Happy New Academic Year
I was fortunate to take this photo during the 2017 solar eclipse in Vancouver. Tree canopies serve as tiny pinhole cameras, so we see the images of the sun on the pavement (small crescents) during the eclipse.
As I am preparing to my 8th academic year as a Teacher at the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, I keep thinking of my role as a science educator who has a lucky opportunity to help prepare new STEM teachers. I am deliberately using the word Teacher and not Professor, as I think of myself as a teacher of teachers who is doing research on teacher education and who is using the results of her research to improve her practice and to improve the practice of her colleagues. I am also thinking that today I have many STEM teachers in BC and world-wide who were my students and I would like to wish them a great year.
A new academic year is always a new and exciting beginning. It gives me an opportunity to wish all my students (STEM Teacher-Candidates) an inspiring academic year. It is also an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and what we would like to do differently. For example, Family Math and Science Day that will happen on November 4th, 2017 at UBC Faculty of Education will have more resources for Teacher-Candidates and for our community of families to use (see below). We will also be thinking of new BC Science Curriculum and how we can prepare our teachers better, so they can implement it successfully. I will also be thinking of the research conducted by my graduate students that bridge educational theory and practice. I am looking forward to this academic year!
Here is a list of a few new or upcoming resources that you might find useful:
a) Fifty new very short videos of simple physics demonstrations and experiments you can do with your students: Physics videos.
b) A new issue of Physics in Canada dedicated to science outreach is coming out in October (Vol. 73, issue 3, 2017). Sarah Johnson and Marina Milner-Bolotin edited it.
c) This year (March 2018) UBC Physics Olympics will celebrate its 40th anniversary – this is going to be a very special event. Get ready!
d) In addition to many new exciting simulations, PhET team has released a new app for Android. We hope this new resource will inspire you and your students to do exciting new virtual experiments.
Connor Gabriel (a UBC student and a future teacher) shared with us this amazing photos of the Solar Eclipse 2017. Thank you Connor!
The collage of 2017 Solar Eclipse photos made by Connor Gabriel.
To see more photos of the solar eclipse, please click here.