Nerida came across this interesting article on storytelling and how it can keep students engaged in science.
Professor Stephen Ritchie from Queensland University of Technology’s Faculty of Education is leading a team examining how emotional learning through storytelling and other strategies can enhance scientific literacy. There is a declining interest in senior secondary science courses, and this is having a flow-on effect to universities, contributing to skills shortages and a lack of understanding about science issues in society. Professor Ritchie says:
“What we know is while Australian students do fairly well in most measures of scientific literacy on international tests, they become disengaged as the curriculum becomes more formal….Students lose interest in science in years 8, 9 and 10. That has a flow-on effect to their subject choices in year 11 and 12 and career choices for university.”
Through this work Ritchie says that what they hope to do is to:
“… provide the students with opportunities to engage emotionally in science activities. One way we can do this is getting students to write ‘hybridised stories’ where technical, scientific information is merged with everyday language on topics relevant to them.”
This hybridised approach is one that we use all the time at the ARRC, as we find it is the best way to bring ‘facts and figures’ to life, and for the science we have on river restoration to be made relevant and interesting to people. What we really like about Ritchie’s approach is that he is thinking about the future, as he says:
“If you really want kids to become scientifically literate and engaged meaningfully in community decisions and intelligent debate as adults, we need to teach them how to access reputable information and apply it.”
These children are our future and we wholeheartedly endorse the thinking and intent behind this project.
To find out more about this work follow this link
Nerida and Siwan
Groundwater dependent ecosystems include wetlands, baseflow ecosystems, stygofauna (fauna living within aquifers), estuarine and marine ecosystems, fauna and terrestrial vegetation. The nature and degree of their dependence on groundwater varies significantly. Often groundwater dependent ecosystems rely on groundwater for a certain period of time and without access the result can be irreversible ecological damage or long recovery periods. This new National Water Commission report uses seven case studies to capture information on the range and extent of management tools available and the effectiveness of water planning policy controls in protecting groundwater dependent ecosystems. It attempts to capture the current status of the scientific knowledge (data and analysis) for supporting effective policy decisions related to the protection and management of groundwater dependent ecosystems.
This Waterlines publication will be of interest to a broad audience including decision makers, water planners and policy makers, water managers, ecosystem and catchment managers, environmental regulators, and water authorities. Follow this link to download the report.
Understanding the formal and informal communication networks in your organisation is crucial to managing successfully.
The ARRC works with organisations and people across a number of different disciplines. Recently we have been developing a partnership with Graham Durant-Law, who specialised in social network analysis. This is a fascinating area of work, and we are finding that when this analytical tool is combined with qualitative evaluation techniques, an in-depth and much more insightful understanding is gained about how relationships and networks in an organisation are helping or hindering the achievement of goals. Graham has provided us with an introduction to social network analysis that we hope you find interesting….
With businesses increasingly operating with an evolving and interconnected series of networks, the need for analytical techniques to understand these relationships is growing. Social network analysis views relationships in terms of network theory, with each network made up of individuals or organisations and their interdependency. The resulting structures are often very complicated, but when analysed can reveal knowledge flows, relationships and social capital in an organisation, as shown in the map below.
There are a number of ways of mapping the networks of interest to your organisation. Structured interviews with staff can be used to provide detailed data on communication patterns, the flow of knowledge, and power and support networks in an organisation. Other techniques use on-line surveys with a greater degree of automation, and can sometimes include data from emails and documents. For example the To: and From: fields in emails can be used along with frequency data, to generate a network visualisation and associated metrics.
Read more »
The Annual Water forum at the Albury-Wodonga campus of La Trobe University will be held on 29th July 2011.
The forum is sponsored by La Trobe University, North East Water and the Department of Primary Industries (Vic) and this year covers topics relating to urban water and the management of environmental water reserves. Speakers include prominent members of industry, government and academics working in the field.
View the Forum program for the day (pdf) and registrations can be made online. Please feel free to share with others in your organisation that may benefit from participating.
As one of the judges for the Australian Riverprize I am delighted to let you know about the finalists for this year.
Last week the International RiverFoundation announced the finalists of the 2011 Australian Riverprize for outstanding achievements in sustainable river management as:
- Project Catalyst, Qld (Coca-Cola Foundation, WWF and Reef Catchments NRM)
- Sunshine Coast Rivers Initiative, Qld (Sunshine Coast Council)
The finalists of the 2011 Thiess International Riverprize, are:
- Charles River, Massachusetts. USA
- Mattole River, California. USA
- Yarra River, Victoria. Australia
The winner of the 2011 Australian Riverprize and the Theiss International Riverprize will be announced at the Riverprize Gala Dinner on Tuesday 27 September, 2011, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, during the 14th International Riversymposium (26-29 September, 2011).
Visit the International RiverFoundation website for further details.
Siwan
Narrative and story, News, Resources | Siwan Lovett | 
25 August 2011 10:34 am | 
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