Single Day SCCAO Conference – November 11, 2009
Second annual SCCAO Mini-Conference a great success!
The day brought together more than thirty science board leads (consultants, coordinators, teachers representing their boards) and many associate members. The morning session with Dr. Llewellyn helped all of us to identify our own leadership strengths, and learn how and when to apply alternate leadership styles in the session entitled ‘Situational Leadership’. Mike Newnham provided a sneak preview of Smarter Science, and described how we can each play an active role in supporting our teachers in the quest to develop better inquiry skills with our students.
We would also like to thank our associate sponsors, Diane Wyman (McGraw-Hill Ryerson), Reid McAlpine (Pearson Education), and John Yip-Chuck (Nelson Education) for providing meals throughout the day.
The afternoon began with the chairperson’s report, and the release of the SCCAO Resource Assessment Tool. This tool is intended to be used by SCCAO members to assist in the review of events, opportunties and resources intended for use in our schools. See the Library tab above to download the tool. Maureen Callan shared updates from the Ministry of Education. The rest of the afternoon included special presentations and reports from many of our associates, including an opportunity to learn more about Explore Learnings’ ‘gizmos‘, ’play’ with Merlan’s Labquests, see the possibilities with Ken-A-Vision, and hear about Scientists in Schools. Other presenters included Bob Morrow (CSA and Tomatosphere), Lionel Sandner (Edvantage Press), James Palcik (Palcik Educational), Mars Bloch (Let’s Talk Science), Paul Kortenaar (Ontario Science Centre). All members were also invited to share the different initiatives being supported in their home boards, along with a ‘wish list’ of areas they would like to collaborate on. This information will be used to plan out future SCCAO meetings. These will take place in the GTA but we will be working towards the goal of enabling remote members to join us with Adobe Connect.