Science | OpenSTEM Pty Ltd

Online Teaching

The OpenSTEM® materials are ideally suited to online teaching. In these times of new challenges and requirements, there are a lot of technological possibilities. Schools and teachers are increasingly being asked to deliver material online to students. Our materials can assist with that process, especially for Humanities and Science subjects from Prep/Kindy/Foundation to Year 6. We also have some resources for a few high school subjects.

Fully aligned to the Australian curriculum, we have hundreds of resource PDFs. Teachers have used these for literacy practise in English, as well as resources for the Humanities and Science curriculum. They have even been used for NAPLAN preparation!

Full units available

We also have full lesson kits – divided into four units per year level (one for each term). These comprise a teacher’s handbook with complete lesson plans for each lesson; a student’s workbook which takes each student through all the requirements of each lesson, complete with assessment; a curriculum plan which indicates which curriculum items are being addressed in the unit and a complete assessment guide with criteria sheet, to match curriculum strands. Our use of continuous assessment, provides both formative and summative assessment points and means that there is no need to arrange proctoring of an exam in order to gain a full assessment. The assessment guide can be used to populate the report, if needed, each term.

The units make use of the PDF resources. These can be distributed with the student workbooks, to each student, via email. The entire unit can be undertaken without the need for a virtual classroom if required, with the support of a parent or home tutor, and phone calls to the teacher as required. Students could email back a scan of the completed student workbook, and any additional material they have written. The teacher could also deliver video presentations, which students could download, and students could upload videos or audio recordings of themselves delivering their material.

The units can also be used within a virtual classroom setting, or via a video conference link, with the teacher discussing the unit and requirements with students and then sending them off to work through their workbooks. Students could present finished bodies of work online in later session. The OpenSTEM® units could be undertaken with just one such online session a week, again assuming some input from a parent or person at home with the child, given that we are talking primary school children.

Some of our more extensive units (such as our Ginger Beer unit) address more than just Humanities and Science, covering Maths, Business and Economics and English curriculum items as well. These would need the active participation of a parent to assist the child at home and we would recommend arranging a call with us to deliver the initial stages of the project.

Virtual Classrooms vs Video Conferencing

So what is a virtual classroom and how does it differ from video conferencing?

We are all familiar with video conferencing programs such as Skype. These are growing more sophisticated and now include the capacity for screen sharing, type chat boxes and other tools to make having an online meeting or conversation easier.

Virtual classrooms (like BigBlueButton) are different because they have tools specifically for replicating classroom activities. As well as video and text chat, one can show a presentation, image or other document in the centre of the screen. The teacher or students (subject to permissions decided by the teacher), can write on pages of the presentation. So teachers can annotate slides, students can answer questions etc. Students can also be assigned into groups (anything from one to any size) and placed into “break-out” rooms, where they get their own copy of the presentation/document. Thus students can answer questions either individually or in groups, or discuss a topic, just as they would in class. The teacher can move between the groups to monitor activity. Break out rooms can be ended by the teacher after a set time, or at any time.

Timers can be used in the main room, e.g. to give students 10 minutes to write notes/answers. Or to allow the break out rooms to exist for only a certain length of time. Students are then returned to the main room to share what they discussed. Students can also chat in a side bar, to answer questions, or use an icon to “raise a hand” if they wish to ask something. Students can either type to reply or the teacher can allow them to contribute verbally by activating their microphone permissions.

Teachers have a lot of control in a virtual classroom. Trouble makers can have their permissions revoked and be silenced immediately. They can also be segregated to a room on their own, but still see the lesson material. Without an audience to play to, most behaviour settles quickly.

Email us for assistance if you want to know more about virtual classrooms.

You’re Not Alone!

Remember, there are a lot of people out there who have walked these paths below. We can assist you with resources, units, assessment, advice on virtual classrooms and many other aspects of online learning, including what works and what doesn’t. There are many other online communities that can also assist. Do reach out and let’s support each other through these trying times.

