CATAPULTING a Mintie five metres through the air might not seem highly scientific to some.
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But, it’s part of a new focus on futuristic creative education for Oxley High School students.
The Year 7 kids took part in a STEAM Day designed to get them excited about learning 21st Century skills.
“As much as we want everyone to grow up to be engineers now, not everyone will get there,” teacher Josh Vigar said.
“But, these skills are highly valued by employers and are essential in the modern workplace.”
The students ran through 15 different activities, from building a 30 centimetre bridge designed to hold two kilos – to creating a parachute for an egg and dropping it from the second storey.
It’s a lot of fun, but it has real life applications.
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Air drops in foreign aid require more engineering that most might think Mr Vigar said.
“In all honesty this is the stuff that kids remember, they learn to work as a team they learn how to do all those things that make them incredibly valuable employees,” he said.
“We took a group up to Google and the kids had their mind blown that a workplace looked like that or the kinds of things that happen and the culture.”
As repetitive tasks increasingly become automated in industries, employers are looking for people who have skills in creative thinking.
It’s hoped the first year students will choose STEM electives in their later education, whether it be robotics, science, mathematics, computing or industrial technology.