Students share STEM skills, space projects

ABOUT one hundred students from regional Victorian schools gathered in the gym at Buninyong Primary School last week to display a semester’s worth of science, technology, engineering and maths learning.

Students showcased months-long projects made as part of the Victorian finals for the Ballarat region in the national Kids in Space education program.

Supported by the Andy Thomas Space Foundation and the Australian Space Agency, and delivered by Makers Empire, the program tasks students with finding solutions to space-themed challenges, after which their results are tallied up against each other.

Andy Thomas Space Foundation executive officer Darcey Watson said the program is about showcasing space technology and industry opportunities to students in an engaging way.

“It’s about expanding students’ understanding of space career opportunities, design, thinking, pedagogy, and really opening the world of how space technology can assist in answering questions up in space and solving problems on Earth,” she said.

“We have such a wide range in this showcase. We’re seeing projects based from bushfire mitigation strategies through to floods and water rehabilitation equipment as well as anchors to support bogged vehicles up on the moon.

“The judging criteria’s quite wide. It ranges from students communicating the stories of their projects through to their 3D printing showcase, what they’ve actually produced. We’re also looking at their research and iterations.”

Buninyong Primary School’s Team Four was declared the winner of the competition, with the students to represent Victoria in the national finals at the Australian Space Discovery Centre in Adelaide in November.

“It’s very exciting news for them and they’re flying around the school,” said Buninyong Primary’s assistant principal for teaching and learning Nicole Phillips.

“The program really gave them a real-life application for their STEM learning and skills. A requirement was for them to show any failures they had, so some of the 3D prints showed the learning process.

“It was also that teamwork, problem solving, cooperation. It’s building those skills.”

The peer prize winner went to Camperdown College’s Team One.

The Kids in Space program has grown from more than 70 schools in its inaugural year in 2023 to more than 115 schools in 2024 with nearly half of this year’s participants based at regional institutions.

Nearly 30 schools took place across Victoria.

The remaining goldfields institutions that participated in the program were Lancefield, Bullarto, Golden Square, Woodford, Carlisle River, Anakie, The Lake, and Newlyn primary schools.