Workshops
Sunday 5th July 2:00 - 3:00pm
Mixing Year 7 to 10 students and 21st century biology and the New Zealand Curriculum
This workshop will engage the participant in a range of activities for Year 7-10 students and allow the participant to return to their school and run the same workshop for their biologically challenged staff. The workshop will provide a PowerPoint and a range classroom activities that emphasise the Nature of Science through biological contexts. This is a BEANZ initiative workshop.
Presenter: Bill McIntyre
Institution: Massey University College of Education
Workshop 1: All
Teaching contemporary biology issues in secondary science classrooms
A range of pedagogical practices suitable for teaching contemporary biology issues in secondary science classrooms have been developed and critically evaluated by biology teachers. These strategies have been used within the context of a year 13 Biology resource called 'Brain Injury: do stem cells offer hope of repair?' developed by the The Liggins Education Network for Science (LENS) educators. This workshop will provide opportunities for participants to take part in these activities as well as hear how these teachers have used them in their classes.
Presenter: Associate Professor Beverley France and Helen Mora
Institution: Faculty of Education, University of Auckland & Liggins Institute, University of Auckland
Workshop 1: Secondary
Teaching for systems thinking
In this workshop we will introduce a range of resources we've been developing for helping students practice thinking about ways things are inter-connected at a systems level. We'll draw on some recent Assessment Resource Bank items, selected items from the "Thinking with Evidence" test we are currently developing, and our newest "cycle resource" to discuss the challenges we see for helping students develop this dimension of the key competency "thinking" in rich science contexts.
Presenter: Rose Hipkins and Lorraine Spiller
Institution: NZCER
Workshop 1: Secondary
Visit Ancient New Zealand - Genetics and Behaviour of Chatham Island Birds
Join scientists researching bird behaviour on the Chatham Islands. Take your class on a field trip to discover the behaviour and genetics of birds, including the black robin, on Rangatira Island.
In this workshop you will be introduced to the concept of a virtual field trip and find out about the 22 trips in 2009 and 120+ previous trips available on our website. You will participate asynchronously in the Ancient New Zealand senior biology trip to the Chathams.
Presenter: Darren Atkin
Institution: Heurisko Ltd. LEARNZ Virtual Field Trips
Workshop 1: All
Web 2.0: Tools for teaching Biology
This is a hands on workshop to explore the use of online collaborative tools in Teaching Science and Biology, including such things as delicious, blogging, bubbl.us and voicethread. We would like to share our experiences and ideas, give participants a chance to trial some of these tools and discuss their future use for Biology teaching and learning.
Presenter: Mrs Sonja Bailey and Ms Sharyn Varcoe
Institution: UC College of Education & Riccarton High School
Workshop 1: Secondary
BIOZONE Showcase their Biology Workbooks and Presentation Media
BIOZONE is a market-leading publisher of biology workbooks & Presentation Media (high quality PowerPoint presentations). Catering for Biology at NCEA Levels 2 & 3, our workbooks provide cutting-edge, current and state-of-the-art content. The workbooks highly visual, write-on format make them a winning formula to engage students, and facilitate differential learning. See also our ten Modular Workbooks including our newest titles: Environmental Science and Anatomy & Physiology. FREE samples of our latest editions will be provided for each attendee.
Presenter: Tracey Greenwood
Institution: BIOZONE International Ltd
Workshop 1: Secondary
Monday 6th July 10:30 - 11:25am
A teaching model and strategies for teaching controversial science/biology issues
This workshop will present a teaching model and provide strategies and resources to support the teaching and learning about controversial science issues in science and biology. The model was trialed and co-constructed with small group of secondary science teachers, including the presenter, and includes ethical reasoning frameworks that acknowledge the cultural diversity of New Zealand society and supports teachers to meet the requirements of key competencies, Nature of Science understandings and the development of scientific literacy of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007)
Presenter: Fiona Anderson
Institution: St Peter's School & University of Waikato School of Education
Workshop 2: Secondary
Exploring thinking models to build learning power
What does it mean to "think like a Biologist"? How can we build clear and independent thinking capability in our students? Do we model it ourselves? We urge our students to "link their ideas" to explain and discuss biological phenomena. In this collaborative workshop participants will identify some of the key relationships in biology then co-construct simple thinking models. We'll explore the questions needed to identify those elusive links. Hopefully, we'll take away a technique we can use with our students to build further useful thinking tools and in the process enhance their independent critical thinking skills.
