Director Steve Broni said the University of Otago’s annual Advanced School Sciences Academy had been running since 2011, and aimed to support science education in rural and provincial areas.
A total of 51 secondary school pupils and nine secondary science teachers were taking part in the latest academy gathering in Dunedin this week, Mr Broni said.
Otago geology department Teaching Fellow Sophie Briggs said yesterday’s field trip to Brighton Beach, near Dunedin, had gone ‘‘really well’’ for her and six participating teachers.
‘‘I had a wonderful time showing off some of Dunedin’s geological features and telling stories about Zealandia’s history,’’ Dr Briggs said.
It was enjoyable teaching in the field, and and the teachers were ‘‘really engaged’’, she said.
Participants had discussed activities that could be brought back to the classroom and she hoped the teachers were ‘‘inspired to bring more earth science topics into their curriculum’’.
Mr Broni said the academy, initially run as a three-year pilot programme, had opened up ‘‘a world of possibilities’’ for potentially high-achieving year 13 pupils from rural-provincial, small or lower decile schools.
