joined Mooroopna Secondary College’s workshop.

The sessions were facilitated by Ms Dina Pozzo of insium Pty Ltd using the Australia Academy of Science’s publication Science By Doing professional learning modules which are focused on an inquiry-based approach to teaching science. Each school received a Science By Doing professional learning pack with a DVD covering each module at the beginning of the program.

These workshops marked the last of three workshops that have been delivered over the past 12 months; the focus of the workshop was based upon the Leading for Change module. The first two modules covered were Inquiry Based Teaching and Assessment giving attendees the background knowledge of inquiry based teaching and how to assess this method. The final workshop addressed how attendees can extend the knowledge they have gained by leading the change in their school. 

A teleconference with the head of science was held in advance of each workshop to predetermine which module the session covered. Ms Pozzo developed an element of pre-work for each attendee. From the information provided in the teleconference and the pre-work, Dina developed individual program plans for each school. 

veski’s programs and events coordinator attended both of these workshops and witnessed a huge amount of participation from all attendees. It was heart-warming to hear the feedback and appreciation from participants at the end of the day, some of the words they used to describe how they were feeling were confident, inspired and motivated which is exactly the outcome veski strived to achieve.