1969 - 1981
(PART 1: Marinating science)
Modifying a new syllabus for marine science
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Gladstone SHS Reef Trip 1979
PART 1: Marinating science (1969 - 1981)
In short
1969 - 1974
- I met Paula at a Uni party in 1969. I was doing Zoology and Paula studying teaching.
- We married in 1972 and with no jobs in Marine Biology anywhere, I decided to do a Dip Ed.
- In 1973 we were posted to Kingaroy.
- To keep my interest up in marine biology, my early notes were typed up by Paula, and written for marine science excursions to Coolum with my Zoology class.
1975 - 1981
- External exams were abolished and a Board of Studies set up to develop a new curriculum.
- I was promoted to Gladstone SHS and expanded my marine science ideas under the new Multistrand science syllabus.
- Gladstone being an industrial town needed curriculum materials for kids from working class families so the school P&C funded an outdoor ed program and helped me develop four sets of notes on camping, snorkelling, marine biology and oceanography.
- I worked with a mate of mine Dave Kopelke from Boyne Is Field Study Centre to win an innovations government grant to buy a boat and set of marine lab equipment.
- We called it the Gladstone Oceanographic Studies Program (GOSP).
Publication 1: School Camping notes 1976
Publication 2: Snorkelling classroom notes 1979
Publication 3: Marine Biology classroom notes 1980
Publication 4: Oceanography classroom notes 1980
If you are interested, please read on as there are photographs from this era at the end.
Background
In 1969 I was doing Zoology at the University of Queensland and wanted to work as a marine scientist. Paula was at Kelvin Grove Teacher's college and always wanted to work as a teacher.
Cupid's arrow
Well this struck at a Uni party in Brisbane and were married in 1972 and with no jobs in marine biology I decided to do a Dip Ed and go teaching.
Kingaroy
We began our new life in a small country town with all those old fashioned values and assets. Tank water, a wood stove, no TV, phones or internet, cloth nappies were all part of the experience but the farming town had wonderful people with well behaved country students.
Teaching really was a great experience and with Zoology as a senior subject, I would run excursions with my class of 4 to Coolum on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Later, when Biology was introduced, these excursions continued and sets of marine biology excursion notes probably laid the foundations for marine education in my brain.
After 3 years and being involved in just about everything, I got my promotion to Gladstone.
Big changes to education
In 1970 the Radford Committee, appointed to review external examinations, recommended that the first external exams held in 1910 be replaced with a system of internal school assessment. These changes meant that no Queensland school student in 1973 was required to sit for an external examination.
According to historians Greg Logan and Eddie Clarke, “The century long reign of public examinations was over. Freed from the constrains of public examinations, syllabuses could now be significantly revised and teachers given much more freedom in interpreting and teaching them”.
The overall responsibility was now with the Board of Senior Secondary School Studies (BOSSS) and between 1971 and 1980 new syllabuses were written, trialled, piloted and brought into full operation.
One syllabus that offered great flexibility for Marine Education was Multistrand Science.
Our first publications
Marine Studies started for us in 1976 as a set of ideas in my science classes at Gladstone SHS where students copied down his blackboard notes.
The town was typically working class with bauxite processing by QAL and a new power station under construction and the Multistrand topics fitted perfectly, viz:-
- The nature of science
- Science technology and society
- Ecology
- Matter and materials
- Man, resources and the environment
- The atmospheric environment
- Science for recreation Personal Health
Publications 1-4 below described our first crude attempt to develop content for these topics.
Paula typed them up on a manual typewriter in our housing commission house at Toolooa Estate and I would go in early to school and run them off on a gestener machine (see pics below).
My basic philosophy was to teach through a practical experience, so before teaching pressure, I would take my Grade 8 class to the local pool and go snorkelling. Everyone could feel the pressure and experience the cold, so topics such as hypothermia, ear physiology and Boyle's law all of a sudden became more meaningful as they matched the syllabus topics and my students could see the relevance in learning.
Being a working town and lots of industrial action, most kids had little money. Running excursions had to be as inexpensive as possible, so camping was the best option.
So the first set of notes were written so my staff to get organise with inexpensive equipment such as a sheet of builders plastic for a tent, a pole so kids could carry their school ports between pairs for a back pac and very simple food in tins which could be used as billies.
The cost plus the bus used to be about $15 for 3 days - and with no mobile phones and with the Maroon Outdoor Education centre philosophy the trips made for an excellent experience as well as fitting the Science for Recreation topic.
Publication 1: School Camping notes 1976
Gladstone SHS staff modified the teaching philosophy of the Qld Maroon Outdoor Education Centre to write a set of notes for the Qld Multistrand Science syllabus topics The atmospheric environment, Science for Recreation and Personal Health.
Publication 2: Snorkelling classroom notes 1979
These 18 pages of side stapled notes were typed up on a manual typewriter (see below) and written for the Queensland Multistrand Science syllabus topics - Science for recreation and Personal Health.
Its good to see the 2022 version looks a lot better.
Publication 3: Marine Biology classroom notes 1980
A year later 52 pages of side stapled notes were written for the syllabus topics - Ecology, Science technology and society and Matter and Materials. The notes contained the first attempts to do water quality experiments with students.
Publication 4: Oceanography classroom notes 1980
The same year 79 pages of side stapled notes were written for syllabus topics Science technology and society, Man resources and the environment and Matter and Materials. The notes contained the first attempts to do marine science field work from a school boat.
Photographs and files from this era
Where I discovered by love of marine science - U of Q Marine research vessel 1969
Year 12 Zoology class of 4 (Coolum excursion 1973)
Year 8 Snorkelling class a Gladstone pool 1976
Year 8 students learn to use home made underwater slates Gladstone pool 1976
Snorkelling course notes 1976
Paula's typewriter from the 1970's. She would type my notes and I used a metal stylus to draw trough a wax stencil.
Early snorkelling notes 1977 - very hard to draw through a wax stencil with a metal stylus
The Gladstone gestener printing machine 1977
Year 11 Student presentation - Gladstone Harbour bathymetry Science block 1978
Year 11 Navigation and Geology Plotting a course to North West Island Gladstone Science block 1978
Gladstone Field Study Center Principal teaches open water snorkelling on Facing Island - Year 8 class 1979
Reef open water snorkelling - Year 12 class and Gladstone science teacher North West Island 1979
GOSP Program developers 1979
Students explore low tide reef pools North West Island 1979
Reef pool ecology studies 1979
View through home made underwater viewer North West Island 1979
Students learn from GBRMPA specialist about mutton bird runways and fragile nature of coral cays North West Island 1979
Students North West Island 1980 5am bird observations North West Island 1979 (Photo Len Zell)
Students collect plankton from Gladstone marine program boat - Corixa, Boyne River 1980
Plankton activity - "Tell me what you can see?" Students used to make direct observations before U tube. Boyne River 1980
Gladstone year 10 students setting marine sampling trap Gladstone Harbour 1976 (after making trap)
Year 12 Multistrand Science students Tannum Sands near Gladstone 1977
Student data analysis on large graph paper 1977
Class marine ecology notes Gladstone SHS 1980
Inexpensive school water collection bottle Boyne River 1980
Water temperature analysis Boyne River 1980
Dissolved oxygen testing using early hatch kits Gladstone SHS Science Lab 1981
Students salinity titration Boyne River 1980
Regional director launches Gladstone program 1981
Teaching on the Pengana Woodbridge Tasmania 1981
Marine Discovery Centre Woodbridge Tasmania 1981
Allistar Martin and research vessel Pengana. Woodbridge Tasmania 1981
The wonderful Gladstone Science staff who helped pioneer the initial marine science topics 1981