Suzy Urbaniak awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools.
Massive congratulations to Suzy Urbaniak for being awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools. Starting out as a geoscientist, Suzy found that while she knew all the theory from school and university, she didn’t have any hands-on experience and didn’t feel as though she knew what she was doing.
She realised there needed to be a stronger connection between the classroom and what was happening in the real world, out in the field, and took this philosophy into her teaching career at Kent Street Senior High School.
“The science in my classroom is all about inquiry and investigation, giving the students the freedom to develop their own investigations and find their own solutions. I don’t believe you can really teach science from worksheets and text books.”
Suzy wants to take her CoRE program out to the regions, developing sister schools in the Pilbara, the Goldfields, as well as metropolitan schools. She aims to ensure the students are aware of the scientific and technological engineering jobs that are available in Western Australia to support the resources and environmental sustainability industries of the future.
The National recognition is well deserved and not a surprise to the audience who saw Suzy, filled with passion for teaching, as she shared her dynamic, inspiring (but very funny) career story which included geological epochs, mass extinction events and forced change. We want to share Suzy’s presentation as a tribute to her and the extraordinary impact she is having on, not only the students in her classroom – but on education and the industry as well.
Suzy’s students have been attending the Summit since it began in 2009 and now we have her students attending while they are at Uni, and then as employees out in the industry. Suzy may have a number that she can give of these students, but as we all know, this won’t be the full story. Each of Suzy’s students will inject a multiplier effect into any environment that they are in and this is starting, not just a surface wave but, a body wave leading to incredibly positive change in the industry.
Congratulations again Suzy, and here is her incredible story:
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