Encouraging curious minds through STEM

Year 10 Engineering and Design students from Redcliffe State High School have taken out the top gong at the inaugural Science and Technology Challenge, which was hosted at their school.

Staff from Redcliffe SHS collaborated with academics from the UniSC and the University of Newcastle to help bring the challenge to fruition, which was held over two days earlier this year. 

The first day saw Redcliffe SHS host more than 100 students from four local high schools, where they spent the day taking part in a variety of hands-on STEM-based challenges.

Angela Gilbert, who is Acting Head of Department for Design Technologies at Redcliffe SHS, said “the competition offered students a unique opportunity to connect with university students, academics and researchers to help them explore learning and career opportunities in STEM fields”.

The following day, Redcliffe SHS hosted more students from eight primary schools for the inaugural Discovery Day, where they were guided through a fun day of science and engineering challenges which were designed to provide them with a positive experience of STEM.

Facilitating the challenges were year 12 science ambassadors from Redcliffe SHS who were each partnered with a year 7 STEM excellence program student.

Taking out the top prize was students from Jinibara State School.

Redcliffe hosted the challenge as it has a big focus on STEM learning. The school’s STEM Excellence Program is offered to students in year 7 and is embedded in other curriculum areas across all year levels.

Applications are now open for the STEM Excellence Program for primary school students starting year 7 in 2024.

For more information, send an email to Angela at agilb50@eq.edu.au