On Wednesday 23rd October a small group of Yr 9 students from Morwell and Churchill campuses attended a day at Ecolinc in Bacchus Marsh with a collection of other Gippsland schools. The students participated in a range of activities including:
• A video conference with Tiffany Yao, an electrical engineer at Ad Astra Rocket Company. Tiffany spoke to the students about some of the work she is completing at the moment in designing more efficient rockets for space travel.
• A presentation from Sarah Duncanson, a paediatric nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Sarah spoke to the students about some of the challenges she has faced during her career and shared some inspiring stories from children she has been able to support. She was also able to share with the students the journey she had taken in her career and family life.
• STEM careers speed-dating sessions where the students were about to speak to a range of successful women in STEM careers. Students were able to choose the women they were most interested in speaking to. This gave the students an opportunity to identify pathways they may be interested in taking as well as opening their eyes to pathways they may have been unaware of. All the students made the most of this opportunity and engaged fully.
• A “Moon Mission” workshop where students experienced a virtual reality scenario on the moon before working with students from other schools to complete a problem. Students were tasked with choosing a crew and essential equipment to undertake a 6 month mission on the moon to clean up space junk. They were able to practice skills of team work and communication.
• A “Bioplastics” workshop where students discussed the use of plastics in everyday life and the environmental impact of these plastics. Students then used chemistry skills to make a bioplastic which can be used to replace some of these everyday plastics and be safely decomposed.
• A “Space Glove” workshop in which the students were challenged to design, make and test a glove which would be used in space. Students needed to consider the different challenges astronauts face in space and the tasks they need to complete. Once the gloves were designed and made students were required to test the dexterity, flexibility and heat resistance of the gloves.
• A “Breakout Girls” challenge where students had to work together to solve a set of problems to unlock padlocks and reach the life saving materials. Students were required to use a range of skills including team work, creative thinking and insight to solve the problems.
• Students were also able to see some native animals housed around the facility.
