MOUNT Rowan Secondary College is nurturing the next generation of inventive minds in science, technology, engineering, and maths through a locally run initiative.<\/p>\n
Students from the school\u2019s year 8 innovate class took part in a two-day social innovators program at the Ballarat Tech School last week.<\/p>\n
The sessions were Run by the Crazy Ideas College, and Zoe Burrows said the young people were tasked with designing programs, products or services relating across arrange of topics.<\/p>\n
They included health and wellbeing, care for the environment, community connectedness, or reimagining learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim of their final product should be to enrich the lives of Ballarat residents,\u201d Ms Burrows said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have teams, they\u2019ve opted to work on whatever they want, and are working through a four-phase innovation journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been exploring and discovering issues in their area of interest, brainstorming big, unconventional and ridiculous ideas, scaling that down to an achievable smart-start experiment, thinking about who they can partner with in Ballarat, and then pitching their idea to community partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout their design process, groups explored themes including financial literacy, the ideal sustainable world, robotic emotional support technology, a healthy food festival, and a body positivity and education app.<\/p>\n
Summer, Taliah, and Charlotte developed the latter concept, BodyEdu, an app designed to help young people experiencing puberty by offering trustworthy information about the human body as it changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of younger people who many not have been given enough education on their body from their parents,\u201d Taliah said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBodyEdu would provide accurate information that they can understand, not in scientific language.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students pitched their final ideas and presented their prototypes to representatives of organisations including the Shaka Project, Ballarat Community Health, Headspace, AFL Goldfields, and Integra.<\/p>\n
Mount Rowan maths teacher Kim Silva is part of the school\u2019s team of STEM staff who will support the year 8s to bring their idea to life throughout the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to expose our students to different programs that would enable them to build and develop their skills aligned with STEM,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to them making a decision about their pathway when they reach senior school, they\u2019ll be equipped with the necessary tools so that they can make a proper decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a staff member, I am super proud of what I\u2019ve witnessed. I\u2019m with the students four days a week in maths, but here I\u2019ve been able to see them explore areas other than calculating numbers, and apply their creative ideas to something that is concrete and tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOUNT Rowan Secondary College is nurturing the next generation of inventive minds in science, technology, engineering, and maths through a locally run initiative. Students from the school\u2019s year 8 innovate class took part in a two-day social innovators program at the Ballarat Tech School last week. The sessions were Run by the Crazy Ideas College, […]<\/p>\n