National CPD for ISTA members


Event Details


Dear ISTA Colleague,

I hope that you are keeping well. The ISTA is pleased to inform you that our online National CPD programme for ISTA members will continue on Wed 1st March at 7 p.m.  These events are open to ISTA members only.  

The ISTA National CPD programme is sponsored by Lennox Laboratory Supplies. We wish to express our sincere thanks to Lennox for their loyal support of ISTA down through the years.
The details of our next National CPD event are as follows:

Title: How to improve the thinking ability of science students in the areas of variables and graphical interpretation. 

Date: Wed 1st March 2023
Time: 7 p.m.
Presenter: Alex Black

This CPD is a follow-up to our discussion on the Junior Cycle science marking scheme where we saw how students encounter difficulty when answering questions involving variables and graphs. This CPD event will start with a short introduction by Alex to the work led by Michael Shayer and Philip Adey who developed a system called CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) to help the thinking skills of science students at secondary school level. Alex will then bring us through five CASE lessons to help students understand the concepts of control of variables. Finally, he will show how these lessons can be applied to aspects of the Junior Cycle science curriculum,  especially dealing with the problems of graphical representation and interpretation of scientific data.

Ample time will be provided in the last half hour for questions and ideas about possible ways forward.

Alex has been teaching science for the past 37 years, of which the last 30 years were in an International School in Zürich.  We are very grateful to Alex for sharing his expertise with us on this topic. We will also be joined on the panel by David O'Brien, Hon Sec ISTA Cork Branch and Mary Oliver, University of Nottingham, who introduced CASE into Australia. So, you will get lots of good teaching ideas at this CPD!

This webinar will be hosted by Aodhagán Ó Suilleabháin. The link to register in advance for this event is:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s_xBZvAiRqetov_aJJs6TQ

If you have any questions about registering for the event, please contact Aodhagán (istawebinar@gmail.com). Please note that registration for this event will close at 5 p.m. on the day of the webinar to allow time for the list of participants to be finalised. Once your membership is confirmed, you will receive an email containing information about joining the webinar.

The ISTA wishes to express our sincere thanks to Aodhagán for setting up the zoom links and chairing the ISTA National CPD sessions.

An email confirming attendance at the event will be sent out to all participants a few days after the event. For those who may require a Certificate of Attendance, this email may be used to certify your attendance at the event.

Date for your diary: Our next National CPD event will be held on  Weds 22nd March at 7 p.m.  Please ensure that your membership does not lapse as the system will automatically delete you from the ISTA database.

Thank you for your continued support of ISTA.

Warm wishes,
Declan Kennedy
(ISTA National CPD coordinator)