I used to be a high school science
teacher and when I taught you seven what
I really hoped was that all of them
would come away knowing that all living
things were made out of cells with you
nine I was reasonably sure that at least
half of them would remember that the
continents moved around because of
with year ten I hoped that at least one
or two might recall that the universe is
expanding and that we know this because
Hubble looked at the light from stars
and found it was shifting to the red end
of the electromagnetic spectrum our
teachers got to have dreams it’s a tough
gig but what I wanted all of my students
to remember no matter what their ability
or their interest levels in science was
that cows Moo softly change measure same
and we’ll come back to that empower
empowerment for me what it means is
moving from a situation where someone
else is in control of you and the
decisions are made on your behalf to a
situation where you are in control where
you are actively making decisions on
your own behalf for me science is a
really important part of that it’s a
process it’s a way of knowing it’s a way
of uncovering things that we don’t know
about and working out what’s happening
we often think that babies are part of
science that they are really the
ultimate natural scientist and in fact
scientists have done research on babies
of course there’s this they have
researched them and found that they work
in exactly the same way
that scientists do they’ll take an idea
a hypothesis if you will and they will
test that idea they will drop their
blocks off the high chair they will put
something in their mouth and see what it
feels like and they will compare that to
their hypothesis their idea that they’re
testing out and see how it fits and they
might repeat that over and over again
drop the block off the high chair again
and again and that way they build up
their knowledge of the world around them
but they’re also having a look and
thinking where do I fit into this world
where do I belong and how do i get there
i would like all of you now to just
picture in your mind what you think of
when I say the word scientist did it
look like this how about this or maybe
this a different group of scientists
have actually found that by the age of
seven most children are actually drawing
this as went when they’re asked to
describe a scientist mail usually white
maybe bald hair crazy hair some glasses
because they’re smart they’re wearing a
lab coat and they have glassware conical
flask test tubes and it usually contains
some kind of toxic green liquid and a
Hollywood I believe you have a little
bit to answer for in our perception of
what a scientist is I think Einsteins
guild Abbott answer for two and to be
honest I think our modern-day role
models in science they’ve got a little
bit to answer for two in how people are
perceiving what science is and what
scientists are different researchers
asked kindergarten kids what they
thought of science and they said oh it’s
for people who are older than me it’s
the people who can deal with poisonous
potions and chemical explosion
it’s dangerous and they were also saying
sadly that i’m not good at science this
is kids in kindergarten those goals in
that class they ask them what they think
of their maths abilities and they say by
and large they’re not as good as the
so what are we doing to our future
scientists what are we doing to our
natural scientists who stare and wonder
about the world cows Moo softly it is of
course in mnemonic and it’s for change
one thing measure or observe something
that happens as a result of that change
and keep everything else the same so we
can see what impact that thing has it’s
a way of describing the process of
science a fair test and it’s something
that we use in science to make sure that
the process that we are discovering new
information in is standardized it’s a
system let’s fast forward to high school
my classes never looked like that they
were never that clean hardly any of them
all all their safety goggles on but look
there’s blue liquid in a conical flask
peas are you might have heard of Pisa
and they test our 15 year olds all
around the world and they test how they
take their science knowledge and their
understanding and how they apply that to
solve problems you might have read in
the media or heard on television we are
not doing so great at Pisa in both
absolute and relative terms our results
are declining so not only are our
children having a lower level of basic
science literacy they are less likely to
be able to apply that to problem solving
interestingly the chief scientist of
Australia ask those children who went to
the National Youth Science Forum now
remember these are the kids who are
giving up their summer holidays to go
and learn about science he asked them
what they thought about science in
school and their answers were it would
be better if it was more interesting and
more relevant the Australian Academy of
Science asked adults a series of
multiple choice questions about their
science knowledge they asked them how
long they thought it took the earth to
go around the Sun multiple choice less
than two-thirds got the answer correct
it’s a year when we ask that we break
