Macandrew Bay School - Matt Direen
2018 | Investigating methods to assess the health of marine communities.
School: Macandrew Bay School, Dunedin
Host: The University of Otago, Department of Marine Studies
Region: Otago
Macandrew Bay School is located on the stunning Otago Peninsula, an environment that has a rich diversity of wildlife, marine and land environments. The environment offers wonderful opportunities for scientific learning and understanding the Nature of Science and the school tries to tap into this as part of it's authentic local curriculum. The school believes that science in the school will be able to move up a level as part of it's involvement in the Science Teaching Leadership Programme. The school recently reviewed science education at and can see that it is a subject children find meaningful and highly engaging.
Matt Direen has worked as a primary school teacher at Macandrew Bay School for the last 9 years. During that time he has predominately taught year 4 students and has shown a passion for teaching physical education, numeracy and science across a range of year levels.
Matt Direen’s placement will involve his participation in the general research and activities conducted by Marine Studies at the University of Otago. The programme will include opportunities to work with students and faculty staff, attending undergraduate and post-graduate lectures and laboratories, participation in field and lab based research, and interacting with students and researchers in academia. During the course of his placement Matt will be involved with assisting researchers aboard the Polaris Research Vessel, investigating the health of estuaries in Southland and Otago and having the opportunity to join researchers in Fiordland and Stewart Island.
Through the course of his placement, Matt aims to develop his understanding and knowledge of the Nature of Science, marine science and the skills and equipment used by researchers at the Portobello Aquarium.
Matt will be able to return to school and lead the whole staff team to build and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence in teaching science. We hope this will give our students a life long interest in the scientific world. We hope to extend our own authentic local curriculum even further and ensure that science learning is a driving force in our curriculum and integrating it across many other essential learning areas.