Science Education News (SEN) Journal 2018 Science Education News Volume 67 Number 1 | Page 43

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 43 SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 1