that down by gender only fifty percent
of women got the correct answer and you
can say so what what does it matter if
we don’t know how long it takes the
earth to go around the Sun it matters
because in this world we need basic
levels of understanding of how the world
works and if we don’t have that and
we’re struggling with our understanding
of how the earth works we are
disempowering ourselves in participating
fully in decision-making additionally
though I think when we’re reporting
those sorts of facts and figures to
people instead of you all rushing out
and getting onto the internet and
finding out those facts and figures
instead what it does is also makes the
scientists feel like those weird geeky
guys in front of the blackboards and in
tucked away in labs doing their secret
science experiments it disempowers us
further it makes us feel like we don’t
know stuff and they know stuff and part
of its the way we’re taught science so
science knowledge okay so we don’t know
that much we can’t win the pub trivia
competition but we’re also perhaps not
learning the process of science we’re
not fully appreciating what sciences and
what science isn’t when we’re doing
practicals at high school and we get a
little recipe list of what to do and we
have aim and method and results and
conclusion and we draw the lines
underneath and that’s what we’re taught
science is that’s not really
appreciating what science is and the
messy joy of discovering the wonders of
the world it’s disempowering us from
appreciating science
cows Moo softly change one thing measure
or observe something as a result of that
change keep everything else the same
what can we change to empower our young
people to think of science differently
to think of themselves as up-and-coming
young scientists how can we change
things so that we empower our students
to be able to fully participate in an
increasingly complex society I never
found science boring or hard or
sometimes I found it hard my dad tells
the story of me in a planetarium and I
remember it standing up looking of
sitting at the ceiling the sparkly stars
being projected on there and the
lecturer asks the people assembled
what’s so special about the evening star
and I was probably about 10 and I didn’t
put my hand up because I expected all
the adults to do it well none of them
did so I bravely put my hand up and I
answered that it wasn’t a star it was a
planet and we knew that because stars
twinkle because they emit their own
light and planets reflect the light from
the Sun I was sleep proud of myself my
dad was really proud too but there came
a time when I wasn’t so proud to know
stuff when I was in high school my
friends suddenly decided to call me
fungus you can understand that’s
probably not the nickname you are aiming
for who knows how I they decided to do
that but they did and they used it maybe
I answered a question about mushrooms
correctly in my class who knows so what
did I do I changed my friends for start
and then I changed schools and I kept
pursuing science I started your physics
and chemistry and mathematics and I did
in fact go to university and get my
bachelor of science I contributed in my
iron little tiny way to our increasing
knowledge
about how the world works with my honors
thesis on downstream variations in
floodplain formation in laterally
confined streams of sand bed streams of
the Hawkesbury River I know should have
seen me at parties I never went on and
did further research but I’ve always
used the skills that I developed through
my science degree and my science studies
to further me in my career some of that
was high school teaching so it really is
about using those skills that are about
assessing things critically and thinking
creatively it’s not just we don’t leave
out the a in stem science technology
engineering maths it’s about assessing
being able to assess data properly cows
Moo softly change measure keep
everything else the same how are we
going to empower people to keep pursuing
their loves how we going to empower
people to keep appreciating science for
the good things that it’s bringing to
society the world is a really complex
place and some of our biggest issues
like climate change and obesity their
multi causal it’s not easy to say this
thing causes that and that’s that that’s
how we solve the problem we do need
critical thinkers we need people with
science literacy and who can also
appreciate science and data to help
fight some of these issues we need to be
able to empower people with science in
Canberra I can’t do a lot to change the
rest of the world I can’t change the
education system all by myself but what
i can do is empower students and adults
to appreciate science and so i’d like to
share with you today some examples of
what we’ve been doing in in the acct you
might not know but the
festival in Australia is in fact
National Science Week in terms of
participation in Canberra we have
science in action every August at the
old bus depot where the best of
Canberra’s science and technology can
interact with the public we have 1500
school kids and their teachers and over
8,000 community members come through and
talk to scientists and technologists and
engineers and mathematicians this is dr.
