Biology Teacher PD Days are back for 2021

Image: Speakers and attendees at the MWC Teacher Professional Development day, Wakatipu High School.

The theme for the day built on talks from 2020, building the teacher's knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic and Aotearoa New Zealand's response to the ongoing challenge. Topics discussed were the general data surrounding SARS-CoV2, the public health response then and now including a look the mathematics behind the pandemic modelling, the marvel of genomic tracing, and the new data on post COVID-19 condition, "Long-COVID".

Prof Shaun Hendy (Te Pūnaha Matatini) and Dr Amanda Kvalsvig (University of  Otago, Wellington) presented alongside MWC investigators Dr Anna Brooks, Dr Jemma Geoghegan and Prof Vernon Ward to deliver a comprehensive programme to the class of 25 Biology teachers from across New Zealand. Attendees travelled as far as Dargaville to take part in the free MWC training event which aims to support Biology teachers and help them to deliver current, high quality content for high school biology pupils.

MWC would like to thank our colleagues at Wakatipu High School who provided an inspirational space at their newly refurbished school in the valley of The Remarkables. Both teachers and researchers thoroughly enjoyed the day and the fresh mountain air!

MWC aims to continue our school outreach and offer more training opportunities for Science teachers across Aotearoa in the latter half of 2021. We are always looking for ways to improve our training events and invite teaching professionals to get in touch and to share your ideas for future PD days. Please contact us at maurice-wilkins-centre@auckland.ac.nz.

Recordings of the talks and slides are available to the teaching community on on our biology teacher resources.