Merri-bek City Council high school students solve clean energy challenges
What happens when you bring together 48 Year 9 students from four different schools to participate in a design thinking program? Inspiration, creativity, collaboration and a whole lot of fun!
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So the students are here at Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College for their first part of a three-part program called the Merri-bek Interschool Innovator Program and they're creating a sustainable design solution for solving a problem related to renewable technology.
I believe it's really important for an interschool program like this to provide students the opportunity to interact with one another from different schools because it allows them to learn alongside other students and form connections and share ideas.
I think that me being here today will inspire especially female students because there aren't a lot of females in the STEM field.
I was really excited to present about the place that I'm working which is the intersection of energy and technology.
My highlight has definitely been getting to know the people in my group because after we started talking and being more comfortable around each other we all started getting along really well.
I'm looking forward to getting to create my project and really see our ideas come to life.
Programs like the Merri-bek Innovators Forum are so exciting for us they are a really beautiful way for our high ability learners to develop that identity and academic self-concept.
The STEM Centre of Excellence are so incredibly professional and the quality of the presentation enables our school to provide an additional layer of respect for these learners.
What I love is that my students are coming back with requests and they're saying when can we do this next? Can we have more sessions in between?
My highlight of the program has been um hanging out with my new friends, learning these new things and interacting with different people from different schools.
I think I've learned mostly how to implement sort of more analysis kind of techniques into my learning in real life.
They might give examples of different techniques you can use to analyse the effectiveness of your ideas,
which is something that I can definitely implement into other areas of my life.
Part of this three-day program I've learned communication skills, definitely socialising and making friends.
I learned how to give my opinions and voice just like what I thought was right or wrong.
I'd love to see more programs like this because it really brings like everybody together.
The biggest skill that I think I learned here is teamwork. In my group we come up with ideas together.
It's like really fun to see other people's perspectives on things.
Like the first session we're just getting to know each other,
second session like everyone knew like what we're doing
and like everyone comes together when we need ideas.
We work together really well in my opinion and it's overall been fun.
It would be really nice to have more programs like this. It brings our community more closer together.
The Merri-bek North Education Plan is a 10-year plan and it's in response to the community expressing a need
to have stronger secondary educational options in the Merri-bek North area.
The STEM Centre of Excellence has played a really important role so far.
It's really important that we have SCOE available and partnering with us to deliver these interschool opportunities for our students.
The biggest impact that I have seen is that the level of confidence that we're seeing the students exit the program with.
They they come into the program and they talk about being nervous with each other and with students from other schools
but as we've just seen through the innovators showcase, they they develop relationships really quickly
and they learn how to collaborate with other students
and that really opens up their mind and their ability to step out of their comfort zone
and ensure that they can work with people who aren't necessarily their best friends.
People who are strangers.
But develop relationships and collaboration with them.
In 2024, 48 students from Coburg High School, Glenroy College, John Fawkner College and Pascoe Vale Girls College participated in the Merri-Bek Interschool Innovators Program. The program was hosted by the STEM Centre of Excellence at the University of Melbourne’s Science Gallery Melbourne.
Over the course of three days, these Year 9 students were posed sustainability challenges by an industry partner, Solstice AI. Working in interschool groups, they collaborated on solutions using renewable technology. As part of the experience, they had the opportunity to hear from influential figures like Anthony Cianflone MP, who shared insights on innovation and sustainability.
From hydro-powered vehicles to sustainable film productions, the student groups showcased their ideas at the program’s culmination. They pitched their solutions to an audience of peers, industry partners, local Members of Parliament including Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP and other special guests.
But the highlight of the program? The friendships that were made! Many students shared that working with people outside of their own schools was their favorite part. After receiving repeated requests for the program to run again, we’re excited to announce that it will return in 2025! Stay tuned.
Learn more about Science Gallery Melbourne’s Learning Experiences.
