1956-2012: 57 years of continuous service to microbiology in New Zealand

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The Special Interest group in Education’s purpose is to promote, disseminate and support
knowledge of microbiology in the education sector in New Zealand.

 

Convenor |

Christine Fenton
New Plymouth
email: mfenton@slingshot.co.nz

 

About the Education SIG | The Special Interest Group in Education was formed in 2001 after a secondary school teacher Michael Fenton presented research to the annual conference regarding microbiology misconceptions in the secondary system. He had formed a High School research group called Nexus Research Group and he and his High School student researchers established that there appeared to be a deficit of microbiology knowledge in the secondary system. The NZMS then resolved to set up a special interest group in education with Michael and Dr Mike Pearson as the co-convenors.

The Special Interest group in Education’s purpose is to promote, disseminate and support knowledge of microbiology in the education sector in New Zealand. Functions of this special interest group could be to:

• increase communication between group members
• encourage collaboration between microbiologists
• increase public awareness of microbiology by acting through the NZMS president, as media spokes-groups
• contribute to the organisation of the NZMS Annual Conferences
• arrange meetings in specialist areas of microbiology
• disseminate information through the newsletter
• liaise with the relevant Australian Society for Microbiology SIGs
• Provide academic advise to NZQA and NZ education system.

 

Current work includes | Organising the innaugural 'Workshop for Secondary School Teachers', Reviewing NCEA workbooks and publications, review of NCEA assessment tasks of achievement standard 90188 level 1 Biology, investigating avenues to disseminate resource material and investigating avenues for NZMS involvement to improve microbiology education.

 

What's new in the Education SIG? | The spceial interest group for microbiology education are proud to announce the the inaugural New Zealand Microbiological Society Workshop for Secondary School Teachers.  This workshop will be held on the 30th of November, just before the Annual Conference 'small things, BIG ideas' at The University of Auckland, New Zealand (30. November – 03. December, 2010). A programme for this workshop is given below.

The workshop will include:

• Practical hands-on activities that you could use in your classroom
• Teaching resources that are accessible to schools
• Emphasis on safety and management within the Ministry of Education Guidelines
• Guest scientists to provide you with an overview of some of the main areas of current research, in a manner that can be directly translated into the classroom
• All the practical work undertaken will be provided as a manual for use in your schools
• An invitation to the Conference opening function and first plenary speaker Professor Sakkie Pretorius from the Australian Wine Research Institute

In addition, all teachers attending this workshop will be offered membership of the society for the remainder of the financial year.

 

NZMS Special Interest Group in Education
Secondary School Science Teacher Microbiology Workshop

When:	Tuesday 30. November, 2010
Where:	Old Bio Building – BLT204 and West Lab (see: www.auckland.ac.nz for map)
Structure:	10:00 - 10:30	Introductory Session
	10:30 - 12:30	Session 1 - Environmental Microbiology   10 minute talk:                    Dr Mike Taylor - Success through symbiosis: microbial   associations with animals   Practical work:   Microscopic examination of microbiota from Termites   Paramecium/protozoa/pond water life examination   Biofilms in streams and water systems (talk/ theory)
	13:30 - 15:00	Session 2 - Medical/Microbiological Skills   10 minute talk:   Assoc Prof Gillian Lewis – Microbiology: from then to now   Practical work:                      Antibiotics/antiseptic activity                        Plates – what agar recipes work, which don’t and why?   Fungi and Yeasts – forgotten microbes
	15:30 - 17:00	Session 3 - Biotechnology   10 minute talk:   Dr Susan Turner - Microbes are more than just pathogens!   Practical work:   Microbiologically sourced enzymes – washpowder   Yoghurt/cheese/bread – focus on the microbes   Fuel cells – demonstration/observation   Bioluminescent bacteria – observation/demonstration
	17:00	NZMS Welcome Social Session (Drinks and Nibbles hosted    by Pernod Ricard, NZ)
	17:30	Opening Address: Dr Wayne Mapp, Minister of Research,    Science & Technology
		Plenary Lecture by Professor Sakkie Pretorius, Australian    Wine Research Institute         Sparkling! - the science of yeast and wine

Further details will be confirmed as soon as posible

 

Other activities of the SIG:

In 2006, a 4500 word review was completed on a commercially available NCEA level 1 booklet – in particular the section relating to microbiology: Achievement standard 90188.

This review [1] was contributed to by various members of the society and contained explanations and suggestions for improvement for the publisher.

The publisher did not acknowledge receipt of the report but MOST of the errors were corrected and another edition of the booklet was released – without acknowledgement to the NZMS. An analysis of the NZQA examination questions and answers was performed and a report to NZQA to clarify some misconceptions was submitted [2, 3] and a reply from the CEO of NZQA was received [4]. These reports and the NZQA reply were part of the presentation at the 2006 NZMS conference and included a statistical analysis by Dr Mary Jane Sneyd of Otago University [5]. These documents are available below.

Ongoing work involves publication of articles outlining the common misconceptions to the science teachers in the secondary school system and to continue correcting publications and observing NZQA external question.

Documents:

[1] Review of educational resource

[2] Letter to NZQA

[3] Assessment report NZQA

[4] NZQA response

[5] NCEA analysis

 

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