International Outreach

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol44 Issue45 11–15 November 2019

Science Education in Timor Leste

College of Science academics and Canberra high school teachers recently teamed up to deliver an education capacity-building program in a remote area of Timor Leste.

Habiba Hossain (Physics) travelled with the team to deliver a week-long workshop to teachers from the Maliana district in central Timor Leste. Teachers there face many challenges; their classrooms are large, and they often lack basic resources taken for granted in Australia such as reliable supply of electricity and water. The aim of this project, which began in 2016, is to enhance science teaching through the use of basic experiments and classroom management techniques.

Over twenty teachers took part in the workshops and the Australian team had the opportunity to see them put their new knowledge into practice in the classroom.