Global Challenges, Local Classrooms: Empowering Through Science — Refreshed Science Curriculum

As kaiako across Aotearoa New Zealand wait for the first public draft of the refreshed Science curriculum, it’s a good time to look across the Tasman for perspective. How are our neighbours in Australia reimagining science education? And what are international experts saying that might help us see whether our own draft is keeping pace with global priorities?

Hosted by Professor Sara Tolbert, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury and current faculty member in the School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education at Monash University, the hybrid event Global Challenges, Local Classrooms: Empowering Through Science brought together educators from around the world to share ideas across six key themes shaping the future of science teaching.

During the discussion, Dr Sophia Tsang shared examples from Aotearoa classrooms and drew parallels with Australian contexts, making the conversation especially relevant for New Zealand educators. Professor Sara Tolbert, has also collaborated with local education researchers on work such as Enduring Competencies, further linking the themes of the webinar to ongoing curriculum thinking here at home.

The full webinar runs for about 90 minutes, but we’ve included sectioned summaries with timestamps below the video to make it easy to jump to the parts you’re most interested in.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdHRzJJwpBE

Theme ＃1: Why Global Challenges? [7:36]

Sara Tolbert began by acknowledging the many responsibilities teachers juggle: curriculum expectations, policy changes, assessment, and the experiences students bring to class. She described global challenges as a central part of science education, not an extra context to add later. Teachers, she said, help students connect their learning to the social and ecological realities that shape their world.

She highlighted the links between ACARA, the Victorian Science Curriculum, and the PISA 2025 Science Framework. Each aims to equip young people with the competencies needed to tackle the complex issues of the Anthropocene — the era defined by human impact on Earth.

Tolbert also spoke about the danger of seeing science education reform as a response to falling enrolments. The reason to change, she argued, should come from what society needs, not from a desire to make science more popular.

“We’re also seeing this steady decline in enrolment and interest in school science and in degree programs. But as Russell Tytler noted a couple of decades ago, the school science crisis, or this crisis of interest, shouldn’t necessarily be the primary motivation for change. It should really be societal and social-ecological challenges that determine the way forward for science education, because we really are about educating young people to be citizens of the world, to be citizens of local communities.” — Sara Tolbert

She finished by returning to the human side of learning. Effective science education, she said, engages the hands, the heart, and the mind. It invites students to use knowledge, emotion, and action to respond to global challenges in creative and meaningful ways.

Theme ＃2: Bridging Global and Local [11:00]

• How can classroom teachers effectively help students see the connections between global challenges, like climate change or biodiversity loss, and issues in their own communities?

• What are some practical strategies you’ve seen work well?

Jesse Chambers began by suggesting that students already understand global issues when they are given a voice and a vote at the table. He encouraged educators to involve young people in shaping learning programs, noting that students live in connected worlds and care deeply about issues such as climate change, AI, and social justice.

At the University of Melbourne Science Gallery, Chambers and his team work with a youth advisory group called Sci Curious, which guide the direction of exhibitions. When planning an exhibition on particle physics called Dark Matter, the group proposed broadening it to include the “unseen and unspoken” challenges that affect their lives. Adding an s to make Dark Matters transformed it into an exhibition about the climate crisis, inequality, and other global issues; seen through the lens of young people’s experiences.

Chambers also shared the Living Room Project, part of the Victorian Department of Education’s Global Design Challenge. The program connects students across the Asia–Pacific region to collaborate on real-world problems. These cross-regional exchanges help learners realise that global issues are not distant or abstract; they are local challenges that communities everywhere face.

When you bring students closer together, they see how much they have in common. As a result, they’re able to see that a global issue can be localised in their own context.” — Jesse Chambers

Sara Tolbert followed by pointing out that declining enrolments don’t mean students are disinterested. Many are already engaged through activism and social causes. She encouraged teachers to build on this energy by asking questions like “What keeps you up at night?”

Sophia Tsang added that students often struggle to connect with science because examples in textbooks and media feel distant. She uses place-based tools such as the Coastal Risk Viewer to help students explore how sea-level rise could affect their own neighbourhoods. By linking global data to familiar locations, learners begin to see how global patterns play out locally.

“A lot of it has to do with our media, frankly, and also textbooks and things like that. Because of where we are in the world, a lot of our examples don’t come from local contexts; but that’s what our students really care about.” — Sophia Tsang

Drawing on her work at GNS Science, Tsang described projects where schools in New Zealand and Switzerland used seismometers to study earthquakes. Students became pen pals, comparing how local conditions shaped their results. These experiences connected geography, physics, and literacy, while reminding students that science is shared across communities.

Tolbert closed the theme by noting that connecting the local to the global is also about connecting people. Learning becomes transformative when students see themselves as part of a global community.

Theme ＃3: Multiple Ways of Knowing [18:00]

• In what ways can First Nations sciences complement 'canonical' sciences — and vice versa — when teaching about global challenges?

• How can non-Indigenous educators respectfully bring First Nations perspectives into their classrooms?

