ATASC Conference 2011.

So, as I mentioned, I went to the ATA Science Council Conference mid-October, in Lake Louise. I mentioned one of our keynotes was Dr. Jane Goodall, who was phenomenal (no surprise there).

I also ate some fantastic meals, enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful facilities, networked with colleagues and visited with friends, and attended some pretty neat sessions on physics labs and one excellent one on encorporating story-telling into science classes. (History of science is one of my secret geeky interests... all the others are definetly not-so-secret...)

However, one of the surprise highlights for me was our Friday morning keynote speaker, Dr Joe Schwarcz. Dr Schwarcz is the director for the Office for Science and Society at the University of McGill, whose passion in life is dispelling many of the myths the public has around science, chemistry in particular.

Unsurprisingly, as he hosts a weekly radio show in Montreal and has written several popular books about chemistry, Dr Schwarcz was an engaging speaker -you really have to be, to keep an audience of 300 teachers captivated for an hour and a half... we really don't make good students. He addressed many misconceptions that the public (and our students) have around chemistry, and what we can do to promote critical thinking.

After one and a half hours of the chemistry of Barbie's hair and why we shouldn't always trust Dr Oz, I know what I want for Christmas!

My room. Oh yah. Lake view!