Graham Walker from Anu and he’s doing a
show as part of science in action that
engages kids in at the moment that he’s
talking about air pressure so how
molecules of air interact and those kids
are empowered they are utterly
enthralled with what he’s telling them
and yes they’re empowered to know the
answers we give out funding for new and
creative ways of people to engage with
science so this one here is a new
startup in Canberra called own
innovations for the electronic people
out there will get the resistance joke
and they run workshops for young
children using the conductive properties
of play-doh and the kids are able to
test their hypotheses with a very
hands-on and creative way so you look at
all the different ways that those kids
have tested their ideas there they are
empowered to explore and ask questions
and find answers with high school
students they’re a tough crowd this is
the m-sat telescope up at Mount Stromlo
it is Australia’s first ever teaching
telescope and the kids are able to
collect firsthand astronomical data
which enables them to do things like
measure the mass of Jupiter or the speed
of light so instead of downloading stuff
from the internet they are collecting
information and they are doing the messy
iterative science and working out how
science works this is a workshop called
hat and what that is is it gets mentors
from industry in coding robotics
programming electron
and working with teenagers to empower
them to be able to use those
technologies for good this is my
daughter actually and she is programming
an arduino circuit board that will go
into a robot that will battle to the
death with the other teams robots the
girls won this is canberra space camp we
are working collaboratively with a whole
bunch of people around Canberra Mount
Stromlo the deep space communication
complex that had been bill our
University of New South Wales at
Canberra to inspire young people to
pursue a career maybe not in space but
at least let them know of all the
exciting things that are happening here
in Canberra that they could pursue and
at the very least to inspire them to
pursue a science career we run
networking nights here we have kids who
have come a lot from around Australia to
Canberra for the encuesta cons Invention
Convention and what we do is we get them
to meet with entrepreneurs and
innovators in Canberra so that they
understand that their work and their
studies could actually have more
opportunities than just having a life in
the lab with that lab coat they could
run and start their own business we do
stuff for adults to this is pretty
dangerous science and they are learning
about the chemistry of gin and alcohol
and aromatics and here is pint of
science where actual scientists come and
talk and explain their research
hopefully in ways that we can all
understand and we have professor brian
smith who actually won a Nobel Prize for
his work on the expanding universe and
professor Daniel shaddock who was part
of the team who worked on gravitational
waves and they inspired us to look at
the world differently cows Moo softly I
hope today I’ve gone some way to inspire
you to view science differently and so
in the theme of cows Moo softly
like to ask you to change one thing I
want you to embrace that in a scientist
I want you to perhaps engage in science
in a way that you haven’t thought of
before attend an event I’d love you if
you have kids or you know kids to change
your language and your attitude around
them when they come home and they’ve got
maths homework or a science project
instead of saying I was so bad at maths
at school or I hated science instead say
wow that’s fascinating let’s learn about
that together shall we because that is
empowering [Applause]
teacher and when I taught you seven what
I really hoped was that all of them
would come away knowing that all living
things were made out of cells with you
nine I was reasonably sure that at least
half of them would remember that the
continents moved around because of
with year ten I hoped that at least one
or two might recall that the universe is
expanding and that we know this because
Hubble looked at the light from stars
and found it was shifting to the red end
of the electromagnetic spectrum our
teachers got to have dreams it’s a tough
gig but what I wanted all of my students
to remember no matter what their ability
or their interest levels in science was
that cows Moo softly change measure same
and we’ll come back to that empower
empowerment for me what it means is
moving from a situation where someone
else is in control of you and the
decisions are made on your behalf to a
situation where you are in control where
you are actively making decisions on
your own behalf for me science is a
really important part of that it’s a
process it’s a way of knowing it’s a way
of uncovering things that we don’t know
about and working out what’s happening
we often think that babies are part of
science that they are really the
ultimate natural scientist and in fact
scientists have done research on babies
of course there’s this they have
researched them and found that they work
in exactly the same way
that scientists do they’ll take an idea
a hypothesis if you will and they will
test that idea they will drop their
blocks off the high chair they will put
something in their mouth and see what it
feels like and they will compare that to
their hypothesis their idea that they’re
testing out and see how it fits and they
might repeat that over and over again
drop the block off the high chair again
and again and that way they build up
their knowledge of the world around them
but they’re also having a look and
thinking where do I fit into this world
where do I belong and how do i get there
i would like all of you now to just
picture in your mind what you think of
when I say the word scientist did it
look like this how about this or maybe
this a different group of scientists
have actually found that by the age of
seven most children are actually drawing
this as went when they’re asked to
describe a scientist mail usually white
maybe bald hair crazy hair some glasses
because they’re smart they’re wearing a
lab coat and they have glassware conical
flask test tubes and it usually contains
some kind of toxic green liquid and a
Hollywood I believe you have a little
bit to answer for in our perception of
what a scientist is I think Einsteins
guild Abbott answer for two and to be
honest I think our modern-day role
models in science they’ve got a little
bit to answer for two in how people are
perceiving what science is and what
scientists are different researchers
asked kindergarten kids what they
thought of science and they said oh it’s
for people who are older than me it’s
the people who can deal with poisonous
potions and chemical explosion
it’s dangerous and they were also saying
sadly that i’m not good at science this
is kids in kindergarten those goals in
that class they ask them what they think
of their maths abilities and they say by
and large they’re not as good as the
so what are we doing to our future
scientists what are we doing to our
natural scientists who stare and wonder
about the world cows Moo softly it is of
course in mnemonic and it’s for change
one thing measure or observe something
that happens as a result of that change
and keep everything else the same so we
can see what impact that thing has it’s
a way of describing the process of
science a fair test and it’s something
that we use in science to make sure that
the process that we are discovering new
information in is standardized it’s a
system let’s fast forward to high school
my classes never looked like that they
were never that clean hardly any of them
all all their safety goggles on but look
there’s blue liquid in a conical flask
peas are you might have heard of Pisa
and they test our 15 year olds all
around the world and they test how they
take their science knowledge and their
understanding and how they apply that to
solve problems you might have read in
the media or heard on television we are
not doing so great at Pisa in both
absolute and relative terms our results
are declining so not only are our
children having a lower level of basic
science literacy they are less likely to
be able to apply that to problem solving
interestingly the chief scientist of
Australia ask those children who went to
the National Youth Science Forum now
remember these are the kids who are
giving up their summer holidays to go
and learn about science he asked them
what they thought about science in
school and their answers were it would
be better if it was more interesting and
more relevant the Australian Academy of
Science asked adults a series of
multiple choice questions about their
science knowledge they asked them how
long they thought it took the earth to
go around the Sun multiple choice less
than two-thirds got the answer correct
it’s a year when we ask that we break
that down by gender only fifty percent
of women got the correct answer and you
can say so what what does it matter if
we don’t know how long it takes the
earth to go around the Sun it matters
because in this world we need basic
levels of understanding of how the world
works and if we don’t have that and
we’re struggling with our understanding
of how the earth works we are
disempowering ourselves in participating
fully in decision-making additionally
though I think when we’re reporting
those sorts of facts and figures to
people instead of you all rushing out
and getting onto the internet and
finding out those facts and figures
instead what it does is also makes the
scientists feel like those weird geeky
guys in front of the blackboards and in
tucked away in labs doing their secret
science experiments it disempowers us
further it makes us feel like we don’t
know stuff and they know stuff and part
of its the way we’re taught science so
science knowledge okay so we don’t know
that much we can’t win the pub trivia
competition but we’re also perhaps not
learning the process of science we’re
not fully appreciating what sciences and
what science isn’t when we’re doing
practicals at high school and we get a
little recipe list of what to do and we
have aim and method and results and
conclusion and we draw the lines
underneath and that’s what we’re taught
science is that’s not really
appreciating what science is and the
messy joy of discovering the wonders of
the world it’s disempowering us from
appreciating science
cows Moo softly change one thing measure
or observe something as a result of that
change keep everything else the same
what can we change to empower our young
people to think of science differently
to think of themselves as up-and-coming
young scientists how can we change
things so that we empower our students
to be able to fully participate in an
increasingly complex society I never
found science boring or hard or
sometimes I found it hard my dad tells
the story of me in a planetarium and I
remember it standing up looking of
sitting at the ceiling the sparkly stars
being projected on there and the
lecturer asks the people assembled
what’s so special about the evening star
and I was probably about 10 and I didn’t
put my hand up because I expected all
the adults to do it well none of them
did so I bravely put my hand up and I
answered that it wasn’t a star it was a
planet and we knew that because stars
twinkle because they emit their own
light and planets reflect the light from
the Sun I was sleep proud of myself my
dad was really proud too but there came
a time when I wasn’t so proud to know
stuff when I was in high school my
friends suddenly decided to call me
fungus you can understand that’s
probably not the nickname you are aiming
for who knows how I they decided to do
that but they did and they used it maybe
I answered a question about mushrooms
correctly in my class who knows so what
did I do I changed my friends for start
and then I changed schools and I kept
pursuing science I started your physics
and chemistry and mathematics and I did
in fact go to university and get my
bachelor of science I contributed in my
iron little tiny way to our increasing
knowledge
about how the world works with my honors
thesis on downstream variations in
floodplain formation in laterally
confined streams of sand bed streams of
the Hawkesbury River I know should have
seen me at parties I never went on and
did further research but I’ve always
used the skills that I developed through
my science degree and my science studies
to further me in my career some of that
was high school teaching so it really is
about using those skills that are about
assessing things critically and thinking
creatively it’s not just we don’t leave
out the a in stem science technology
engineering maths it’s about assessing
being able to assess data properly cows
Moo softly change measure keep
everything else the same how are we
going to empower people to keep pursuing
their loves how we going to empower
people to keep appreciating science for
the good things that it’s bringing to
society the world is a really complex
place and some of our biggest issues
like climate change and obesity their
multi causal it’s not easy to say this
thing causes that and that’s that that’s
how we solve the problem we do need
critical thinkers we need people with
science literacy and who can also
appreciate science and data to help
fight some of these issues we need to be
able to empower people with science in
Canberra I can’t do a lot to change the
rest of the world I can’t change the
education system all by myself but what
i can do is empower students and adults
to appreciate science and so i’d like to
share with you today some examples of
what we’ve been doing in in the acct you
might not know but the
festival in Australia is in fact
National Science Week in terms of
participation in Canberra we have
science in action every August at the
old bus depot where the best of
Canberra’s science and technology can
interact with the public we have 1500
school kids and their teachers and over
8,000 community members come through and
talk to scientists and technologists and
engineers and mathematicians this is dr.
Graham Walker from Anu and he’s doing a
show as part of science in action that
engages kids in at the moment that he’s
talking about air pressure so how
molecules of air interact and those kids
are empowered they are utterly
enthralled with what he’s telling them
and yes they’re empowered to know the
answers we give out funding for new and
creative ways of people to engage with
science so this one here is a new
startup in Canberra called own
innovations for the electronic people
out there will get the resistance joke
and they run workshops for young
children using the conductive properties
of play-doh and the kids are able to
test their hypotheses with a very
hands-on and creative way so you look at
all the different ways that those kids
have tested their ideas there they are
empowered to explore and ask questions
and find answers with high school
students they’re a tough crowd this is
the m-sat telescope up at Mount Stromlo
it is Australia’s first ever teaching
telescope and the kids are able to
collect firsthand astronomical data
which enables them to do things like
measure the mass of Jupiter or the speed
of light so instead of downloading stuff
from the internet they are collecting
information and they are doing the messy
iterative science and working out how
science works this is a workshop called
hat and what that is is it gets mentors
from industry in coding robotics
programming electron
and working with teenagers to empower
them to be able to use those
technologies for good this is my
daughter actually and she is programming
an arduino circuit board that will go
into a robot that will battle to the
death with the other teams robots the
girls won this is canberra space camp we
are working collaboratively with a whole
bunch of people around Canberra Mount
Stromlo the deep space communication
complex that had been bill our
University of New South Wales at
Canberra to inspire young people to
pursue a career maybe not in space but
at least let them know of all the
exciting things that are happening here
in Canberra that they could pursue and
at the very least to inspire them to
pursue a science career we run
networking nights here we have kids who
have come a lot from around Australia to
Canberra for the encuesta cons Invention
Convention and what we do is we get them
to meet with entrepreneurs and
innovators in Canberra so that they
understand that their work and their
studies could actually have more
opportunities than just having a life in
the lab with that lab coat they could
run and start their own business we do
stuff for adults to this is pretty
dangerous science and they are learning
about the chemistry of gin and alcohol
and aromatics and here is pint of
science where actual scientists come and
talk and explain their research
hopefully in ways that we can all
understand and we have professor brian
smith who actually won a Nobel Prize for
his work on the expanding universe and
professor Daniel shaddock who was part
of the team who worked on gravitational
waves and they inspired us to look at
the world differently cows Moo softly I
hope today I’ve gone some way to inspire
you to view science differently and so
in the theme of cows Moo softly
like to ask you to change one thing I
want you to embrace that in a scientist
I want you to perhaps engage in science
in a way that you haven’t thought of
before attend an event I’d love you if
you have kids or you know kids to change
your language and your attitude around
them when they come home and they’ve got
maths homework or a science project
instead of saying I was so bad at maths
at school or I hated science instead say
wow that’s fascinating let’s learn about
that together shall we because that is
empowering [Applause]
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