Page 39 - Australian Defence Magazine August 2018

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Students are able to be exposed to the technology behind space missions.
Space focus
According to Biddington, the core of VS- SEC’s strategy is the use of space as a ‘vec- tor’, or lens, to engage kids in STEM.
“The guys who run VSSEC are expert at the science of teaching,” Biddington said. “They understand pedagogy. They’ve turned their knowledge of the science of teaching into the teaching of science.”
VSSEC’s engagement with students be- gins before they arrive at the Centre itself. Teachers at both primary and secondary levels are supplied with materials that inte- grate the day at VSSEC into the school cur- riculum.
“This is not a day out,” Biddington said. “For weeks beforehand, the teachers run- ning the program are using materials VS- SEC has developed and tested according to evidence-based research. When the kids come in to consolidate their classroom learning, they’re very well prepared.”
When the kids arrive at the Centre itself, they go through a hands-on experiment us- ing purpose-built facilities, including a rep- lica of the Martian surface for the signature Mission to Mars program.
“Students get suited up, some go onto the surface to do particular jobs, and others go into the control room,” Biddington said. “They swap roles, and then in the afternoon they analyse the samples they take from the Martian surface.
“It’s an integral element of the education experience. There are follow on lessons, planned and structured by the Centre, that teachers can pick up and use to close the unit with the results that have been discov- ered by the day at VSSEC.”
Although the VSSEC building (located in the grounds of Strathmore Secondary College in Melbourne) was built around the Mars simulator, the Centre also runs programs in mathematics and life sciences, all taught through the context of space.
“We run a course on pure mathematical principles based on the solar system,” Bid- dington told ADM. “Most kids have little concept of big numbers and big distances. The way that the teachers teach this at VS- SEC is by using a big area, 15 feet in diam- eter, with ten radials coming out from a central point.
www.australiandefence.com.au | August 2018 | 39
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