iServi News | 18 September 2020 | Term 3, Week 9
As part of our developing iCurious Gifted and Talented program, we welcomed 100 students from nine Catholic secondary schools to our three-day Curtin Innovative Learning Global Goals Challenge event at Servite last week.
Presented in partnership with Curtin University’s Innovative Learning Futures team, this flagship program invites selected students to explore potential solutions in response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for global growth.
With cross-curriculum opportunities in Science, Technologies, Engineering, Maths, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Challenge sees students striving to create a sustainable future for all.
We launched our inaugural Global Goals Challenge in June 2019 and are very grateful for the ongoing support of Curtin University, both through our pioneering Curtin UniReady pathway and as a foundation member of the Curtin Innovative Schools Consortium.
This year, we were delighted to host Year 7 to Year 10 students from as far as St Mary MacKillop College, Busselton, plus participating schools from across Perth.
Collaborating in small groups, and liaising with mentors, students engaged with diverse issues, including climate change, poverty, inequality, energy, youth job opportunities and more.
The challenge-based learning exprerience developed students’ higher-order and critical thinking skills as they tackled real world problems.
Solutions from the 2020 Challenge included:
- rejuvenation/replanting of native and natural flora in the banks of the Congo river to combat issues of global warming and food security for the local population;
- designing and building a geo-thermal power plant to provide clean and affordable energy for the population of Harare, Zimbabwe
- a solar powered hydro-turbine filtration system to limit the effects of algae bloom in the Sutlej River, India.
Mr Kris Hailes
Teacher and iCurious GATE Coordinator
It was fascinating to expand our horizons, learn about the world we live in and its problems. Being able to come up with solutions to some of the these global issues empowered me and made me feel like I could really make a difference.
Jade Dimovski (SC1)
It was great to meet so many new and enthusiastic young people from so many different schools, who really have a passion for learning and it was great to see there are other students out there that are as passionate about the same issues that I am!
Victoria Baird (OLS3)