PICSE is an industry / university / school partnership originating at the University of Tasmania and designed to stimulate student interest in studying science at university with a pathway into primary industries. The approach meets a growing industry need for science graduates.
It involves regional Activity Centres hosted by participating universities who are partnered by local industry. PICSE has a national coordination centre hosted by the University of Tasmania, Cradle Coast campus, called the Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE), involving Government and industry investors.
The idea underpinning PICSE originated in Tasmania and has now become a national program with activity centres based at six Australian universities in five states. Each activity centre has at least one Science Education Officer (SEO) who is responsible for running PICSE activities at that centre. Sue Lanham and David Thomson are the SEOs at USC and they run the camps program, the teacher PD activities and the Science Investigation Awards.
Australia is currently experiencing a shortage of skilled science professionals to meet industry demand, particularly in those sectors in rural and regional Australia. Furthermore, in its Audit of Science, Engineering and Technology skills (June 2006), DEST predicts a 35% gap over the next five years between industry demand for science professionals and supply from education institutions. It takes six years to move a student from Year 11 through to graduation, so it is imperative to act immediately to address this gap.
Industry has expressed concern at this trend, at a time when the scientific and technical demands of primary industries are growing. PICSE will assist in maintaining Australia’s international competitive edge in the future.
USC has run the PICSE program for 2 years. 12 teachers and 21 students have participated in the PICSE-USC program thus far. Participants filled out surveys about the degree to which the PICSE-USC program had improved their science abilities according to a five point scale (1 – not at all, 2 – somewhat, 3 – fairly, 4 – quite, 5 – very). A score of 4 or 5 was deemed to be a significant improvement. 92% of participating teachers significantly improved their ability to construct relevant and meaningful learning experiences that connect to the world and community beyond school. Likewise, 71% of participating students significantly improved their ability to connect scientific concepts to the real world.
16 students were selected over the 2 years to complete the Industry Placement and Reporting Back Session components of the PICSE-USC program. 4 and 2 of these students will complete year 12 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. 10 of these students completed year 12 in 2008. All of these students are in the first quartile of their graduating class. 70% of these graduates are studying a degree in science at university, compared with 5% of all Queensland school leavers.