Introducing the opening real science project

OPENING REAL SCIENCE is a new national project for teacher education supported by the Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching, aimed at building mathematical and scientific literacy, so critical in today's world for students and teachers in the primary and middle school. It is a unique national partnership between leading teacher educators, scientists, mathematicians and ICT experts enhancing the training of Mathematics and Science teachers to bring real, relevant science into the classroom. Macquarie University will lead six others (University of Western Sydney, Charles Sturt University, Australian Catholic University, University of Canberra, University of Notre Dame and Edith Cowan University, as well as institutions such as CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australian Astronomical Observatory and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope). The project will engage the next generation of teachers during pre-service education by developing new teaching modules and resources and professional learning to enable them to teach "real" science and mathematics as they would actually be practised.