At SciCon14 in Dunedin, #scichatNZ was born. This hashtag was intended to help maintain the connections between attendees and provide ongoing support via Twitter for Science Educators. Rachel Chisnall (@ibpossum) deserves all the credit for this wonderful initiative.
Barely a week later, Matt Nicoll (@mattynicoll) jumped on Rachel's coat-tails and suggested a fortnightly #scichatNZ chat, much like #edchatNZ. Before long, there was a lot of support and Chhaya Narayan (@ChhayaNarayan) offered to join Rachel and Matt to form the nucleus of the #scichatNZ team.
Now, it is time...
Our inaugural chat is happening at 8:30pm NZ time on Thursday 31 July. This is a week when #edchatNZ is not on, so there will be no clash with that prior engagement of your's.
Topic: Maintaining Students' Love for Science
Exemplar Questions:
- What are your feelings when you recall Science at school?
- What do you love about teaching Science?
- How do you maintain your own love for Science?
- What do you see as the biggest barriers to student enjoyment of Science in school?
- How do we keep students engaged in Science?
- Why do students (and the community) perceive Science as "hard"?
- How does your current Science teaching cater for students' inherent passions/interests in Science?
I hope you can join us on Thursday night, either to contribute or to learn.
