Full STEAM Ahead Wednesday, 26 October 2016

Image caption: (L-R) Megan Weed, Chloe Pickering and Kiara Wells wait eagerly for Mechanical Engineer Lance Pfeffer to test their bridge design.

The integration of the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) has become a big focus for teachers, through creating authentic tasks that engage and motivate students. This sees teachers acting as facilitators and networkers that help connect their students to real-world problem solving. This process requires highly skilled teachers that must, “show their students where to look, but not what to see.”

A symbiosis exists within all of these disciplines; Science provides a method to help explore and explain things, Technology equips students with new and existing tools, Engineering provides solutions that incorporate these skills in design thinking, Art provides a medium to express these ideas and appreciate their beauty, and Mathematics allows us to quantify and analyze aspects of the designs and solutions to problems.

The Science and Engineering Challenge run by the University of Newcastle in conjunction with Rotary Australia gave secondary students an excellent platform to practice their science and mathematics skills, while working together in teams. In groups of three or four students worked together to solve problems like; how to use different resistance wires to power an electrical network for a city, build earthquake-proof towers, and use simple materials to build hovercrafts, bridges, robotic hands or catapults. The qualifying rounds of the competition were held in both metropolitan and regional areas across the country, with the top school from each State and Territory being invited to attend the National Final.

This year Georgiana Molloy Anglican School (GMAS) from Busselton in the South West was selected as the Western Australian representative. The National Final took place on 21 October at the University of Tasmania in the beautiful city of Hobart. All states were represented at the competition and the final results were as follows:

  1. St. Mary’s High School (NSW)
  2. Launceston Christian College (TAS)
  3. Mt. Carmel College (TAS)
  4. Immanuel College (SA)
  5. Bendigo South East College (VIC)
  6. St. Peters Lutheran College (QLD)
  7. Georgiana Molloy Anglican School (WA)
  8. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College (NT)

The Science and Engineering Challenge organisers congratulated the teams on their cooperation and negotiation skills and the creative thinking used in problem solving. The competition is an important event involving many schools across Australia and provides opportunities for students and teachers to build networks with industry advocates and tertiary institutions, opening doors for future engineers, designers, mathematicians and creative thinkers in general.

In the first ever time GMAS has competed in the competition all students were thankful to have been invited to the National Final and thoroughly enjoyed seeing many of the attractions that Hobart had to offer including a visit to Port Arthur, Salamanca Markets and the Museum of Old and New Art. Thanks must go to the team of teachers led by Mr. Richard Dipane and the kind support provided by Engineers Australia and the City of Busselton. All students and staff cherished the experience and we look forward to competing again next year.

Congratulations to the team from St Mary’s High School (Gateshead, NSW) who won the day and were crowned 2016 National Champions. They will now be invited to visit Google Headquarters in Sydney as VIP’s.