In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 19, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Professor SaraTolbert from the University of Melbourne at Monash in Australia. Professor Tolbert was recently appointed as a Professor of STEM Education and alongside colleagues leads out the new SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE ANTHROPOCENE IMPACT LAB. The impact lab is designed to reimagine our relationship with the natural world. Previously, Professor Tolbert was the Professor of Science Education atthe University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

The Science Education Impact Lab positions Science Education today as being at the intersection of nature, culture and society. This throws up new questions and invites a fresh rethink about how we teach science and how we need to equip young people with capabilities to address complex issues by recognising the complex relationshipsbetween ecological systems, political and economic structures and sociocultural practices that shape our current planetary conditions.

Professor Tolbert discusses the contested literature that is currently reimagining science education, as a theoretical and social movement resulting in new strands added to the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), including futuristic thinking about science, intersectionality, education and inclusion. The impact lab invites a rethink about the purposes of science education, the history ofscience while bringing together diverse perspectives and knowledge systems.

The musical selection today is a waltz, called Tears, written by Gerry Holland in Cape Bretton in Canada and played onfiddle by Dr. Avril McLoughlin. Avril was a former researcher in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL and is now a Lecturer in Music Education at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.