Page 14 - Journal 2018A

activities are on the NASA site (www.nasa.gov - I would urge all science teachers to sign up
for a monthly email from NASA Express and recently NASA WOW).
The Churchill Fellowship then became the catalyst for my success in a raft of award and grant opportunities.
What have been your happiest moment(s)?
There are a few things I’d mention.
Firstly, any award or grant I obtained
that enabled me to provide professional development for my science colleagues gave me great satisfaction.
Also, providing workshops for teachers that enabled then to try out activities and receiving positive feedback that the participants had used these activities successfully with their own classes.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on the various Committees of SASTA (also as Treasurer and President) and the 4 years as Treasurer of ASTA. The life time friendships that I developed by joining SASTA and travelling to conferences all over Australia provided me with countless happy occasions.
Then, of course, overseas trips to the USA (including Hawaii), New Zealand and Japan to learn more about Space Science and Astronomy were also highlights.
You’ve led the setting up of an informal education science outreach program while still working full-time in the classroom. Teachers reading this may like to do something similar. Is there a particular obstacle(s) that you overcame in setting up your outreach program(s)?
It’s just having the time. I’m a bachelor and so have been free to use my holidays and weekends for any purpose. I coached U18 football for 16 years. Once I nished that I seemed to have a lot of time free to explore new horizons and become more involved in SASTA. The SASTA and ASTA connections really assisted me in spreading the word about Space Science and Astronomy programs that I had developed.
You’ve led the development of a number of outreach programs. How does one go about making such outreach programs long-lived and sustainable so they stay relevant and don’t fade away over time?
Once you have started on a journey you need to take your colleagues with you. You will need to delegate in order to keep your project fresh and exciting and you also need to encourage them to take more of a leadership position in the program. Time (and money) needs to be set aside to attend workshops and conferences and joining many forums and subscribing to new and relevant newsletters.
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