“Changing and transforming science education actually begins at the primary level.” — Dr Connie Cirkony

Dr Connie Cirkony opened the conversation by highlighting a turning point in Australian research and education. The Australian Research Council’s national priorities now recognise First Nations knowledge as essential to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. She noted that combining knowledge systems is not a new idea but one finally being acted upon.

Cirkony argued that transformation must begin in the early years of schooling, where curiosity, culture, and connection can grow together. Inquiry-based, contextual, and multimodal approaches already align closely with First Nations pedagogies. Integrating these enriches learning for all students, strengthens engagement, and fosters the cultural and ethical awareness needed for future collaboration between scientists and communities.

“Contemporary science values inquiry, meaningful context, and multimodal learning. All of these are consistent with First Nations ways of teaching and learning.” — Dr Connie Cirkony

“The first step is acknowledging that our knowledge systems are valid and useful. They contain rigorous data and information that have sustained us for more than 60 000 years.” — Prof Joe Sambono

Professor Joe Sambono built on this by discussing how teachers can translate these ideas into practice. He encouraged educators to acknowledge Australia’s colonial history and the long-standing exclusion of Indigenous knowledge from science. From there, the focus shifts to relationship-building, consultation, and developing cross-cultural capability.

He offered a vivid example: teaching states of matter through a ground oven. The steam that rises as food cooks illustrates evaporation and condensation, the same principles often taught with melting ice. Using cultural contexts like this makes science locally meaningful and inclusive while staying true to curriculum goals.

Cirkony and Sambono introduced two key resources for educators:

• Version 8.4 ARA Curriculum Cross-Curricular Priority, linking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures to core science concepts.

• The Hourglass Framework, developed with the Australian Council of Deans of Science, which guides non-Indigenous educators in understanding what can be taught independently and when to engage community experts.

“We’re not asking you to teach our culture. We’re asking you to put a spotlight on it; to showcase it in your classrooms.” — Prof Joe Sambono

Sarah Tolbert noted that hesitation among science teachers often stems not from resistance but from fear of getting it wrong. Frameworks like these empower teachers to act with confidence and integrity.

Sophia Tsang closed the theme with an example from Aotearoa New Zealand. Following a major debris flow in Matatā, oral histories from Ngāti Awa described how the area had flooded many times before; knowledge held in pūrākau about a taniwha shifting the river. Tsang explained that this was science in action: long-term observation and evidence carried through story.

“We did know. We just had to listen.” — Sophia Tsang

She encouraged educators to treat these accounts as complementary to canonical science rather than separate from it. Recognising that science itself is not rigid opens the door to many ways of knowing and caring for the world.

Theme ＃4: From Understanding to Action [37:31]

• One of the biggest challenges teachers face is moving students from learning about problems to feeling empowered to take meaningful action. What are some age-appropriate ways to cultivate student agency without overwhelming them with the enormity of global issues?

“It’s about lighting their fires. But you cannot do it just through the content. It has to be the pedagogy, the content, and the reasoning behind it.” — Assoc. Prof Gillian Kidman

Gillian Kidman began by recognising the “learner as agent of change” at the centre of the conversation. She reflected that across the panel, the emphasis had been on student voice, community connection, and dialogue, rather than on the accumulation of scientific facts. For Kidman, that is a strength. Inquiry sits at the heart of meaningful science learning, and it has been part of good teaching practice for more than a century.

She reminded the audience that content alone cannot sustain curiosity. Much of what we teach in science has been known for two hundred years. To re-engage young people, educators need to foreground design thinking, inquiry, and interdisciplinary learning. These approaches allow students to make sense of the world they live in and to feel capable of shaping tomorrow, not just memorising the past.

Kidman argued that STEM and STEAM frameworks offer powerful vehicles for agency when used creatively. They mirror the interconnectedness of real life, where science and mathematics rarely appear in isolation. By designing learning experiences that link science, technology, creativity, and reasoning, students begin to see themselves as capable contributors rather than passive recipients.

“If we stay teaching only the content, which hasn’t changed for 200 years, we will keep losing our students.” — Assoc. Prof Gillian Kidman

To illustrate how agency can be built from an early age, Dr Sophia Tsang shared her work on the Soil Safe Kids programme in Aotearoa New Zealand. The initiative grew from the national citizen-science project Soil Safe Aotearoa, which investigates heavy-metal contamination in domestic soils. Song noticed that while adult perspectives were well represented, children, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, were missing from the conversation.

The Soil Safe Kids programme brought scientists into classrooms to explore soil health through multiple knowledge systems. Students began with pūrākau about Hineahuone, the first woman formed from red clay, then connected these cultural narratives to biological and chemical investigations. They examined local soils for worms, learning to identify indigenous and introduced species, and discussed how living organisms reveal soil quality.

Tsang's team encouraged students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Rather than ending at the “write a report” stage, students were asked to share their findings with others. Some painted with natural soil pigments; others created a chalk board-game that turned soil ecology into an interactive experience for the wider school.

