The first four Science Schools were for high school teachers, but Professor Messel changed the focus in 1962 to honour excellence in senior high school science students and to encourage them to consider careers in science. From the first, students from New Zealand were invited. The international reach expanded in 1967 to include 10 students from the USA, initially as the Lyndon B. Johnson Australian Science Scholars. In 1968 10 more internationals students attended; five from Britain and five from Japan where the students received Japanese Prime Minister’s Australian Science Scholarships to attend. The list of countries attending currently stands at Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, the UK and the USA, with a total of 140 year 11 and 12 high school science students attending.
The Science School itself comprises two weeks of lectures, tours, and activities with the content selected to reflect the theme of the School. The Lecturers are selected for their international research reputations and their ability to communicate with senior high school students, and include such notables as James Watson and Jerome Friedman, both Nobel Laureates, Sir Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, FRS, Lord May of Oxford, OM AC Kt PRS and Margaret Burbidge. Additional talks have been given by talented science communicators inclduing Prof. Julius Sumner Miller and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (currently the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the Univesity of Sydney).
The lectures are written up and published in a book, a copy of which is provied to all participants, presenters and supporters of each International Science School. A PDF of the book is nowdays available for download by anyone.
Between 1960 and 1979 the lectures were televised, with audiences estimated at up to 100,000. The modern equivalent of the telecasts are webcasts, and four days of the 2003 International Science School were webcast as a pilot program. This has proved so successful that webcasting continued in 2005 and 2007, thereby widening access to these remarkable presentations. ISS2009 Genes to Galaxies will run 12 - 25 July 2009.
Click here to visit the ISS2007:ecoscience experience website.
Get a PDF of ecoscience — the Book!
About ISS2007: ecoscience | The ISS2007 Podcasts and Lecturers | ISS2005 Podcasts
|
