STEM

Australian year 4 students whose first years of schooling occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic have defied concerns about disrupted learning to achieve Australia’s best-ever result in an international maths and science assessment.

Winning ideas in this year’s Australian STEM Video Game Challenge included a lone spaceship protecting Earth from shooting stars, a solar-powered city built on a sphere around the sun and interstellar golf.

A new report that reveals just under half of Australian students in years 6 and 10 are not meeting expected standards in science, could also point the way to improving engagement with it.

We had the opportunity to talk with Lisa van Beeck, a Research Fellow at ACER and Project Director of the Australian STEM Video Game Challenge. Lisa is an expert across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and has a particular passion for this valuable project and the opportunities it offers students around Australia.

Strategies to promote mathematics are central to a new toolkit which could be a gamechanger in schools, and for the wider community.

Children who understand the world with a mind enriched by the habit of scientific inquiry have a gift that keeps on giving, Gayl O’Connor believes. That’s why the former biology teacher is helping educators to ‘tap into children’s natural curiosity’ and set the wheels in motion.