St Margaret's College 2017 Autumn Evergreen Magazine Evergreen Autumn 2017 online | Page 7

Centre for Innovation
Sharing the Power of Technology
In December 2016, St Margaret’s College was extremely proud to partner with Tait
Communication to provide children of Christchurch an opportunity to experience a range
of projects that would inspire them to participate in technology. The power of students delivering
programmes to other students was phenomenal. SMC had students from year 6 - 10 supporting and
facilitating workshops. Children from other local schools were able to share our facilities and resources
as well as gain knowledge from our girls who were developing their personal growth, by enabling other
children to positively experience and extend their thinking.
All participants were challenged in their problem-solving, teamwork, communication and creativity.
These are skills we have identified as essential for future learning and employment. The workshops
provided projects that required the children to work on their perseverance and mental focus.
Too often we scaffold activities for instant student success; seldom do we get to be an expert
on our first attempt. The process of planning, creating, testing and re-creating is repeated throughout
the robotics, 3D printing, makerspace and coding workshops. These workshops built on the concept
of giving children permission to fail, and through feedback, learn what and how to improve so that
their next attempt is an improvement on the one before.
St Margaret’s College acknowledges the mutual benefit of working with our wider community. We welcome
challenges to foster closer relationships with others and we look forward to collaborating and providing
further opportunities for students and adults in future initiatives and co-curricular programmes.
Linda Chong – Head of Centre for Innovation
AUTUMN 2017 5.