Rising sea levels and our children’s future

Global warming and sea level rise sometimes seems like a lot of hype bandied about by the media and politicians. However, it has a different level of importance for scientists in a range of disciplines around the world. The Australian Curriculum emphasises that students should study sustainability and environment issues in HASS and Science subjects, from lower primary school up. This is not just because its fashionable at the moment, but rather because even casual reading of the science tells us that these are going to be some of the most critical issues faced by our children in years to come. The world has already lost inhabited islands to sea level rise, with communities being moved out of their flooded homes. Eight of these islands are in the Pacific. In the Solomon Islands one inhabited island has already lost 75% of its houses to the sea, since 2011.

Global warming and sea level rise are related because a warmer global environment melts the ice at the poles and causes the sea level to rise. The same thing happened at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. In a paper just published in the respectable journal, Nature, Australian scientists (with some international colleagues) present two alternatives for the future of Antarctica (and thus for the future sea level rises around the world). The two lead authors (from the CSIRO and Monash University) have also published a slightly simpler version of this paper, highlighting the key points. The two scenarios explored are based on the kind of action that we all take now to reduce global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and human impacts on the fragile polar environments. The authors argue that actions need to take place within the next decade.

Scenario 1 has us take sudden, urgent action to reduce global warming and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, as well as putting policies in place to control and reduce human impacts on the poles, and Antarctica in particular (reducing numbers of people in Antarctica, as well as their impact there). The situation 50 years from now (a time scale chosen to reflect the lifetimes of today’s children) has Antarctica enjoying a similar environment to today. The ozone hole has been repaired and the climate remains similar to that of the 20th century. The rate at which the ice has thinned has remained constant, instead of accelerating, and the acidification of the sea water has been kept low. The sea ice has decreased by “only” 12% and the ice on land by “only” 8%. Marine animals and birds show only small declines in population. Antarctica has been protected from invasive plants and animals through decreased human access and impact and maintenance of the harsh climate. Global air temperature has risen by less than 1 degree Celsius. Overall the sea level will rise by just under 1 metre, of which only 6cm comes from melting ice in West Antarctica.

Sea level rise Ade — Sea level rise in Adelaide.

Scenario 2 has us take very little to no action to reduce global warming, greenhouse gases and human impacts on Antarctica. Fossil fuel use and deforestation have continued and there has been no regulation of human access to Antarctica. Global air temperatures have risen by more than 3.5 degrees Celsius. The oceans have warmed and become more acidic – at levels that corrode marine shells and the exoskeletons of marine animals. Ice shelves in Antarctica have collapsed, accelerating the melting of ice and icebergs pose a continual risk to fishing, tourist and commercial shipping fleets. Sea ice is reduced by almost half. In this scenario, global sea levels rise at rates similar to that at the end of the Ice Age, gaining 3 metres by the year 2300 and more than half a metre in the first 50 years alone. Fisheries around the world are collapsing, and animals (such as penguins, seals and whales) who depend upon fish are in sharp decline. Antarctica has been colonised by invasive species of plants and animals, further disrupting the ecosystem and preventing ice from reforming in some areas. Antarctica is also being denuded of its original nature by rampant harvesting of resources, including mining, and the arrival of about 1 million tourists per year, who come to try to catch a glimpse of what Antarctica used to be, before it all disappears.

Sea level rise B — Sea level rise in Brisbane.

This sounds like a doom and gloom scenario, but it is one of the most likely scenarios, with the impact on our way of life being severe. Websites are now available to examine what sea level rises mean for our coastal cites. The impact varies in different cities, with Adelaide and Cairns being amongst the worst affected, although Brisbane’s port and airport are also in trouble. None of our coastal cities are exempt. These pictures show a 1.1m sea level rise by the year 2100 – close to the best case scenario mentioned above! They also do not take into account storm surges, erosion and other effects as our weather systems continue to be disrupted by the changing world environment. Now imagine 3 times that amount of impact, as forecast by the worst case scenario!

This is our children’s future. We need to prepare them well for handling these disasters. They need to understand how these have happened and what can be done to mitigate the effects of these changes. It is the job of all parents and educators to guide our children to develop the skills to interpret, understand and act in creative and innovative ways when tackling problem-solving and to start discussing these issues of their future now. Science, and the Scientific Method in particular, is an essential tool and the only hope that we have of both tracking what is happening and monitoring the efficacy of possible solutions.

