Professor Beazley (pictured with Pinjarra students) talked to staff and students about their new Thinking Science program, which is run in partnership with the University of Western Australia, and viewed the school’s new $1.9million science facilities.

Pinjarra Senior High School principal Beth Aitken said the students and staff members appreciated their new science facilities and were excited to show them off to Professor Beazley.

“The new science block has opened a lot of new doors and now we are running a program called Thinking Science and Professor Beazley watched a Thinking Science lesson,” Ms Aitken said.

The program is part of the Year 8 and 9 curriculum and consists of 30 one hour lessons where students are faced with a conflict. Lessons lead students towards solving the conflict with their peers while considering how they solved it.

“The program improves students’ thinking skills in not only science, but maths and English too,” she said.

“The science department expressed interest in becoming the pilot Western Australian school for the program after reading about it in science journals and participating in professional development at the University of Western Australia.”

The school’s science facilities were built under the $1billion Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools element of the Building the Education Revolution program.

“The new facilities allow us to deliver contemporary science lessons and we are excellently placed to meet the needs of our students now and in the future,” Ms Aitken said.

“We are in a growth phase and while we are delivering the traditional science programs, we also offer a Certificate II in Rural Operations and a special school based science program.

“Because of our new facilities and varied study options our students are enthusiastically embracing science education and developing a passion for the subject.”

Professor Beazley pictured with science teacher Heath Dullard.