On Friday 6th of June, a group of 21 enthusiastic Kolbe students from Years 7-10 stepped beyond the classroom to take part in not one, but two exciting STEM events hosted at Murdoch University: the H2GP WA World Qualifiers and the STEM Activation Fair. Both events were proudly sponsored by Chevron and Horizon Educational, offering students a unique opportunity to explore the world of science, engineering and renewable energy.
Miss Ogrizek accompanied 5 students who had been committed members of the H2GP after school club throughout the year. Competing as Team Hydro Max, these students raced against 19 other teams in the high-energy Horizon Grand Prix WA World Qualifiers.
To begin the day, students had to undergo a technical check with Kieren at the energy desk, before completing a presentation to special guest judges on what changes they made to the car and why. Next, they went to the opening ceremony to hear from guest speakers before the race began. Throughout the race, students showed their incredible engineering and driving skills through numerous challenges finishing the race in 15th position. When asked about their experience, Logan (Year 10) said “we had lots of fun despite losing” with Natasha (Year 10) adding, “we as a team have learnt a lot and we will come back better next year!”.
Meanwhile, Miss Redpath led 16 students through a full day of discovery at the inaugural STEM Activation Fair. Here students had the opportunity to operate drones and robotic dogs before having a tour of the Murdoch University Engineering department. During this time students were able to learn about hydrogen as an energy source, use VR to explore different sustainable energy resources (a favourite among all), and explored careers at Chevron. To culminate this learning opportunity, students completed their tour with the use of a Kahoot! Quiz. While all this was happening, students also had the opportunity to view the start and end of the H2GP WA World Qualifiers which was a highlight for many. When asked about their experience at the end of the day, Caleb and Noah White (Year 9) said “it was very exciting to see all the great projects that the university had to share with us. We were very fortunate to experience it” and that they “would love to do it again”.
Both of these STEM events provided opportunities for our students to not only further their 21st Century skills of communication, teamwork and research, but it also opened up their world to other opportunities out there within the STEM community. At the end of the day, it was fantastic to see students come away not only excited, but wanting to learn more about everything they had engaged in throughout the day. We look forward to providing many more STEM opportunities for students in the future!
