Integrating literacy in science through language learning

Presenters: Dr Mal Thompson

Duration: 45 mins (Two Presentations)

This workshop focuses on how to encourage students in their science learning through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Technical terms and complex concepts are often difficult to understand in science, so having the right words can make it easier to understand and describe those complex ideas. Resources will be shared focused on vocabulary learning and acquisition.

Lessoning & Rubricising

Presenters: Sherna Matta

Duration: 45 mins (Two Presentations)

When working in Pūtaiao | Science, we contend with Literacy, Numeracy, Science Capabilities, Nature of Science, Digital Literacy, Practicals... all of which we hang upon some content or context. Here are some modificatable systems that you can use with your own classes, or if you are mentoring new kaiako to help them be the organised humans that they need to be to maintain momentum in this profession.

Ignite Curiosity: Designing Science Inquiry with AI and Real-World Issues

Presenters: Zeina Chalich & Bonnie Campbell

Duration: 45 minutes

In a world of accelerating change, how do we help students think critically, explore complex issues, and stay curious? This interactive workshop supports teachers in designing future-focused science inquiry using real-world issues, emerging technologies, and timeless curiosity. Explore how challenges like climate, ecosystems, and human impact can become meaningful contexts for student-led investigation. Discover how AI tools can support educators in planning inquiries, adapting content, and differentiating instruction—enhancing, not replacing, the teacher's role. You'll engage with practical strategies for guiding student inquiry and explore flexible, classroom-ready resources including Britannica digital tools to support curriculum-aligned, real-world science learning. Whether you're just beginning with inquiry or looking to enrich existing practice, this session offers adaptable tools, AI planning prompts, and inspiration to design learning that empowers students to explore, question, and act in a changing world.

NZQA: 92021-Demonstrate understanding of chemical reactions in context

Biozone as the launchpad for innovative teaching and learning

Presenters: Sarah Gaze

Duration: 45 minutes

Focus is on our newer titles (Biology, environmental science, chemistry) and how they, and the ancillaries, can be used to kickstart courses and lessons - ideas for teaching, differentiation (extension and scaffolding), literacy... also the innovation of our new teaching resources based on tipping points and cutting edge use of data on the latest research in climate change.

Being your own Technician

Presenters: Jasmine Harrison

Duration: 45 minutes

Are you lacking your own Technician? Does preparing practical lessons fall to you? Do you have a very part time Technician and need to also do some Technician-ing? This how to guide will provide you with the knowledge and confidence to be able to prepare practical lessons efficiently and safely. It will cover the basics of laboratory preparation, labelling, safety aspects, and touch on laboratory manager responsibilities. Questions are welcome!

How scientists accumulate evidence to answer important questions?

Presenters: Jenny Pollock

Duration: 90 minutes

Scientists work in teams to accumulate evidence in order to understand fundamental questions. Often, scientists cannot run 'Fair Tests', and so have to find other ways to produce rigorous, reliable and valid data. In this example, Jenny will show the evidence that needed to be accumulated to show that the Alpine Fault moves, on average, every 300 years. The techniques and processes shown are used in many situations, including climate change research.

Winogradsky Columns

Presenters: Judith Bateup

Duration: 90 minutes - Workshop (incorporating hands-on activities)

Through this workshop, teachers will gain insights into the life processes of microorganisms, such as photosynthesis, fermentation, and sulfur cycling, and understand their vital contributions to environmental health. Teachers will be given the opportunity to explore the invisible world of microbes and their interconnectedness with the environment.

Consolidating Assessment for the New Level 1 NCEA

Presenters: Linda Haycock

Duration: 90 minutes

With last year's moderation completed and the new standards officially published, it's time to review and refine our processes for writing assessment tasks and schedules. This session consolidates the Term 1 and 2 NZASE workshops on Level 1 Internal Assessment and offers an opportunity to consolidate key ideas. Teachers will also have dedicated time to collaborate and develop high-quality tasks and assessment schedules together.

ESS Scholarship

Presenters: Jenny Pollock CRSNZ

Duration: 45 minutes

This workshop will enable teachers to understand what students need to study for Earth and Space Science Scholarship, especially seeing that this is the only science scholarship that also assesses the Nature of Science.

91921-Demonstrate understanding of the use of a range of scientific investigative approaches in a context

NZQA: General

Duration: 45 minutes

Simple Physics Tools

Presenters: Kelvin Hogg

Duration: 45 minutes

Simple Physics practical investigations, learning experiences and demonstrations using cheap toys and simple gadgets.

Maximising Learning with SciPAD Online: Tools, Tips, and What's Next

Presenters: Mike Wilson, Daniel Hampton

Duration: 45 minutes

SciPAD Online is a digital platform designed to complement our workbook range for Years 9 to 11. This workshop will explore how the platform can be used to best support your learners. We'll also share upcoming developments and new workbooks currently in progress as well as giving you the ability to request features and changes.

Re-focusing the microscope? Using evidence from TIMSS to inform science teaching and learning

Presenters: Robyn Caygill

Duration: 45 minutes

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) gathers a large range of information, both through the assessments and through questionnaires to students, their teachers and their principals. While TIMSS is a useful health check at the system level, the focus of publications has been on what the study tells us about science teaching and learning. While the publications have often been used to inform educational policy, there is a huge, largely untapped potential to directly inform teaching and learning. This session will present a small proportion of the variety of information on science teaching and learning gleaned from the administration of TIMSS in 2023. Following this, attendees will workshop some ideas for reports and resources of direct benefit to teachers and learners.

