STEM Education in the Primary School

Dr Anne Forbes is a Senior Lecturer in STEM Education in the Macquarie School of Education at Macquarie University, Sydney, where she teaches in a range of units in pre-service teacher education and conducts accredited in-service teacher professional learning to enthuse, inform and inspire learning and teaching through science education. Anne is particularly interested in how to advance the learning and teaching of science education in schools through the development of communities of science practice. This work has manifested as an outreach program named MyScience@MQ. Anne is also working with IBM Corporation to implement a Global Curriculum Framework for Artificial Intelligence. She has been invited to share her research internationally as a keynote speaker, and to share her ideas about STEM education with parents, teachers and principals as an invited speaker.

Dr Vinesh Chandra is an Associate Professor in Technology, STEM and Global Education at Queensland University of Technology. He teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate courses that focus on these areas. He also supervises postgraduate students whose research interests lie in these fields. Vinesh has also led and worked on a number of STEM Education projects in Australia and overseas, including for UNESCO. He leads the SEE Project (http://theseeproject.org), which is actively involved in advancing the print and digital literacy agenda in rural and remotes schools in developing countries. His recent book Share Engage Educate: SEEding Change for a Better World (2020) highlights some of the work he has undertaken with his team in eight developing countries.

Dr Linda Pfeiffer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and the Arts, CQUniversity, based at the Gladstone Marina campus. Linda is the Australia Pacific LNG STEM Research Central project lead, and she coordinates the Science and STEM units in the undergraduate and postgraduate Primary and Early Childhood Education courses. Linda has a broad range of successful teaching experiences in primary, secondary and tertiary education and she is a Research Higher Degree Supervisor. Linda's passion is STEM education and engagement, and she has received two CQUniversity Engagement Opal Awards. Linda was integral in the establishment of the CQ STEM Hub network, the CQUniCares Indigenous STEM Camp and the CQUniversity STEM Leadership Team. Linda works with industry, community groups and local schools to improve STEM outcomes across all sectors and she has built a reputation for successful STEM outcomes. Linda has won numerous prizes including the 2016 Women in STEM Research Prize and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 Queensland Community Achievement Awards for her work with schools and the community on STEM education and engagement projects.

Dr Rachel Sheffield is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Curtin University, Australia and is a passionate science educator. She researches and publishes in science, STEM education and professional identity and is currently exploring the transversal competencies and their role in STEM. Rachel has won several Faculty, University and National awards for Teaching Excellence, and was awarded an Executive Endeavour Fellowship in 2016. She is also the Chair of the prestigious Curtin Academy for excellence in Learning and Teaching. Her research and grants in STEM education has seen her travel to India, Indonesia and Malaysia supporting pre-service teachers and primary students to develop expertise in STEM content and 21stcentury skills. Her STEMinist research group supporting women in STEM education were nominated for the 2019 Premiers Science Awards for their impact on women in STEM (www.steminists.weebly.com).