Vale Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo Galilei‘s death (8 March 1942), and died on the anniversary of Albert Einstein‘s birth (14 March). Having both reached the age of 76, Hawking actually lived a few months longer than Einstein, in spite of his health problems. By the way, what do you call it when a set of unrelated facts match up like that? That’s right: coincidence!

While Hawking’s book “A Brief History of Time” is apparently “the most popular book never read”, I own it and have read it. While it’s definitely not easy-going, he did have a good stab at making the complex physics understandable, and I found it very worthwhile – a fascinating read.

I think Hawking was a great scientist because he came up with grand ideas, but was quite happy to be disagreed with. Often the matter wouldn’t be settled for decades, and once it was, he was also quite happy to concede if he was wrong. Sometimes he’d even even declare himself wrong on one of his own earlier hypotheses. This approach is an excellent example of how science advances. Explanations can be improved, proven wrong, or strengthened through observations and calculations. Many complex matters cannot be proven “correct” directly, so a hypothesis can often only be disproven – that is, when an observation is made that doesn’t match the hypothesis, and that observation is repeated by others and thus validated, then either the hypothesis needs to be tweaked, or discarded.

Hawking was also an excellent role model for many young students as apart from his excellent attitude towards scientific research and good sense of humour, he was a key example of how having a serious disability does not necessarily preclude one from doing great things. He was also adventurous, and sometimes quite reckless driving his wheelchair.

Melbourne artist, Mitchell Toy, has produced a beautiful image to commemorate Hawking’s passing.

What Makes Humans Different From Most Other Mammals?

Well, there are several things that makes us different from other mammals – although perhaps fewer than one might think. We are not unique in using tools, in fact we discover more animals that use tools all the time – even fish! We pride ourselves on being a “moral animal”, however fairness, reciprocity, empathy and cooperation have been demonstrated in apes and monkeys. Genetically we differ by only 1.09% from gorillas, 1.14% from chimpanzees, 2.46% from Old World monkeys and we share 50% of our DNA with bananas!

Recent research has demonstrated one of the ways that we are unique and this research is being used to help us to understand our human lineage, as well as giving us new insights into some diseases, such as cancer. The key to this discussion is a set of complex sugar chains (or carbohydrates), called glycans, which occur on the surface of cells. In particular, a glycan called Neu5Gc. It seems that at some point in the distant past, the malaria parasite used this glycan to anchor itself to the cells of primates and infect them with malaria, and human ancestors responded by losing the glycan, thus becoming immune to malaria. Unfortunately for us, a new type of malaria found a new glycan to attach itself to (this one is called Neu5Ac), which meant that humans could catch the new strain of malaria. This explains why humans are immune to the strains of malaria which affect great apes, such as chimpanzees, but are susceptible to strains of malaria which don’t affect the apes.

Humans became almost unique amongst mammals in not having the glycan Neu5Gc. It is thought that this mutation occurred between 2 and 3 million years ago and might have contributed to humans developing their own distinct lineage. Part of the glycan also becomes integrated as a molecule in bone, which gave researches hope that they might be able to find traces of the molecule from Neu5Gc in fossil bones. Whilst we have been successful in extracting ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones as old as 430,000 years and from horse bones as old as 700,000 years, fossils that are millions of years old have not been able to yield enough viable DNA using current techniques.

So researcher Ajit Varki, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, started with 50,000 year old bones from a cave bear, from which they were able to extract the molecule. Varki then approached Maeve Leakey, Director of Field Research at the Turkana Basin Institute, who gave them a fragment of bone from a 4 million year old buffalo-like animal, found in the same layer as some hominin fossils. Once again the researchers were able to extract the molecule left in the bone by Nue5Gc. It is now hoped that they will be able to test fossil hominid bones in order to see which ones lacked Neu5Gc (and are thus likely to be our direct ancestors) and which ones had it.

Modern humans usually do have trace amounts of Neu5Gc, thought to enter our bodies from eating the meat of animals which have the glycan. Our bodies produce a slight immune response to the glycan, which might aggravate diseases such as cancer, opening new avenues for research and proving how research in one area of science, such as paleoanthropology, can have effects in other areas, such as medicine. It might therefore also be possible to see how much meat our ancestors included in their diets – always a controversial topic.