NZ Student Satellite Project

Presenters: John Smith, Shirley Zhao

Duration: 45 minutes

UOA and ESSENZ are supporting a project to launch a student-designed and built Satellite into orbit. In NZ, we now have the capacity to design, build and launch a satellite into orbit using local institutions and businesses. The project is for schools to get students to pitch for a launch by identifying a research need, developing a research method by developing the science for a data collection methodology and then working with local institutions to design and build the "cube-sat" sized satellite.

Scientific Literacy vs Literacy in Science

Presenters: Steven Sexton

Duration: 60 minutes

Curriculum changes do not need to limit the science that primary and intermediate teachers are able to bring into the classroom. While changes to the science curriculum have yet to be published, what we are doing in science can work with the changes that have been published. As such, this hands-on workshop uses Explicit Teaching and Structured Literacy to demonstrate the differences between scientific literacy and literacy in science.

Why does Planet Earth have flourishing complex life when other astronomical bodies will probably only have simple, unicellular life?

Presenters: Jenny Pollock CRSNZ

Duration: 60 minutes

Come and find out how many aspects of astronomical and earth conditions have to be in balance to give rise to complex life, and how easily some of these conditions could become unbalanced.

Windwanderers

Presenters: Christina Hermanns

Duration: 60 minutes (Workshop incorporating hands-on activities)

This presentation explores moths as an indicator of climate change as they are migrating, carried by the airbridges from Australia and arriving in Taranaki, New Zealand. This unit, designed for intermediate students by Taranaki Regional Council, considers what it means to be native, endemic or introduced. Students are taught to trap and observe these nocturnal pollinators and use keys to identify them. Through these learning activities, students are 'kindling the flame' of climate awareness by engaging with conservation, understanding the risks of biosecurity and monitoring our changing world.

Physics for non-specialists

Presenters: Doug Walker

Duration: 60 minutes (Workshop incorporating hands-on activities)

We will explore a range of fun, practical ideas for teaching Physics concepts, highlighting some common misconceptions along the way. With a focus on Forces, motion, and energy the activities will be relevant for most teachers of years 9-11, but could be easily adapted for primary and year 12-13 classes.

Neurodiversity in the Science Classroom

Presenters: Vicki Millar

Duration: 60 minutes

This interactive workshop explores practical strategies for supporting neurodiverse learners in science education. You will be guided through inclusive approaches that foster engagement, reduce barriers, and celebrate diverse ways of thinking. Participants will leave with adaptable tools and insights to better meet the needs of all students in their classroom.

OPERA (Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance)

Presenters: Tahu

Duration: 45 minutes

Subject association meetings

Duration: 45 minutes

Prompt library and collaborative AI

Presenters: Benny Pan

Duration: 90 minutes

Build a library of frequently used prompt templates. Populate, change variables easily and generate useful content. Save time and share your prompt templates. We will also get to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of different AI models and how to get them to collaborate.

Ahi Mārama: Igniting understanding through interwoven knowledge systems

Presenters: Greta Dromgool, Simone Marsters

Duration: 90 minutes

This workshop explores climate change through the interwoven knowledge systems of Mātauranga Māori and Western science. Participants will engage with both perspectives to deepen their understanding of environmental change, its impacts, and collective responsibility. Educators will discover how mātauranga Māori codified in pūrākau and transmitted through generations, compliments scientific thinking to connect with nature and teach sustainability. The workshop provides practical tools and resources to integrate these knowledge systems into the classroom, empowering students to explore climate change with cultural awareness and scientific curiosity.

Numeracy + Context = Science

Presenters: Linda Haycock NCEA

Duration: 90 minutes

How can we deepen numeracy in science learning beyond just content? This session will explore how fostering numeracy as a thinking process—not just a set of skills—can enhance students' ability to make meaningful connections in their science learning. By strengthening this link, we aim to support students in progressing to more advanced levels of understanding, ultimately improving achievement in science.

Introducing Kingdom Fungi, with a focus on Māori Knowledge & Uses of Fungi

Presenters: Peter Buchanan

Duration: 90 minutes

This workshop will assist teachers to confidently teach about Fungi of Aotearoa, and to be able to support learning through knowledge of the ecological and cultural relevance of Fungi to tangata whenua. Each participant will receive a bilingual teacher resource developed through MBIE's Unlocking Curious Minds programme, backed up by online resources.

Materials science research at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology

Presenters: Vanessa Young/Anna Garden

Duration: 90 minutes

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology is a Centre of Research Excellence (CORE), in Aotearoa New Zealand. We are a network of researchers across Universities and Crown Research Institutes united in the common goal of creating and exploring innovative, sustainable materials. Our research areas span materials for carbon capture and conversion, alternative computing paradigms and devices, reconfigurable materials to reduce waste and Mātauranga Māori for sustainable resource use. In this workshop, we will present an overview of our research and outreach activities, followed by a tour to several of our research laboratories at the University of Otago. We will also present several resources available for teachers and students of chemistry and physics.

PLEASE NOTE: This workshop is being held at the university labs: if you choose this workshop you will be transported to the labs at morning tea time and returned in time to get your lunch and head off on your field trip.

Techniques and Activities for Teaching Junior Chemistry Concepts

Presenters: Jane Spenceley, Emma Smith

Duration: 45 minutes x2

Aimed at non-chemistry specialists this workshop will take you through some techniques/ideas for teaching select chemistry concepts to junior students. Accompanied by some activity/game/lab ideas to support this learning.

Fizzes, Pops and Bangs

Presenters: Dr Murray Thompson

Duration: 45 minutes x2

A range of chemistry demonstrations suitable useful as an introduction to a topic or to illustrate a point, or just for fun to get students interested in chemistry.