About Isabelle Kingsley

After being a high school science teacher for four years, Isabelle has worked in the field of informal science education and science outreach at various cultural institutions in Canada and Australia. Isabelle has produced and managed multiple science education initiatives including National Science and Technology Week (Canada), Ultimo Science Festival and the Mars Lab, a world-class STEM education program located at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. In her 2017 role at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Isabelle ran the Sydney Science Festival, an annual festival that engages people of all ages in celebrating and appreciating science.

Isabelle has recently embarked on a PhD at the University of New South Wales in the Faculty of Science. Her research aims to understand and measure the effectiveness of informal science education in achieving its objectives of improving people’s understanding, attitudes and perceptions of science.

Top 3 learnings

1. Project based learning works! Find ways to get students into longer-term projects that allows them to deep dive into a specific area of study.
2. Be a facilitator in the classroom whereby you let students drive their own learning wherever possible. Let them explore, question, fail, succeed and create… they’ll be better off in the long run! Just be sure to create safe classroom environment and your students will undoubtedly grow as learners.
3. Be firm with your guidance as a teacher and become more relaxed as the year progresses. You can make a highly inclusive and engaging classroom environment whilst ensuring that students learn boundaries and what’s appropriate in your classroom.

Education tip of the week

Use Slack in your school. This will save you a mountain of reading through emails and the best bit is that messages sent amongst your teaching faculty are presorted by the sender.

Further contact details for Isabelle Kingsley

Email: isabelle.kingsley@maas.museum