Presenter: Terry Burrell
Institution: Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt
Workshop 2: Secondary
Science Learning Hub
Find out more about scientific research in New Zealand from our own scientists. In this session we will share with you some of the features of the Science Learning Hub. This will include ways in which you can enhance your classroom teaching with the research stories of New Zealand scientists featured on the Hub. We will also explore the Teaching and Learning activities and Science Ideas and Concepts that are found on the Hub and help you to find some new resources for your Junior science classes in Term 3.
Presenter: Di Hartwell & Cath Battersby
Institution: Learning Hub
Workshop 2: All
Teaching strategies for Year 12 Biology
A variety co-operative learning and higher - order thinking strategies will be demonstrated using native birds as a context, Strategies such as PCQ, decision making matrix, noisy round robin and hot potato help to create a thinking classroom. This relates to Level 2 of the Biology curriculum and can be used in the Ecology and Research the interaction between humans and an aspect of biology achievement standards.
Presenter: Gwyneth Tinkler
Institution: Villa Maria College (Royal Society Teacher Fellow 2009)
Workshop 2: Secondary
Visit Ancient New Zealand - Genetics and Behaviour of Chatham Island Birds
Join scientists researching bird behaviour on the Chatham Islands. Take your class on a virtual field trip to discover the behaviour and genetics of birds, including the black robin, on Rangatira Island. LEARNZ offers a variety of virtual field trip experiences: your students stay at school but visit places they would never otherwise go to and interact with people they would never meet. Be introduced to virtual field trips and find out about the 2009 trips and previous trips available on our website. Participate asynchronously in the Ancient New Zealand senior biology trip to the Chathams.
Presenter: Darren Atkin
Institution: Heurisko Ltd. LEARNZ Virtual Field Trips
Workshop 2: All
Making the most of your Museum
Discover how to get the most out of your museum visit. What better way to enhance and extend the learning potential of your students than to bring them to a unique and stimulating environment full of real specimens, hands on activities and expert knowledge? Discover all the possibilities a visit to the museum can hold for your students and how to maximize the effectiveness of their museum experience.
Presenter: Kiri Knox
Institution: Otago Museum
Workshop 2: All
Monday 6th July 11:30 - 12:00noon
Animal Ethics - What You and Your Students Need to Know
This talk will focus on how best to incorporate live animals into teaching programmes, and how this can be used as an opportunity to teach students about respectful and ethical treatment of animals of all kinds. This will include a brief overview of the regulations regarding animal use in teaching, and how and where to seek more information.
Presenter: Allison Dodds
Institution: Queen's High School, Dunedin
Workshop 3: All
The Complete Sheep
I shall present a number of group activities that can be used as part of an integrated unit on sheep; as reinforcement for learning in areas such as physiology, ecology and microbiology; or modified for use in other aspects of the curriculum. These activities may include a role play, a large scale jigsaw puzzle, acting out an ecosystem and sampling sheep cheese.
Presenter: Jane Young
Institution: The Catlins Area School/Triple Helix Resources
Workshop 3: Secondary
Literacy Ideas for Biology and Science
This session will show you some fun ways to reinforce vocabulary in both Science and Biology. You will have take home resources so you can make the resources and play the games with your own classes.
Presenter: Praneeta Sharma
Institution: Columba College
Workshop 3: All
Who killed the leaf miner?
