Scientia Education Academy Lecture Series
Supporting secondary school teachers in becoming advocates for higher education
The shortage of high school teachers in certain subject areas can cause a ripple effect on students’ exposure to the various disciplines available in higher education.
How can we help?
In this lecture, A/Prof. Liz Angstmann will discuss initiatives that she has implemented at UNSW to reduce the persistent recognised shortage of discipline-trained high school physics teachers in Australia and worldwide. These initiatives, in turn, qualify and motivate the teachers to support students in engaging with STEM subjects at the university level.
Applicable across disciplines, three initiatives will be explored:
- Online Graduate Certificate in Physics, providing qualified Science teachers with discipline-based knowledge to effectively teach physics
- Visiting Teaching Fellow program where school teachers are seconded to UNSW for a year
- SciX – a program supporting students undertaking Science Extension.
While discussing her Online Degree Program, A/Prof. Angstmann will also delve into important features of effective online offerings.
Learn more about Associate Professor Elizabeth Angstmann
A/Prof Elizabeth (Liz) Angstmann is an Education Focussed academic in the School of Physics.
Liz has been the first year director in the school of physics since 2011, she is responsible for the education of thousands of students each year. During her time as first year director, she has introduced many changes to how first year physics courses run, where possible utilising technology to efficiently teach and assess students while concurrently improving the learning experience by encouraging students to be actively engaged. In 2013, Liz introduced an online course, ‘Everyday Physics’, which exemplifies her teaching philosophy: it engages students by presenting them with everyday objects and phenomena, before presenting the physics describing how they work. This elective course is taken by hundreds of students each semester.
In 2018 Liz introduced a graduate certificate in physics for science teachers. This online degree qualifies current science and mathematics teachers to teach physics. Having been a high school teacher, Liz is passionate about assisting school teachers to provide the best possible science experience for students.
Liz is a 2018 citation award recipient of the Australian Awards for University Teaching. Read about Liz's citation award here.