“We can build better scientists when we teach even our youngest learners that science doesn’t end with the report. The next step is to share what we’ve learned with others.” — Dr Sophia Tsang

Thomas and Tsang’s examples demonstrate that cultivating agency is not about shielding students from global problems but helping them see themselves as part of the solution. When learning is authentic, creative, and grounded in local context, even the youngest scientists can move confidently from awareness to action.

Theme ＃5: Breaking Down Silos [48:26]

• Traditional science education often separates biology, chemistry and physics, but grand challenges are inherently interdisciplinary. How can teachers, especially those trained in subject areas, successfully teach across disciplinary boundaries while supporting disciplinary literacies and conceptual development?

Jesse opened this section by describing how their Science Gallery exhibitions begin not with disciplines, but with real-world challenges. Rather than asking “which subject does this belong to?”, the team starts from questions that sit at the boundaries of chemistry, physics, biology, technology, and art. Design thinking, speculative inquiry, and object-based learning underpin their programs, allowing young people to explore issues like equitable energy access through multiple lenses.

“We don’t necessarily start with the disciplines that are evident in exhibits. We start with challenges or scenarios or concepts that exist at the boundaries of those disciplines.” — Jesse Chambers

He cautioned that inquiry and explicit teaching are not opposing approaches. While open-ended design tasks engage curiosity, teachers must still build the conceptual foundations that make problem-solving possible.

“It’s really hard to try and solve a problem about climate if you don’t already have an understanding of the greenhouse effect.” — Jesse Chambers

Reflecting on his early attempts at inquiry, Jesse admitted that students need to develop inquiry dispositions before being launched into open-ended work. Cultivating questioning, curiosity, and reasoning skills first enables students to make authentic cross-disciplinary links later.

Gillian Kidman expanded the conversation through her “plexus model,” a web of disciplinary connections that mirrors how science actually works. She encouraged teachers to make these connections explicit, inviting students to think across subjects and see how knowledge intertwines.

“Yes, we are in a biology class, but we have to think like the geologist. We have to think like the chemist.” — Assoc. Prof Gillian Kidman

Kidman stressed the importance of co-teaching and collaborative planning, noting that no teacher can know every field. She pointed to Indonesia’s P5 projects as a model where teachers from different disciplines co-design learning experiences around sustainability and social challenges. These projects have helped students see the world’s complexity and given teachers shared expertise that crosses traditional boundaries.

Dr Sophia Tsang added that systems thinking provides a powerful frame for interdisciplinary science. Using Earth as an interconnected system — geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere — allows students to locate each concept within a whole. She shared examples from her own teaching, such as using slinky seismometers to teach Hooke’s law through earthquakes and linking that to geography, engineering, and community safety.

“A lot of the Earth scientists here teach Earth science as Earth system science. It’s a way of linking challenges into different disciplines while bringing it back to how it’s relevant for students.” — Dr Sophia Tsang

Tsang also urged teachers to draw on real local data and collaborate with professional scientists, who often hold datasets that can be adapted for classroom use. These partnerships, she said, make science tangible and deepen students’ connection to place.

Together, the panel agreed that breaking down silos doesn’t mean abandoning disciplines; it means positioning them as interdependent ways of understanding the same world. Inquiry, collaboration, and real data give students a more complete picture of how science operates across boundaries and in communities.

Theme ＃6: Supporting Teacher Transformation [1:15: 33]

• For educators wanting to shift from 'traditional school science' to a grand challenges approach, what are the most important first steps?

• What resources, professional development, or institutional supports do teachers most need to make this transition successfully?

This final segment brought the discussion full circle, connecting classroom change with OECD’s idea of transformative competencies — the ability to generate new knowledge, innovate, and think critically while maintaining epistemic humility. Tolbert described this as a call to cultivate learners who can question responsibly, collaborate openly, and approach problems with curiosity rather than certainty.

When asked how educators could begin this work, Kidman offered a grounded reminder that systemic change takes time. Whether developing interdisciplinary units or building professional learning networks, teachers should start small, focus on building habits of cross-disciplinary thinking, and expect progress to unfold over years rather than weeks.

“You start small, you get bigger… what you do today will take time to have an impact in the classroom. We’re seeing a two to three-year turnaround.” — Assoc Prof Gillian Kidman

The panel agreed that schools need structural support for this transformation, especially leadership that values experimentation and risk-taking. When a member of the audience asked about the causes of student disengagement, Jesse pointed to a mismatch between static classroom experiences and the dynamic, connected ways young people now learn. He argued that learning already happens beyond school, in homes, online spaces, museums, and community “third spaces”; and that schools need to recognise and work with these informal environments.

“Learning doesn’t necessarily just happen in the four walls of a classroom; it can happen anywhere, and young people know that.” — Jesse Chambers

The conversation closed with a note of optimism. While the shift toward grand challenges can feel overwhelming, the message was clear: begin with small steps, stay connected, and give it time. Change grounded in relationships, humility, and shared purpose can lead to new forms of science education that genuinely prepare students to meet the future.