A number of teachers from Canberra Catholic schools have delivered a variety of innovative presentations and workshops at The STEMEd Conference 2019: Future ImpACT. The two day event designed for P-12 teachers and school leaders in the ACT provided the opportunity to engage with leading and future practice in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

The conference included keynote presentations from Professor Ian Chubb AC, Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie, and Professor Joan Leach. These influential leaders in STEM stimulated discussion around the place of STEM Education in schools, approaches to STEM and the value of meaningful and contextually relevant learning experiences in STEM.

Representatives of more than fifteen Archdiocesan schools attended the conference, supporting their colleagues and taking away a new array of professional knowledge, skills and ideas for the continued development of exceptional STEM education in Catholic schools.

St Francis Xavier College, Florey teachers Graham Stock and Damian Woods hosted two solar car workshops that highlighted the use of project-based learning to enrich student engagement in STEM. Participants constructed and tested solar cars, and were able to return to their own schools with many ideas for creating engaging student projects.

Graham and Damian shared their strategies for collaborating with primary school educators to develop experience in STEM, and discussed the challenges and opportunities available for students to extend their STEM interests, skills and knowledge.

The Saturday workshops held at the University of Canberra exposed teachers and organisations to further STEM education practices and a diverse range of STEM experts. Several workshops were available throughout the day, including those delivered by colleagues in Catholic Education.

St Mary Mackillop College teachers Perry O’Connor and Amanda Knott led a workshop on the development of coding skills and shared ideas for designing solutions for real world projects. Attendees used open-source electronic prototyping platform ‘Arduino’ to program a solar-tracking flower. Programming language and emitted light was able to determine the direction of the flower. This was an example of a program that draws from the Digital Technologies curriculum and can be utilised immediately within the classroom.

Emma Young from Holy Family Primary School, Gowrie shared the process behind redesigning the school’s Peer Support Program and discussed the benefits of this. The Peer Support Program uses a multi-age and whole school approach to integrating STEM and developing skills for staff and students.

Representatives of more than fifteen Archdiocesan schools attended the conference, supporting their colleagues and taking away a new array of professional knowledge, skills and ideas for the continued development of exceptional STEM education in Catholic schools.