Microorganisms (microbes) play essential roles in our lives, although the general media usually focuses on their negative or pathological aspects. Here we describe a collaborative approach between teachers and academics to teach primary school students about microbes in an engaging and diverse way. We introduced microbes, such as bacteria and…

Year 11 chemistry students from three schools in the Sunshine Coast Region of Education Queensland carried out a choice of five experiments aligned with their school curriculum on campus at the University of the Sunshine Coast and in their own school classrooms. Significant improvements in science learning were observed in student post-test quiz…

An integrated approach to assessment afforded pre-service teachers the opportunity to learn about a local sustainability issue through three learning areas: science and technology, the arts and studies of society and environment (SOSE). Three sustainability issues chosen by the pre-service teachers are presented in this paper highlighting the…

Introducing Problem Based Learning (PBL) to a cohort of science education pre-service teachers enabled them to engage in a widely used learning and teaching strategy helpful to align university courses with the professional work they are expected to undertake on graduation. Almost fifty pre-service teachers participated in the study, focussed on…