Connecting to Nature

Dr Chris Preston

Dr Christine Preston is a senior lecturer in science education at the University of Sydney. She has taught science in NSW schools at primary and secondary levels. Chris has experience as a science teacher education lecturer in early childhood, primary and secondary science. Her PhD explored the effects of science diagrams on primary students' conceptual understanding. Chris’s love of teaching children is shown by continuing to teach kindergarten science in a Sydney school for 18 years, maintaining her field experience. Her research interests include teaching and learning science using toys; enhancing primary children’s science learning through embodiment and multimodal representations; citizen science in schools; preservice teacher education; graduate teacher assessment & quality teachers; and professional learning for teachers in science / STEM education. Chris is a biologist who adores nature and is inspired by her bush home, where native plants and animals surround her.

Dr Paula Peeters

Paula Peeters spent 13 years working as a scientist in wildlife conservation in South Australia and Queensland, before concluding that conservation is primarily about changing human behaviour, and facts alone aren’t very effective in doing this. Since 2015 Paula has been exploring other ways of connecting people with nature, through the combination of art, writing and science, documented in her website and blog www.paperbarkwriter.com. She is a major force in the rise in popularity of nature journaling in Australia, leading regular workshops and appearing on Gardening Australia and The Nature Journal Show. She has self-published two nature journaling books, a nature journal collection, a work of children’s fiction, and five colouring books about threatened species and ecological communities, with a further colouring book in progress.

Kelly Pfeiffer

A human network architect, dedicated educator, author, and presenter, Kelly has a Master’s in Education, is the point person for PBL Global in Australia and an innovator in distance education Project Based Learning (PBL). She co-created the widely-adopted Dark Sky PBL unit, nominated for the Dark Sky Defender award through the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). In 2019, Kelly won the Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools (AADES) for Teaching Excellence. In addition, her Dubbo School of Distance Learning Futures Team received the New South Wales Department of Education Technology 4 Learning (T4L) award for Leader in Developing Digital Collaborative Communities. With over 20 years of experience in education Kelly is the Senior Education Officer at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, NSW, Australia.

Ashley Mulcahy

Senior Zoo Education Officer at Taronga Zoo Sydney with a background in Science Teaching in Western Sydney at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Having such a beautiful natural resource so close to his school led Ashley to base much of his teaching outside the classroom and learning about the importance of interactions within ecosystems. To maximise the opportunity for students to be engage with nature, Ashley developed cross curricular units with other faculties to instil these values into other teachers at his school. In 2017 he was selected by the Australian Science Teachers Association to be the NSW representative at BushBlitz Bradshaw, spending time with scientists working alongside scientists who were monitoring species present. This inspired Ashley to return to tertiary studies where he is now studying his Masters in Zoology at University of New England. Upon taking the role as Senior Education Officer at Taronga Zoo Sydney, Ashley now wants ensure students all around the state (and world) have the same passion for the wonderful world that exists outside their front door.