Animal and plant populations change. This practical investigation looks at the population dynamics of the leaf miner (the larval stage of a moth) which lives in and eats the leaf tissue of oak trees. The risks of death will be demonstrated and a sample of mines will be investigated using careful detective work. This activity, which can be easily carried out in your classroom, also introduces other aspects of ecology including introduced species, insect life cycles, carrying capacity and biocontrol agents.
Presenter: Sue Unsworth
Institution: Science Outreach, Lincoln University
Workshop 3: Secondary
Human Evolution can be a daunting subject to teach and to learn, particularly as it is a dynamic topic!
Human Evolution can be a daunting subject to teach and to learn, particularly as it is a dynamic topic as Year 13 students struggle to understand the significance of controlling fire or refining tools, so students were least successful in, disliked and were disinterested. A practical based programme rather than theoretical has changed both the attitudes and level of achievement in the Human Evolution papers. Students are encouraged to be hands on 'cave men' for the duration of the topic, culminating in a week of stone tool making, fire making, and preparing food. This presentation shares the content and basic practicals of our programme. Improved Yr 13 achievement have resulted in this topic for many students.
Presenter: Jo Fissenden
Institution: Kaikoura High School
Workshop 3: Secondary
Bringing Biodiversity back into the Wine Experience
This presentation covers current research of Lincoln University's Greening Waipara project to increase biodiversity in Waipara vineyards. Why as humans we depend on biodiversity and the role of nature services such as pollination, biological control, soil improvement, provision of food, erosion control, and bird control using harrier hawks. Examples of habitat manipulation to enhance these nature services which attempts to improve biodiversity and sustainability in vineyards. Results of a mulching trial seeing how insect biodiversity has increased to attract pest predators, decomposers which aid in soil mineralisation, earthworm numbers, and changes to soil physical and biological characteristics.
Presenter: Mr David Malcolm
Institution: Royal Society Teacher Fellow/Oxford Area School
Workshop 3: All
Tuesday 7th July 10:30 - 11:25am
The Challenge to Change
The revised NZ curriculum challenges us to prepare our young people to be successful citizens of the 21st century. What might this look like for a department or individual Science teachers? This workshop shares some of the changes made to our junior Science teaching programmes and some manageable and practical classroom strategies. Individual teachers, working as a team, are finding changes can save time, improve student engagement, and ensure learning is more relevant for more students. Participants will be encouraged to discuss and trial some of the strategies presented.
Presenter: Jean Gratten
Institution: Otumoetai College / BEANZ
Workshop 4: Secondary
Sea Change: a multimedia interactive solution to a tricky subject
Sea-level change is increasingly a topic of relevance in a variety of disciplines. Unfortunately, the topic does not lend itself to direct learning by students as they do not experience sea-level change in their lives, can't do laboratory or field exercises to investigate it themselves, and problem-based learning opportunities are limited. The interactive program we have developed, called Sea-Change allows students to experiment with sea level in their own neighbourhood. through maps and charts that change as sea level does. Video simulations of the effect of sea-level rise on local landmarks allow students to melt ice sheets at will, choose to expose the entire continental shelf, or flood the university.
Presenter: Dr Abby Smith
Institution: New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, Dept of Marine Science, University of Otago
Workshop 4: All
Science Learning Hub
Find out more about scientific research in New Zealand from our own scientists. In this session we will share with you some of the features of the Science Learning Hub. This will include ways in which you can enhance your classroom teaching with the research stories of New Zealand scientists featured on the Hub. We will also explore the Teaching and Learning activities and Science Ideas and Concepts that are found on the Hub and help you to find some new resources for your Junior science classes in Term 3.
Presenter: Di Hartwell & Cath Battersby
Institution: Learning Hub
Workshop 4: All
Charles Darwin's voyage through life: story-telling & the nature of science
'Telling stories' about science can be a powerful tool in helping students to understand the nature of science, see how science is done, and to recognise that scientists are people just like them. In Charles Darwin's bicentennial year, what better way to help students understand the development of the theory of evolution than to tell the story of the man who developed the concept of descent with modification by means of natural selection.
