Feedback from the Gold Industry Group backed Australian Earth Science Education (AusEarthEd) program in New South Wales has been fantastic since its launch in May, with the program delivering much needed support to teachers and secondary school students through free services, training and resources.
Since the Program kicked off, the AusEarthEd website has launched providing a host of new Earth and Environmental Science (EES) materials tailored to the Australian Curriculum, including classroom activities, case studies, videos and articles. AusEarthEd has also been offering free virtual incursions and teacher training.
The new website features several informative blog articles and videos demonstrating topics such as mine site rehabilitation, preventing erosion, mapping the seafloor, soil contamination, meteorites, and fossil formation. In addition, a dedicated gold webpage has gone live, pointing teachers towards the Gold Industry Group’s range of free educational resources which compliment EES studies, including the free Heart of Gold Australia app, unique Gold Resources Kits, and classroom presentations as part of the National Gold Education Program.
CEO of AusEarthEd, the growth project of the well-known Earth Science WA, Jo Watkins is delighted with the uptake of the new offerings in NSW already.
“The feedback from both teachers and students has been fantastic so far,” Ms Watkins said.
“We are working hard to provide much-needed resourcing for this course and very much look forward to releasing real-life case studies developed in conjunction with Gold Industry Group members. There is a lot of significant content and context there to engage both students and teachers.”
Gold Industry Group Executive Officer Rebecca Johnston said supporting members Newcrest Mining Limited, Evolution Mining, Regis Resources, Northern Star Resources Limited, Gold Road Resources, Pallion, ABC Refinery and Kirkland Lake Gold were collaborating with AusEarthEd to share real-life case studies to establish student and teacher resources.
“It is really exciting to see the interest from teachers grow across New South Wales during the first three months of the Program,” Ms Johnston said.
“With industry insight and real-life examples sought after in schools, the partnership is providing a fantastic opportunity to share the gold industry’s earth and environmental science projects and inspire the next generation.
“We look forward to developing a range of tangible gold resources linked to the Australian Curriculum for students and teachers across our long-term partnership with Australian Earth Science Education.”
In addition to providing free education resources, the AusEarthEd partnership has also seen three education training sessions, mentoring of a number of teachers and 18 classroom engagements take place over May to July.
Due to current restrictions on the movement of students and large public events, excursions to engage with industry have not yet commenced.
Bookings for free teacher professional development sessions and hands-on incursions are on offer for classes across NSW, however these will be offered virtually until current restrictions are lifted, while Earth Science Western Australia (ESWA) will continue to monitor the situation with schools.
NSW educators and students can learn more about AusEarthEd on their website, blog, YouTube channel, or by following their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.