Academies of STEM Excellence

The Cessnock Academy of STEM Excellence (CASE) is an initiative of the Cessnock High School Learning Community (CHSLC) and the NSW Department of Education. This learning community has resulted from a collaboration between Cessnock High School and five local partner primary schools of Abermain, Cessnock, Cessnock East, Kearsley and Kitchener.

The main purpose of the CASE is to improve the expert knowledge of STEM for the teachers of the CHSLC, to engage them in future-focused learning and teaching practices, and to inspire passion for STEM in their students.

CASE has become such a success that the NSW Minister for Education identified it as “being at the forefront of innovative education”. CASE become a pilot program for the STEM Industry Schools Partnership (SISP) program. 

The Central Coast Academy of STEM Excellence (CCASE) is based in the Metropolitan North Region, operating predominantly within the Brisbane Water Principal Network and currently includes twenty-one schools, inclusive of a Preschool.

Established in 2020, our mission is to create pathways that inspire our community to embrace STEM learning, while building knowledge and skills that ensure citizens of the Central Coast contribute to shaping the future.

CCASE engages a network of teachers in professional learning opportunities to build their confidence, accessibility to resources and improve professional practice in quality STEM pedagogy and process. The model is designed to increase professional practice of STEM outcomes in the classroom while cultivating student engagement, participation and aspiration in STEM education and establishing links between STEM industry and schools.

Each school is at varying stages of development therefore their key objectives vary. The STEM Project Officer differentiates the program to suit each context while supporting a consistent, continuum of learning using the STEM Process. Aspirations are to develop partnerships in three key school-industry areas which are Food, Health and Agriculture. A variety of opportunities have been acted on through the development of curriculum materials and resources, in consultation with a variety of key stakeholders.

Curriculum materials created in collaboration with industry include; Ampcontrol, involving innovative engineers creating an improvised ventilation system to support NSW Health during COVID; The University of Newcastle, Central Coast Industry Connect and Life Health Foods producing innovative food units that investigate Australian food trends and consumer demand for these products; Rumbalara Environmental Education Centre and Central Coast Council to build “Fire-ED Up”, a Bushfire Resilience Program. Designed to support students in minimising anxiety, build their understanding of bushfire safety and resilience through stressful events such as a bushfire, which is relevant to the local environmental context of the Central Coast.

The Coastal Learning Community (CLC) Academy of STEM Excellence is situated on the Far North Coast of NSW, within close proximity to the QLD border. The Academy includes Kingscliff High School and five local primary schools.

Commencing in 2021, CLC ASE was established as a smaller version of the NSW Regional STEM Academies. The key aims of the Academy are to:

Ø  establish a STEM community and partnerships

Ø  increase STEM opportunities for all students in the CLC

Ø  support schools to engage with STEM, industry and future focused learning

CLC ASE engages a team of STEM Teachers to participate in planning, team teaching and collaboration in STEM activities and differentiated teaching strategies. The aim is to build a network of mentors with increased confidence and skills to engage in STEM and future focused teaching and learning. The team is led by a part-time STEM Project Officer, who regularly visits schools to assist in professional development, team teaching and planning.

Commencing this year, the joint STEM Officers held a planning day focusing on building skills in STEM pedgogies and cross-curricular subject delivery. A key focus is the STEM design and problem-solving process aimed at strengthening skills in teamwork, collaborative learning and inquiry-based learning.

STEM learning opportunities have been provided within the CLC for the last few years via annual inter-school events. The annual Mousetrap Challenge evening is an example of a major event. This year student teams are learning to use the STEM design process to present their vehicles and STEM design folios to a panel of judges. Students also participate in a distance challenge and STEM trivia quiz to test skills learnt at school through the challenge.

Opportunities are also provided for staff and students to engage in professional development and problem solving in digital technologies. An annual STEM Challenge Day is held, where students partake in activities in a variety of team challenges, including simple tower engineering challenges to Lego NXT Robotics Challenges.

The next goal of the Academy will be to establish further links with local universities, industry and businesses to increase student interest to pursue careers in STEM, and to link learning experiences with local industry. The region has traditionally provided employment in rural industries, retail, building and construction and tourism. There will also be growth in health and education with the construction of the new Tweed Hospital and growing population.

The Hunter Academy of STEM Excellence has recently formed in the Hunter region and includes Maitland Grossmann High School, Maitland Public School, and East Maitland Public School. The Academy has visions to expand further over the coming years.

The Hunter region is known for its large coal and gas mining industries as well as aluminium and steel manufacturing. The region is also experiencing rapid growth in tourism, retail, and viticulture. There are excellent employment opportunities in education and health with the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Health both expanding.

The development of strong industry partnerships provides opportunities for excursions, guest speakers, work experience, and many other educational experiences for students associated with the Hunter Academy. These connections provide a unique opportunity to link learning to the local area while showcasing a range of career paths in STEM to students. As the Hunter Academy grows, existing and new partnerships will develop as part of the role of the STEM Project Officer.

Our partnership with Curiious has allowed Maitland Grossmann High to take part in a world-first social and emotional learning trial using virtual reality headsets. The company are invested in deploying this program to our local network and to developing learning programs for students to create their own virtual and interactive experiences.

