At BOP we have a soft spot for regional Australia and have loved working with schools in our regions since we began in 2018. This is why when the Queensland Museum team looking after the Future Makers program approached us to see if we'd be interested in running some inspiring and engaging programs for students in Chinchilla and Gladstone, we jumped at the opportunity.
At the end of the 2021 Future Makers program, our team had the pleasure of traveling out to Chinchilla and Gladstone to work with 50 students from schools across the region in a full day hackathon designed to build their STEM skills, showing them how they could use STEM to make a difference in their local community.
In Chinchilla, our team spent a day working with students on our Designed Spaces program. This day-long program saw students identifying a space around their local community that they think could use a refresh. Over the course of the program, we worked with students to explore how their spaces could be redesigned as community-centric hubs for their local towns. Students participated in masterclasses looking at simple solutions to get people to do the right thing as seen with the Fun Theory, how they could design clean green spaces without sacrificing quality of life, and how they can truly understand a user's needs, wants, and frustrations when designing the space. At the end of the program, students pitched their ideas to members from the local council and the feedback from the adults was that the student's ideas were outstanding.
After finishing up with our students in Chinchilla, the team then headed to Gladstone to explore an Industry Innovation challenge with students from across Central Queensland. In this challenge, students spent a day assisting Shell as they work to transition the city of Gladstone from LNG to renewable energy. To do this, students explored two mini-challenges around cleaner mobility and cleaner homes as they worked to develop and then apply their knowledge in these two sustainable challenges. We had a brilliant time working with students in this program and loved seeing them develop their STEM skills throughout the day.
For more information on how you could organise programs like these for your students, make sure to head to our Incursions Page to browse programs and contact out team.
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