2020 EDUCATOR GROUPS
Find out what your group is doing in 2020
KOOKABURRA
Information and resources for educators in the Kookaburra Group for the ELSA 2020 Research Project.
PLATYPUS
Information and resources for educators in the Platypus Group for the ELSA 2020 Research Project.
BILBY
Information for educators in the Bilby Group for the ELSA 2020 Research Project.
WOMBAT
Information for educators in the Wombat Group for the ELSA 2020 Research Project.
ELSA NEWS
Find out about the latest news and happenings with ELSA
ELSA academic Tracy Logan wins UC awards!
UPDATE DECEMBER 2019: Tracy has just won her second UC award for the year. This time taking out the VC’s Excellence Award for Early Career Researcher of the Year. Not to be outdone by the ELSA team, last night our very own Assistant Professor Tracy Logan won the University of Canberra (UC) award for Early
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ELSA team win UC research award!
Pictured (L to R): Ross Hope, Matt Bacon Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie, Garrett Lommatsch, Amanda Levido and Tracy Logan. Last night, the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) team won the University of Canberra’s (UC) research award for Distinction in Engagement and Impact. This year’s UC Research and Teaching Excellence awards were held at the Ann
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PODCAST: Kym and Matt discuss ELSA
ELSA’s very own Kym Simoncini (Associate Professor) and Matt Bacon (Project Manager) recently sat down with Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education to record a podcast. In the podcast, Kym and Matt discuss the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) Pilot, engaging more than 100 preschool centres across Australia. Some of the highlights include: how the 6
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2019 Educator forum at UC
With 2019 coming to a close (where did the year go?), we thought it would be great to get together with some of the educators who have been running the ELSA Pilot this year. The 2019 ELSA educator forum was held at the Ann Harding conference centre at the University of Canberra on Monday 21
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ELSA at Early Childhood Australia (ECA) conference 2019
The ELSA team have just returned from a fun and very productive week in Hobart for the 2019 Early Childhood Australia (ECA) conference. Our new ELSA ambassador—the one-and-only Luke Carroll—helped out at our stall and took some photos with ELSA educators, conference delegates and many of his fans! Before the conference started, we visited two
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Amy and Remy meet quokkas on Rottnest Island
Hi everyone, it’s Amy and Remy from ELSA here. We’re excited to share a little adventure we had with you. Recently we visited a little island off the coast of Perth, WA, called Rottnest Island. This island is famous for the furry little animals who live there, called quokkas. Remy and I were in Perth
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Cairns 2019 educator workshop
Dates: Tuesday 4 June and Wednesday 5 June Venue: Pullman Cairns International The second round of the 2019 ELSA Pilot educator workshops was held in Cairns in June. And what a lot of fun we all had! This time around, the ELSA team decided to host one big workshop in a single location rather
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St Kevin’s students visit ELSA
The ELSA team were very excited to welcome primary school students from St Kevin’s College to our offices on Wednesday 22 May. Professor Tom Lowrie talked to the children about STEM Practices and some of the work we are doing with ELSA in early learning centres. Following on from Tom, ELSA Project Manager Matt Bacon
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Cover star: Dr Kevin Larkin from ELSA
ELSA academic and 2018 Australian University Teacher of the Year, Dr Kevin Larkin, can now add ‘cover star’ to his list of accomplishments. Kevin was recently interviewed by Campus Review—Australia’s leading independent tertiary education publication and website—about his teaching career and recent awards. In the article, Kevin discusses his pedagogical work on ELSA, which has
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Announcement: list of 2019 ELSA preschool services
The list of 2019 ELSA Pilot preschool services has just been announced! More than 100 preschool services from across Australia have joined the pilot, with centres from NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT and ACT. See the full list of 2019 ELSA Pilot preschool services. Pilot centres have already started the program with off-app
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2019 ELSA educator workshops
The first round of the 2019 ELSA Pilot educator workshops was a great success! Thank you to all the educators who travelled from across Australia to participate in the special two-day events. We were very excited to welcome over 100 educators to our workshops – from NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, ACT, TAS and NT.
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ELSA academic Kevin Larkin wins teacher of the year award
Pictured (L to R): Professor Margaret Gardner AO (Universities Australia Chair), Dr Kevin Larkin, and Professor Kerri-Lee Krause (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, La Trobe University). We are overjoyed to congratulate ELSA academic, Dr Kevin Larkin, on winning the 2018 Australian University Teacher of the Year award. The award was announced at the annual Universities Australia
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ELSA APPS
ELSA apps are play-based, encourage active learning, and inspire children to explore and interact with their natural world. The ELSA program is grounded in a revolutionary ERA model (Experience, Represent, Apply), with two-thirds of the program being off-app. And instead of focussing on discreet STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), ELSA apps promote STEM Practices: the ideas, methods and values that underpin STEM. The ESLA program features six apps: four apps for children, one app for educators and one app for families. The four children's apps include 16 on-app activities, and the educator app features 100+ off-app activities to engage children in real-world play. The Families' app includes 30 STEM-based activities that can be played at home or while out and about.
Educator Testimonials
MEET THE ELSA CHARACTERS
The ELSA characters help guide children through the on-app experience
Go to AMY
Go to ELLIOT
Go to PIPER