The Hunter Academy focuses on improving teachers’ confidence and ability to embed technology and the STEM design thinking process into their curriculum. Through the delivery of interactive professional development, joint program planning, and team teaching the Hunter Academy is greatly improving the delivery of STEM learning across all subjects. One of our targets is to increase STEM engagement and opportunities of all students with a particular focus on First Nations and female students. The inclusion of the STEM design thinking pedagogy in all subject areas combined with the use of technology increases student engagement in learning, improving their skills and career opportunities.

The Illawarra Academy of STEM excellence is based in the Illawarra region and currently includes three secondary schools, Corrimal, Lake Illawarra and Warrawong High School.

The Illawarra region covers an area of 1,124 square kilometres and has a population of approximately 280,000. The dominant industry in the region is steelmaking.

Major industry partner, BlueScope is one of the largest global producers of metal coated and painted steel building products, employing around 3,000 directly in the Illawarra and supports about 10,000 contractors, suppliers and other service providers.

BlueScope accounts for more than $2 billion in sales, and has a production capacity of approximately 2.6 million tonnes of steel per annum. BlueScope has strong ties with the local community and promote their cadetship and traineeship program within local schools.

Some projects the Illawarra Academy of STEM excellence has been involved with are Engineering Discovery days for Girls with Engineers Australia, the NRMA future of transport challenge, the Smith Family Young ICT explorers challenge, BlueScope Cadets Zoom conference and the Inside Industry STEM student residency program.

The Illawarra Academy of STEM excellence schools have embedded STEM into the curriculum in Stage 4 classrooms to maximise the student exposure to STEM pedagogies and student learning experiences involving STEM education. STEM student engagement and teacher capacity has markedly increased since the commencement of the academy in July 2020.

The Murrumbidgee Academy of STEM Excellence (MASE) is based at Murrumbidgee Regional High School (MRHS) in the city of Griffith in the Riverina region. The MASE includes approximately 20 schools in a hub and spoke model. MRHS is the hub school and its partner primary schools are the spokes. Leeton High School and its partner primary schools also participate in the program. The focus areas for MASE are Agri-Tech, Advanced Manufacturing and the Virtual STEM Academy. 

Home to 171,855 people, the Riverina Region supports 75,265 jobs and has an annual economic output of $26.586 billion. Griffith contributes $1.87 billion of this with its 12,616 jobs with 17.4% of these being in manufacturing.

Stretching 500kms from east to west across south-central NSW, the Riverina region covers an area of almost 80,000 square kilometres. The region is home to approximately 171,000 people (2019 ERP), many who rely on the region’s largest employer – agriculture and related businesses – for their livelihood.

Building teacher STEM capacity is a major focus for the MASE. A dedicated STEM Maker Space has been provided by Murrumbidgee Regional High School equipped with a wide range of STEM resources. Regular professional learning is provided to staff within the program coordinated by our STEM Project Officer. Partner Primary Schools are invited to hold their staff meetings in this space where the SISP program is outlined and items from the lending library are showcased. We also invite STEM classes to use the Maker Space for dedicated STEM lessons.

The MASE has strong links with a number of STEM providers including STELR, STILE, Maths On-Line, Pitsco, the Aldrin Foundation, Share Space, iSee, the Queensland Virtual STEM Academy and Grok.

Other projects being worked on in 2021 include the International Rover Challenge (iROC) with Pitsco and the Aldrin Foundation, the Australia New Zealand STEM Education Alliance (ANZSEA), CyberSecurity, the MASE F1 in Schools program, the MASE Aeronautical Velocity Challenge and the University of Newcastle Smart  Science Shows and Science and Engineering Challenge.

A significant project being developed in 2020 - 2021 is the creation of the NSW Virtual STEM Academy being hosted at Murrumbidgee Regional High School. This initiative has been an ongoing collaboration between the Queensland Virtual STEM Academy, the SISP Program and the Murrumbidgee Academy of STEM Excellence. The first cohort of students will undertake lessons in STEM enrichment in semester two of 2021. The VSA will provide STEM enrichment for students from years 5 – 9 inspiring a passion and aspiration for STEM through innovative learning, enriching opportunities and transformational partnerships. 

The Rivers Academy of STEM Excellence is based in the Northern Rivers region of NSW and includes three high schools, seven primary schools, one school for specific purposes and an environmental education centre. 

The Northern Rivers region is traditionally known for rural industries, tourism and alternative lifestyles. Currently the area is experiencing rapid growth in retail, building and construction, tourism and hospitality. Employment in the health, education and community services sectors is growing, including opportunities for highly-skilled professionals.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is a major research centre in the region, performing cutting edge research on soils, horticulture, food safety and animal health. RASE has been working with DPI to produce curriculum-based excursions.

The region also supports a growing small-scale solar industry sector with innovative renewable energy projects. RASE has formed strong industry partnerships with local companies, which has seen them being involved in various projects in schools.

The Solar RASE is a major event on the RASE calendar that involves almost 500 students across the academy and is supported by our solar industry partners and Southern Cross University (SCU). Students across academy schools work with their teachers to design and build model solar cars. The Solar RASE is held at SCU where engineering students mentor high school and primary school students on the day as they compete in solar car races.

RASE has a strong focus on building teacher confidence and capacity to embed the STEM design thinking process into their practice through authentic projects. Through the delivery of professional development, joint planning and co-teaching opportunities, along with the inclusion of STEM design thinking pedagogy in school plans across the academy, RASE is having a positive impact on improving the STEM capability and aspiration of students.