ARTICLES
STEM-X Academy, 2018; An Exhilarating, Enlightening X-perience!
By George Pinniger
I think it’s fair to say that it’s rare for a 70-year-old retired high
school teacher, having taught Years 7-12 classes for most
of his life, to be included amongst a contingent of 36 primary
teachers with 34 secondary teachers in a full-blown 6-day event
in Canberra during the Christmas vacation! When the Facilitator,
Brod Matthews, called us to form into groups following our arrival
on Sunday, 7th January, I was able to team up with a few others
from NSW, then into a different grouping when asked about our
favourite sport, but when he asked us to line up in order of the
year we commenced teaching I went to the front of the queue.
“When did you start?” I saw numerous faces in shocked disbelief
as I replied, “In 1970.” Most, of course, had not yet been born,
but bless their hearts, they welcomed me as one of them. I was
soon to realise that actually I was not; I was the weak link in most
of the activities we all undertook as parts of several teams we
formed over the next five days, on Monday and Wednesday at
the CSIRO, and Questacon on Tuesday and Thursday. The 7-12
teachers had a parallel itinerary with reversed days. On Friday
morning all Groups displayed the reports on the findings of their
major investigation.
The 35 Primary teachers with whom I worked for six days were
superb learners, assistants and friends. They came from every
state of Australia, plus the ACT.
The professionals at the CSIRO and Questacon are highly-skilled
and highly-trained, and their assistance was always available
and supportive (thank goodness!) They presented challenges
for the teams, as well as information and ideas – plus very useful
materials, websites and numerous other resources. Each person
proved to be skilled, confident and professional in every way.
I recommend to every Australian schoolteacher, primary or
secondary, that they make every effort to become part of this
activity, lasting over six high-activity but fun days (and nights!)
Clare Freeman introduces her group's fine example of a stable
tube through which a stell ball switches on an LED
The initial tasks set for the teacher groups were fairly simple,
rapidly becoming more challenging. Each group discussed a task
that was set, and every member took on one part. New materials
to incorporate into the creative activities became more complex
– but far more interesting and far more fun, both for us and for the
students most will be challenging to do something similar from
The CSIRO on Monday - the initial challenge was quite easy -
making models of any type of vehicle from scrap
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 1