Hello, I am Brigita Biondic, Science Teacher at Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, New Zealand.

In my school I teach Junior Science, General Science, Biology and Chemistry.

On Twitter, I introduced myself as a Science teacher with enthusiasm for new blended education, research and in awe of the cutting edge scientific discoveries. https://twitter.com/biobrigita

I have always loved animals! At the age of five, when I first heard the word zoologist and my mum explained that this means a person studying animals, I knew then and there that this is what I want to be! I declared proudly, that I would like to go to Africa to study animals in the jungle. Well, after finishing my Environmental Sciences degree, life course did not take me to Africa. Instead of a researcher I became a teacher and arrived to New Zealand.

In 2013 I’ve stated: “The future is here!” It dawned at me that all these Sci-Fi novels and books which I gulped through as a teenager are becoming reality. Asimov’s established laws of robotics were a far-fetched future. Present is already offering first home robots for a fractional price of a car. The time of Augmented Reality is here, with immense possibilities in opening new horizons for various fields of human activities, of which education is the one of the forerunners. And there is more to come….

At about the same time, I’ve started to realise that teaching profession as we know it is disappearing. This type of opportunities as frightening as they may seem, are not presenting themselves to every generation. So yes, I consider myself lucky to be the part of the unknown, but true paradigm shift. And yes, I am researcher after all! Education and teaching is all about researching, discovering and improving. Combining it with the field of Science that is undergoing such a tremendous expansion is just plain exciting.

I’ve embraced an invigorating journey in 2015 by enrolling into Mind Lab Postgraduate Programme. To my absolute delight I discovered that ‘old dogs CAN learn new tricks’ and I became a true example of life-long learner.

My first 3D printed project made me feel like a child that is discovering the world, with the reminiscence of me building my first Lego house.

This delight has been shared with equally enthusiastic teachers across all educational sectors, especially when we had to race our little robots:

As a consequence, Eduthinkering is born! Yes, I’ve made a new word! From a word thinker: “a person who thinks deeply and seriously” and old time word ‘tinkering’ which according to Merriam-Webster dictionary means: “a person who in the past traveled to different places and made money by selling or repairing small items (such as pots and pans)”, i.e. a crafty handyman-work. By adding Edu- prefix it acknowledges that this creative crafting skills are combined with reflective deep thinking and applied to a field of education.

Educators are thinkers employed into creating new experiences to enhance the learning process, which at times requires experimenting and figuring out new things. This blog site shares some of the author’s own “Eduthinkering”.