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UWA and the Department of Education and Training have joined forces to add SPICE to science teaching in WA schools. SPICE is a secondary teachers' enrichment program that will give teachers a chance to update their skills and access the latest scientific equipment and techniques.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson said investing in the development of quality teachers would help students achieve their full potentials. Over the next three years, 24 teachers will each spend a term as a Teacher-in-Residence at UWA's Centre for Learning Technology. Four teachers are already at the university.

Warwick Mathews, from Shenton College, and Bob Fitzpatrick, from Armadale Senior High School, are developing resources on wave properties and applications, Brett Boughton, from Willetton SHS, is researching atomic physics and Dawn Smith, from Churchlands SHS, is investigating interactions in ecosystems.

Mr Fitzpatrick said it was rare for teachers to have time to think about their professional knowledge or interests.

"I have been able to think about what can be done to enhance my teaching as well as contact scientists who are engaged in research I have an interest in," he said. He said he had wanted to know more about whether naval sonar activity could be linked to whale strandings and gathered "about a year's worth of professional science reading" in an hour-long conversation he had with Dr Ralph James from the School of Physics.

"Every person I have spoken to here has been helpful and enthusiastic and I have been made to feel that I am not just a science teacher in a school, but a member of the wider science community," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

Education and Training Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said SPICE would put "real science back into schools by invigorating science teachers and immersing them in the exciting world of scientific endeavour".

Centre for Learning Technologies director Roger Dickinson said all schools would have an opportunity to be involved in aspects of SPICE.

Photo (above): Paul Ricketts-DUIT Multimedia