New Dates for Human Relative + ‘Explorer Classroom’ Resources

During September, National Geographic is featuring the excavations of Homo naledi at Rising Star Cave in South Africa in their Explorer Classroom, in tune with new discoveries and the publishing of dates for this enigmatic little hominid. A Teacher’s Guide and Resources are available and classes can log in to see live updates from the site. The material is also archived and can be watched via YouTube at a later date.

We’ve probably all heard of the little hominids from neighbouring Indonesia – Homo floresiensis and how they were initially dated to less than 50,000 years ago, which was then revised to between 60,000 and 190,000 years ago. These dates are still relatively recent for a hominid on the same general family tree as ourselves and reminds us all that there were several branches on this tree, of which ours is only one.

An interesting hominid was discovered in South Africa in 2014, named Homo naledi, this species was also relatively small and had a curious mix of features – some seeming very old (curved hands and fingers, well suited for climbing trees) and others looking more modern (legs suited to walking fully upright). Anthropologists and evolutionary biologists wondered where on the family tree these guys belonged – were they millions of years old, or more recent? The dating of the bones was an enormous challenge – partly because the deep cave where the fossils were found could only be accessed through an extremely narrow (20cm wide) gap in the rocks, and partly because the deposit lacked material that could be dated easily.

This year dates were published, obtained from a range of scientific techniques, including optically stimulated luminescence, Uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating (see OpenSTEM’s Absolute Dating Methods resource for explanations of some of these techniques). Both the sediments around the bones, as well as 3 fossil teeth were dated. The dates all clustered between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago. These dates are much more recent than was thought from analyses of the bones themselves. The dates are also contemporary with the very earliest of our own direct ancestors, implying that Homo naledi and our own ancestors shared the savannas of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago. Yet another reminder of the diverse and complex nature of our family tree!

New Dates for Earliest Archaeological Site in Aus!

This morning news was released of a date of 65,000 years for archaeological material at the site of Madjedbebe rock shelter in the Jabiluka mineral lease area, surrounded by Kakadu National Park. The site is on the land of the Mirarr people, who have partnered with archaeologists from the University of Queensland for this investigation. It has also produced evidence of the earliest use of ground-stone tool technology, the oldest seed-grinding tools in Australia and stone points, which may have been used as spears. Most fascinating of all, there is the jawbone of a Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine (which was found across continental Australia during the Ice Age) coated in a red pigment, thought to be the reddish rock, ochre. There is much evidence of use of ochre at the site, with chucks and ground ochre found throughout the site. Ochre is often used for rock art and the area has much beautiful rock art, so we can deduce that these rock art traditions are as old as the occupation of people in Australia, i.e. at least 65,000 years old! The decoration of the jawbone hints at a complex realm of abstract thought, and possibly belief, amongst our distant ancestors – the direct forebears of modern Aboriginal people.

Placing the finds from Madjebebe rock shelter within the larger context, the dating, undertaken by Professor Zenobia Jacobs from the University of Wollongong, shows that people were living at the site during the Ice Age, a time when many, now-extinct, giant animals roamed Australia; and the tiny Homo floresiensis was living in Indonesia. These finds show that the ancestors of Aboriginal people came to Australia with much of the toolkit of their rich, complex lives already in place. This technology, extremely advanced for the time, allowed them to populate the entire continent of Australia, first managing to survive in the hash Ice Age environment and then also managing to adapt to the enormous changes in sea level, climate and vegetation at the end of the Ice Age.

The team of archaeologists working at Madjebebe rock shelter, in conjunction with Mirarr traditional owners, are finding all sorts of wonderful archaeological material, from which they can deduce much rich, detailed information about the lives of the earliest people in Australia. We look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Students who are interested, especially those in Years 4, 5 and 6, can read more about these sites and the animals and lives of people in Ice Age Australia in our resources People Reach Australia, Early Australian Sites, Ice Age Animals and the Last Ice Age, which are covered in Units 4.1, 5.1 and 6.1.