Science Teachers Association of the NT MINUTES

Executive Committee Meeting – 26th November 2014 - Moil

Present: Veronica Ross (President), Sharra Martin, Matt Marchesi (Vice President), Daniel Corke, Adam Turley Apologies: Michael Mitchie, John Sagun, Paul Lyons, Michael Vouklos, Dr Terrence McClafferty, Lisa Knight Meeting opened: 4.30pm Minutes of the Previous Committee Meeting 1. The President moved that the Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting of 22nd October 2014 be accepted a true and honest account of the meeting. The motion was seconded by the Vice-President and carried. Young Scientists Competition 2. The Young Scientists Competition was declared a success with the amount of entries from last year doubling and it going from 57 participants to over 260. This should bolster our contribution from BHP for prize award money for next year which is positive. Judging went well; however the following points of improvement were brought up: a.

we may need a day devoted to judging entries, perhaps one where schools release selected science teachers to judge;

b.

it might be a consideration to require that each school providing entries must provide a minimum of one science teacher to act as a judge; and

c.

a period of two weeks is best between the science competition and the presentation evening.

3. It was agreed that holding the science awards presentation evening well prior to year 12 exams is a good idea; this allows awards to be handed out before senior students start to leave school on holidays. Teacher Earth Science Education Programme Professional Development Opportunity 4. The Teacher Earth Science Education Programme (TESEP) PD opportunity was raised by the VicePresident. TESEP is a program centred on the improvement of Earth Science education in schools (site: http://www.tesep.org.au/). A PD was being considered for term 1 of 2015. Questions include how much it would cost STANT to run the activity and do we run a session in both Darwin and Alice Springs. Action: Vice-President to determine full costings and send an e mail to determine interest. Fees 5. The President stated that fees were insufficient to cover costs including the capitation fee owed to ASTA including journal costs. It was agreed that membership needs to be increased too. Several options for increasing membership were discussed including advertising at the public sector orientation event and sending membership forms out with John Sagun from PICSE. 6.

The Vice-President stated the next Committee meeting will be devoted to membership matters.

7. A motion was put forward by the President that membership fees be increased from $70 to $80 per year. The motion was seconded by Sharra Martin and passed by the Committee. Action: Treasurer to increase membership price to $80. Adam Turley to update website. 8.

The Vice-President raised the matter of the membership list and the fact that it needs to be updated. Action: Treasurer to check the membership list and ensure it’s up to date including membership renewal dates.

Secretary 9. The President informed the Committee that Lisa Knight was unable to be the Secretary for STANT. Adam Turley has been nominated as the minute taker with Sharra Martin covering if he is unavailable. At this stage, other than minute taking, all other roles of the Secretary will be carried out by the President. Action: Committee to appoint a Secretary when possible/when found. ASTA Counsellor 10. The Vice-President is happy to continue as the ASTA Counsellor for the short term but indicated the desire to pass the duty on to someone else in the near future. It involves traveling interstate twice a year to meet with the ASTA Committee. Action: Committee to appoint a new ASTA Counsellor when possible/when found. STANT Website 11. The Science Teachers Association of Tasmania (STAT) are investigating hosting their site on ASTA’s main site. Once they have explored this option they will talk to STANT about any possibilities of hosting the STANT site on the ASTA servers. Action: Vice-President to liaise with contact at STAT to get information on ASTA hosting the site. 12. An e mail will also be sent by the President seeking all photos, calendar dates and other news for the STANT site and a calendar will be added to the site to promote upcoming events. Large events such as CONSTANT15 and National Science Week will receive their own STANT sub-page devoted to said topics. It was also suggested that STANT get its own NTSchools email inbox such as ‘[email protected]’. Action: Adam Turley to update the website when data is received. President to talk to ‘IT guys’ to get a STANT email address set up. CONSTANT15 13. A suggestion was made to combine STANT’s conference (ConSTANT) with the Geography and History Teachers of the NT (GHTANT) conference in August 2015. Action: President to liaise with the President of GHTANT to scope opportunities. Next meeting: 11th February 2015 Meeting Closed 14.

There being no further business the meeting was closed at 1744h.