Bob Fitzpatrick
Bob has 30 years experience in science teaching. Originally from the UK, Bob abandoned the wintery climes and his job as Head of Department 20 years ago to start again in sunny WA.
Bob has been involved in curriculum projects such as ‘Living with our Forests’ and the roll out of ‘Making Consistent Judgements’. He was Head of Science in a metropolitan government school before moving to the SPICE program in 2008, after a successful Teacher in Residence stint in 2006 that led to the production of the first SPICE sequence ‘Mechanical Waves’.
‘I enjoy the variety that my role within SPICE entails,’ says Bob. ‘That ranges from working within teams to produce high quality teaching resources to meet the challenges of new curriculum initiatives, to talking with teachers when taking the resources to schools as part of our PD program.’
Bob runs PD courses for schools in the Albany, Canning, Esperance, Fremantle-Peel and Narrogin school districts. His specialist areas are Chemistry, Physics and Geology — contact him to organise PD at Bob.Fitzpatrick@uwa.edu.au.
Jenny Gull
Jenny was first employed as a metallurgy trainee and graduate at Australian Iron and Steel in Port Kembla NSW, but a move to WA saw Jenny retrained as a science teacher. Many of her 20 years experience in the classroom were involved in coordinating the academic talent program in a metropolitan government school.
Jenny has been a Curriculum officer and writer with the Curriculum Council, Physics TDC coordinator and a member of the Physics Assessment, Review and Moderation Panel and examination panel with the Curriculum Council.
A Teacher in Residence opportunity with SPICE in 2006 enabled Jenny to move into the development of science resources for teacher use in the classroom. She made a permanent move to SPICE in 2008 and enjoys the stimulus of working at the university, the development of curriculum resources and the interaction with teachers through the PD program.
Jenny runs PD courses for schools in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Mid-West school districts, as well as some schools in the West Coast school district. Contact Jenny to organise PD at Jenny.Gull@uwa.edu.au.
Pauline Charman
Pauline has been a science educator since 1981 — her experience spans teaching science in district and senior government high schools as well as a number of years in the independent sector.
She has taught Curriculum units to education undergraduates at Curtin and Murdoch universities and, in more recent years, has held positions as curriculum officer and writer within the WA Curriculum Council and WestOne Services.
Pauline’s passion lies in biomedical science and biotechnology within the secondary curriculum and she is keen to support teachers in these areas.
Pauline now works with WAIMR as their inaugural Education Outreach Manager. Although no longer a member of the SPICE team, SPICE continues to work closely with Pauline in our joint aims to support teaching of biotechnology and molecular biology in schools.