On Thursday March 25th, Varsity College’s 6 elected STEM Ambassadors were lucky enough to participate in our first event of the year – Griffith University’s STEM Ambassador Conference at Parliament House. We had the opportunity to meet other members of the local STEM community, and consider the role of STEM in our schools. The two of us were part of that group, and we had an awesome time.
We began with a showcase to get us thinking, where other SEQ schools presented their STEM programs and achievements. This segued into a design thinking program developed by Stanford University, where we utilised critical thinking skills throughout a fine-tuned design process. During this section we looked at individual problems, but we then applied our new skills to STEM at our school. Together we developed ideas of activities, programs, and events we could hold here at Varsity.
After a tasty lunch, we crossed the Brisbane River to QPAC (the Queensland Performing Arts Centre) to visit the World Science Festival. We attended Pioneers in Science, a show featuring three generations of PhD scientists, including renowned Nobel laureate Dr. Brian Schmidt. Amongst themselves, they had pioneered research into the expansion of the universe, origin of planets, physics of expansion, and several other fields. To learn from them was an incredible privilege.
It was a great day in the city. We owe a huge thanks to Ms Davis for organising the event for us, and to Mr Stauber for taking us along and sharing the fun.
