Day: December 18, 2008

December 18, 2008

Chris Krishna-Pillay

Chris Krishna-Pillay one of Australia’s most prominent science communicators and performers. Chris has performed across Australia, as well as in the UK and New Zealand. In his writing credits he includes, “Howard Florey – a Tale of Tall Poppies“, “Somnium” and “Pre-Coital, the Science of Dating“. He also writes and performs the “Great Big Science Gigs” performed across Australia each year as part of National Science Week.
Chris’ energetic presence, quick wit and engaging demeanour have made him a much sought after performer and MC. He is frequently called upon as a speaker and has been MC for countless events from orchestral concerts to corporate award presentations. Recent engagements have been with BHP Billiton, Bunnings, ABC, Siemens, State Library of Victoria and CSIRO. Chris has experience in television, drama, musicals, stand-up comedy and radio.
He was the science consultant for children’s television series “Wicked Science” (Network Ten), and has appeared on television on “Today“, “Scope” and “Totally Wild“. He is also a regular panelist on popular radio program “Einstein A Go Go” (Triple R radio).
Chris is Victorian Manager of CSIRO Education where he has worked for more than 15 years, and is Secretary of the National Science Week Victorian Coordinating Committee.

December 18, 2008

Margaret Kittson

Margaret has over 30 years experience as a teacher and librarian in a range of government and private schools, predominantly in Queensland.
Back in the late 1970s, while working as a librarian at a large metropolitan high school, she had a number of run-ins with fundamentalist Christians, biblical literalists who tried their hardest not only to get “creation science” material placed in the school’s library, but to get what was already there relocated to a science number. For those familiar with Dewey, this means somewhere in the 500s. She had placed their material in the 200s (the division for religion), specifically at 213, the number for “creation”.
Things that upset her are people who think they know everything about education and teaching because they once went to school; people who believe that there are “magic bullet” solutions to complex issues in educating children out there which just need to be imposed on to recalcitrant teachers. In February 2006 she had a “close encounter of the first kind” with one such purported “magic bullet” solution: Brain Gym: a set of fun exercises purported to help people “Learn ANYTHING faster and more easily”.
The question which interests her is just how can something grounded in pseudo-science (Applied Kinesiology and Traditional Chinese Medicine are two key components) gain so much traction in educational circles.