Presenter: Dr Alison Campbell
Institution: University of Waikato
Workshop 4: All
Creating a Differentiated Lesson
Use a couple of simple tools to collaboratively create a differentiated lesson.
Presenter: Mikhal Stone
Institution: Team Solutions, Auckland
Workshop 4: Secondary
DNA Has Been Pushed Off Its Perch As The Master Molecule Of The Cell
In 1953 when the structure of DNA was solved, contrary to popular myth, there was little public knowledge or reaction. Even scientific appreciation was very narrowly focused. At its 50th anniversary in 2003 there was celebration by both scientific and public communities for DNA had assumed a dominant role in our lives, and it had earned its status as 'master molecule'. Now thousands of novel RNA molecules have been discovered in the cell, there are previously unrecognised RNA genes, and our genome is now regarded as an RNA machine with RNA controlling the DNA. 'Deserts' in our DNA genome, called 'junk DNA', are now recognised as sites of intense RNA activity. The heyday of DNA may be waning.
Presenter: Dr Warren Tate
Institution: Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago
Workshop 4: Secondary
Tuesday 7th July 10:30 - 11:25am
Foraging patterns of banded rail in the Ohiwa harbour
There is increasing pressure to restrict the spread of mangroves but the effect of mangrove removal on secretive wetland bird species is unknown. Mangroves provide cover for birds while foraging but they may only forage in mangroves in close proximity to their roosting habitat. This study aims to find how far banded rail move from their primary roosting habitat into mangroves under cover or onto mudflats with no cover. The results will assess the impact that control and removal of mangroves is having on saltmarsh populations of banded rail.
Presenter: Anne Botha
Institution: Royal Society Teacher Fellowship (Trident High School/ EnvBOP & DOC)
Workshop 5: All
Developing Students' Understandings of Animal Use in Research
Research has shown that the majority of New Zealanders are neither concerned nor interested in the use of animals in research and testing despite calls for greater transparency around approval processes for such research. The Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching have commissioned the development of an education resource to assist in formation of individual opinions and clarification of values on use of animals. This presentation will illustrate uses of animals in research through interviews with prominent New Zealand scientists and activities being developed around the themes of animal use in research and the nature of science.
Presenter: Sally Birdsall
Institution: The University of Auckland
Workshop 5: Secondary and Tertiary
Maintaining the genetic variation in translocated populations of North Island saddleback
New populations of North Island saddleback have been established using birds from previously successful translocations. Each new translocation represents a sub-sample of the original genetic diversity of the ultimate population source (Hen Island). This research reports on levels of genetic variation, using microsatellites, in two populations of North Island saddleback. Findings are compared with the immediate source population of each. Insights into the effect of genetic drift and bottlenecking on subsequent translocated populations are then used to recommend best management practices for this species.
Presenter: Sylvia Ruarus
Institution: The Correspondence School
Workshop 5: Secondary and Tertiary
New Zealand Biodiversity Recording Network NZBRN
New Zealand Biodiversity Recording Network Website has been developed for New Zealanders from primary school children through to scientists to record data on New Zealand's Flora and Fauna. The site aims to involve schools and schoolchildren in observing and recording New Zealand's plant and animal life and use the information recorded on the site. The website allows for recording information on plants, fungi, birds, mammals, invertebrates, frogs and lizards. This workshop will introduce participants to the site and investigate ways teachers could use the information in their classes.
Presenter: Mark Burtt
Institution: Christchurch Boys' High School/Landcare Research
Workshop 5: All
Posters: A wealth of information
The Otago School of Medical Sciences have produced a number of posters for use in year 12 and 13 Biology classes. They are accompanied by notes for teachers. The talk will present some of these posters and discuss the content. In particular one which gives an example of the practical use of pedigrees, restriction enzymes and electrophoresis, tied in with a successful case of gene therapy.
