Ms Nadine Smith has joined the Parker Centre as the Centre's new full-time Education Program Manager.

Nadine comes to the Centre with 17 years of diverse experience in education (predominantly science education), gained through positions with the Kwinana Industries Education Partnership, the Scitech Discovery Centre, the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation and the WA Department of Education & Training.

She started off as a secondary school science teacher, teaching for five years in Perth metropolitan high schools before spending a year overseas, which included a stint teaching in London.

On her return, Nadine went bush and taught in Northcliffe and Broome in 1997, and then at Halls Creek District High School in 1998 where she became friends with Dan Churach (the Parker Centre's Education Program Manager from 2002-2005) who was working in Broome at the time.

Three years teaching at Australind High School near Bunbury followed. During this time, Nadine also set up all the indigenous programs at the school (eg the Homework Centre and the parents support group) as the Aboriginal Education Program Coordinator.

Nadine took a year's leave without pay in 2002 for overseas travel and part-time study towards a Certificate of Museum Studies. She then worked for three years as the Science Education Consultant at Scitech on secondment from the WA Education Department. Her role involved setting up and coordinating a professional development program for teachers across the state as part of the Kids' Science State education program funded by the Rio Tinto WA Future Fund.

"I travelled all over the state, working with teachers from kindergarten to Year 12 to help them increase their knowledge, skills and confidence to teach science and to use the curriculum framework,” says Nadine.

She moved on in 2006 to become the coordinator of the Real World Science Project with the Kwinana Industries Education Partnership (KIEP) for two years. KIEP is a partnership between Murdoch University, TAFE, ten schools within the Kwinana/Rockingham district and also local industries. The Real World Science Project aims to encourage school students to study science and to consider careers in science.

Nadine says her role with KIEP included establishing and maintaining a teacher/industry network and collaborating with university and industry staff. This collaboration was to facilitate the development of student activities and curriculum-based teacher professional development. “For example, I worked with researchers to develop presentations for students and teacher visits to industry to support their understanding of industry and curriculum delivery.”

Nadine also undertook some research which enabled her to develop a framework outlining how best to approach the goal of engaging young people in science and science careers. “The significance of this framework is that it helps to facilitate the dialogue between industry and schools to provide mutually beneficial outcomes,” she says. “The importance of good dialogue is that teachers are seeking industry-based activities that support what they are trying to do in their classrooms.”

During her time at KIEP, Nadine assisted the Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR) by assessing the viability of the US-based BioGENEius Challenge program for Western Australia, and providing DoIR with guidelines for introducing the program in WA.

Despite being on long service leave from the WA Education Department in 2008, Nadine approached the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation to ask about working as a volunteer on the Tall Ship Leeuwin II. Instead, she found herself working as the foundation's Education and Indigenous Program Manager.

Nadine set up the foundation's Education Program, wrote the new training manual and gained accreditation of the foundation's youth sail training voyages from the Curriculum Council of WA. She also wrote the foundation's education strategic plan for the next five years.

She believes she has the right knowledge and skills for the role of the Parker Centre's Education Program Manager. "The Centre needs someone to revamp the program and give it a kick-start, and that's what I did at Scitech, KIEP and Leeuwin,” Nadine says. "I like starting things up and getting things going, and I like a challenge.”

And after tackling the challenge of a four-and-a-half week trip to the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica just prior to joining the Parker Centre, Nadine should be up for the challenge under warmer conditions of revamping the Centre's Education Program.

Nadine has a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching (Secondary) from the WA College of Advanced Education and a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) from Edith Cowan University. She was nominated by HIsmelt Corporation for the Science Communicator Outside the Classroom Award in the 2007 WA Premier's Science Awards.

Nadine takes over from Jane Rosser who left the Parker Centre at the end of October 2008 after three years as the Centre's Education Program Manager to return to her career as a scientist in coastal and estuarine research.

Nadine's contact details:

Nadine Smith
Education Program Manager
Parker Centre Headquarters
Room 1.9, Australian Minerals Research Centre
7 Conlon St, Waterford, WA  6152
(PO Box 7145, Karawara, WA  6152)
Phone: +61 8 9334 8954
Fax: +61 8 9334 8959
E-mail: nadine.smith@parkercentre.com.au