iServi News | 12 November 2021 | Term 4, Week 5
STEM
It has been an exciting week at the College as we welcomed in excess of 400 students to Servite from 10 local Catholic primary schools for STEM Week.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is an important area of growth and development for all schools as we look to best prepare our students for their future world. Helping students to grow higher order thinking and problem-solving skills will support their capacity for success in a very dynamic world.
This philosophy of course aligns strongly with our College’s learning vision of developing Researchers, Innovators and Entrepreneurs where, we focus on the core skills of Critical Thinking; Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; and Enterprise.
We believe these are the lifelong learning skills that our young people need for growing, working and participating in a constantly changing global society. These skills are the foundation for engaging in every learning area across the College, and are encouraged, modelled and explored across all year levels.
The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and employment highlights the importance of STEM education:
“The world is changing around us. Digital technology has become a core part of our everyday lives. Advances in technology impact everything, especially the world of work. Entire job sectors are emerging or disappearing, and workforces are rushing to keep up with change.”
“Automation and globalisation are changing the way we think about, and define, careers. Employment is becoming fluid, and people will go from having one profession to several in their working life. These may be entirely different roles, across entirely different sectors.
“As the world of work changes, we will need to change our skills to match. The gap between the knowledge generated in the education system and the skills demanded by employers and individuals is widening. Overcoming these limitations requires a priority focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), including the development of workplace skills in STEM. Future careers will also rely heavily on ‘21st century skills’ — for example, critical thinking, creativity, cultural awareness, collaboration and problem-solving.”
“STEM learning is also important for students in their everyday life in our contemporary world, with the rise of new technologies in biomedicine, microfabrication, robotics and artificial intelligence. The ability to understand and apply data, and develop solutions to complex problems, will be important life skills”
In developing well rounded holistic students, STEM forms one part of the broad and varied learning opportunities available at our school. We acknowledge individualised gifts and talents of our students and therefore strive to provide a rich array of curricular and co-curricular activities to engage students in their area of interest.
We are very thankful to the staff and students from our local Catholic primary schools for their excellent support of STEM week. The College as always greatly values this wonderful ongoing connection and partnership with these schools. Schools that attended STEM week included:
Liwara Catholic Primary School | Majella Catholic Primary School |
Mary MacKillop Catholic Community Primary School | Our Lady’s Assumption School |
Our Lady of Mercy Primary School | St Columba’s School |
St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School | St Kieran Catholic Primary School |
St Lawrence Primary School | St Paul’s Primary School |
The students were wonderful ambassadors for their schools and engaged fully in the STEM experience. They are to be commended for their excellent ideas, energy and enthusiastic involvement.
We also acknowledge our terrific Year 7 and 8 students who played a significant leadership role in running the events throughout the week. We also thank our dedicated staff, including of course STEM coordinator Mr Ericius Tan, for their superb support of STEM and our students.
Mr Jeff Allen
Principal