There is considerable evidence suggesting that students in rural schools lag behind their city counterparts in measures of science literacy and attitude to science learning. If we are to address this situation we need to build as full a picture as we can of the key features of what is a complex and varied rural schooling context. In this article…

Australia would have to be one of the best countries in the world in which to live. The problem is that Australia is a very big place and, as a result, some rural and remote students do not enjoy the same opportunities as their suburban counterparts. Over the last two years the University of Newcastle's SMART program has been working with local…

The paper reports on some of the findings of an extensive study undertaken in Victoria as part of a national Science, ICT and Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) project. One of the significant findings of the study was the extent to which teachers in the schools where the study data were collected took responsibility…

This paper reports on the outcomes of a pilot project to support secondary teachers of science in rural and regional Tasmania. The pilot project involved eight regional schools and was based on the provision of a kit of materials and an associated learning program that used brine shrimp or "sea-monkeys" to test for water quality. The…