Presenter: Kaye Wilson
Institution: Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago
Workshop 5: Secondary
Incorporating Environmental Education in Biology
The Education For Sustainability Achievement Standards were introduced in 2008 and are available for schools to use from 2009. This workshop will provide an opportunity for discussion on ways to use these in Year 12 and 13 Biology programmes, and explore some of the moderation issues in designing courses to use a range of standards.
Presenter: Tania McLean
Institution: Education Support Services University of Otago College of Education
Workshop 5: Secondary
Wednesday 8th July 9:00am - 12.00 noon Workshops in University of Otago Departments
Investigate how and why structure affects function by exploring the human knee.
The structure of the human body determines its function. In this session, you will look at the structure of the human knee, as it can been seen with the naked eye right down to the structure that is only visible with the electron microscope, to investigate how and why structure affects function. There will be a demonstrated dissection of a human knee, and participants will be able to examine other plastinated specimens, models, slides, X-rays, etc. Teachers will then be able to take part in dissecting deer knees. Photographs of the human material activity will be provided, as cameras are not permitted in the human dissection room or the Anatomy Museum.
Workshop 6: Anatomy
Hands on Molecular Biology
In this workshop we will cut up a plasmid using two restriction enzymes, and then separate the fragments using gel electrophoresis. You will get your own gel photo to take back and show your students!
While the gel is running, you will learn about the use of the technologies, with particular emphasis on New Zealand examples.
Workshop 6: Biochemistry
Ways to isolate Lactic acid bacteria in sour cream are not visible to the unaided human eye
Lactic acid bacteria in sour cream are not visible to the unaided human eye. If given suitable conditions, however, bacteria will multiply and form colonies, which are visible to the unaided human eye. Microbiologists frequently use this ability of the cells to grow up and form colonies to isolate bacteria from foods and to determine what types and how many bacteria are present. This experiment will illustrate how you can isolate bacteria from sour cream and a simple technique you can use to help view bacteria using a microscope.
This session will also introduce teachers to resources available from the Department of Food Science.
Workshop 6: Food Science
NZ Sea Lion -Welcoming Back a Native Treasure Find out about Hooker Sea Lions-Whakahao
Hooker Sea Lions-Whakahao are returning to South Island shores. The NZ Marine Studies Centre, with the Dept. of Conservation and the NZ Sea Lion Trust have created an intermediate/lower secondary education programme that looks at how scientists study these ocean wanders and what to do if a seal or sea lion is seen on the beach. This hands-on session investigates: sea lion biology, conservation issues, behaviour of public around sea lions, introduction to the research process and how scientists study these animals, historical and current issues that affect sea lion populations.
Workshop 6: Marine Science
Practical microbiology exercises that can be used in conjunction with the new Science and Biology curricula
Microbes are all around us - some may be harmful, but most are beneficial to us. In fact, we wouldn't be alive if microbes did not share our lives.
Our bodies are made up of more microbial cells than human cells, and there are amazing examples of useful microbes in the world around us. This three hour hands-on session will focus on practical exercises that can be used in conjunction with the new Science and Biology curricula. Participants will also be given posters and computer resources for classroom use.
Learn how to measure and manipulate heart rate and blood pressure
How does your body control blood pressure during rest and activity? How is blood sugar affected by physical activity or high sugar foods? How does your body regulate temperature during extreme cold, heat or exercise? How does a reflex work and how are muscle movements controlled?
Participants will enjoy hands-on experiments in one of three topic areas:
- Blood pressure measurements & regulation
- Blood glucose & temperature regulation
- Muscle innervation & reflexes
There will also be a combined session following the above activities to explore some mini-experiments that can be incorporated into the science classroom.
Workshop Choices
A copy of the Workshop Choices Form can be downloaded in: