The Faculty of Science has several educational initiatives and projects being implemented throughout the faculty many of which are outlined below:

 

 

In response to the release of the UNSW Graduate Attributes, SLATIG worked on contextualizing these for science. A half day workshop was organised by the EdSquad in February 2004 bringing together academics, learning developers and other university staff to define a set of Science specific attributes, strategies for teaching and assessment of specific GAs, and to identify ways to provide evidence of their development. The intent was to broaden understanding among academic staff and to hasten implementation in the Faculty's courses and programs.

 

Six attributes were defined by the participants and in August 2004 members of SLATIG contextualized these attributes with the intent to have them implemented into the Faculty's courses and programs. The Science Graduate Attributes are now available.

 

The Faculty of Science EdSquad will be continuing to gather information on which Science contextualized graduate attributes are developed in courses offered by the Faculty. This information will be used to map the development of graduate attributes within a program. 

 

Further information is available at:

 

 

 

In 2003, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Built Environment, in conjunction with the LTU held 2 half-day forums on the Research and Teaching Nexus.

The Science forum was well attended by both faculty staff and staff from the Library, EDTeC, and the LTU. Adrian Lee and Aldo Bagnara welcomed participants before Craig McInnis Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of Melbourne delivered the keynote. Participants also heard from a panel of students from the faculty.

The LTU prepared a detailed resource kit for both forums and published The Learning Community: First Explorations of the Research–Teaching Nexus at UNSW. This is available from their website: http://www.ltu.unsw.edu.au/content/userDocs/LearningCommunity_2003.pdf

Sally James in conjunction with Learning and Teaching has been looking at Research Student log-books for Post Graduate students as a mechanism for tracking development of post graduate attributes. The University College of London has developed log books in hard copy and electronic form. We have negotiated for trial use of these formats on a reduced-fee basis. The Science faculty has been involved in trialing this log book. We want to see the extent to which such log books can enhance communication with supervisors and boosts successful outcomes for post graduate students. The trials are currently underway with 13 students.

In November 2003, the Faculty 'Ed Squad' conducted Tutor Training focus groups in an effort to reveal the types and adequacy of training currently for tutors and demonstrators within the Faculty. Discussions were then under taken with Peter Looker from LTU as to what training could be undertaken at the university level, the faculty level, and the school level, respectively. SLATIG members were vital in proposing learning outcomes, suggesting key topics and ways of spurring tutors to participate.

 

Tutor training workshops were piloted in Science in 2004.  Since then, EdSquad have delivered a workshop series each session which comprises of four  workshops (equivalent to 2.5 days face to face) and associated assignments. The main components of the workshop series are:

 

Tutors are provided with a copy of the Science Tutor / Demonstrator Survival Guide. On completion of all components the tutors will receive a certificate of acknowledgement.

 

The proposed training topic and dates for Session 1- 2008 are as follows - however please note that these are yet to be confirmed:

 

Session 2 dates are to be announced.

The SSEP was initiated by Moriah College in collaboration with the Faculty of Science Marketing and Development and EdSquad. This is a unique opportunity for school students to experience University campus by attending tertiary level courses or designing and conducting scientific research. These students will be mentored by postgraduate research students, providing an opportunity to accelerate and extend their learning. This program is running for the first time in Session 2, 2005. Further details are available at SSEP.

In order to ensure that teaching profile carry more points in promotion, the Faculty of Science is piloting a 'teaching portfolio'. This pilot has been funded by the PVC (Education) Adrian Lee.

A draft portfolio was created by Sally James and used in a series of pilot Teaching Portfolio Workshops held during session 2 - 2004.

The Science EdSquad, in collaboration with LTU, has now run three workshops on ‘Writing your UNSW Teaching Portfolio’. The main components of the workshops were:

From these workshops a peer support network is currently being established to enable further support in developing individual portfolios. It is intended that these Workshops will continue in 2005.

The 2004 UNSW Teaching Portfolio report is available to UNSW staff.

N.B: Any SLATIG activities you attend can be added to your Teaching Portfolio.

There has been an increase from 13 targeted workshops and presentations to Science students in 2003 to 31 in 2004, representing approximately 2000 students. The students were from 1st year Psychology, Chemistry, Optometry and 2nd year Safety Science but a large proportion of the students were from continuing collaborations. Careers and Employment have worked closely with the faculty in undertaking trials of a graduate attributes portfolio. The most successful was the embedding of career workshops and the portfolio into the both the curriculum and assessment in the first year BSc Psyc course.

The continuing involvement of EDTeC increases awareness of university wide initiatives. EDTeC is working with schools to kick off their use of the new e-learning systems, making sure that their services match up with Faculty needs on the ground and that EDTeC internal management systems and processes are set up to support this efficiently and effectively.

The focus for 2005 has been on the testing and implementation of WebCT Vista.

The LTU continues to be involved in Faculty initiatives. Following discussions by Michele Scoufis and Peter Looker from UNSW Learning & Teaching Unit as to how the Science Faculty can be more involved in the UNILT workshop program it was suggested that "Writing Learning Outcomes into Course Outlines" and "Tutor Training" could be offered. Michelle Scoufis, Peter Looker and Kathy Takayama attended a Carnegie Foundation conference and as a result UNSW has become part of the Research Intensive Universities cluster to further Scholarship in Learning and Teaching.

The uptake of information literacy into the curriculum has been enhanced with the Libraries involvement in SLATIG. The following are integrating LILT into their courses: School of Safety Science, Research Methods; School of Aviation, Foundations of Aviation; School of Optometry and Vision Science; Clinical Imaging. WebCTBIOS is being used in 1st year Biology (BEES), Biotechnology (BABS), and Optometry whilst Psychology is using it in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. BABS, BEES, Optometry and Psychology are also using BIOS in their postgraduate programs.

Coordinated by the LTU, is being established in 2005 to develop a sense of community amongst the first year coordinators. Several staff from the faculty of Science are involved in this network.

Facilitated and coordinated by EdSquad, the Science Learning and Teaching Interest Group (SLATIG) consists of a group of academics from Schools throughout the Faculty of Science interested in issues relating to learning and teaching. Further details are available at:
SLATIG

Formed in 2004, this initiative was to bring together academics from the Sydney region to establish a collaborative group for Learning and Teaching in Science. This group was formed with representatives from the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Technology, University of Western Sydney and Macquarie University. Further details are available at: SNUSE

These meetings are coordinated by EDTeC and bring together educational developers throughout the University to discuss issues or new advancements in flexible education. Michelle Kofod is the representative for the Faculty of Science at these UNFED meetings.