Gifted and Enrichment News
Girl Power STEM Enrichment
For the first time this year, Robertson State School was invited to participate in the 2023 STEM Girl Power initiative. We sent two teams of Year 5 and 6 students who have demonstrated excellence in the STEM area.
Each year the Queensland Department of Education STEM team organises the STEM Girl Power Camp for girls in Year 10. This year 60 girls and 10 teachers from across Queensland, and a few from Papua New Guinea, attended camp in Brisbane from 15-19 May. The STEM Girl Power Initiative aims to provide students with STEM experiences and role models, encourage them to participate in STEM at school and to consider STEM-related career pathways.
On Wednesday 17 May, these high school camp students visited Griffith University, Nathan Campus and co-facilitated a number of Science on the Go! activities. This was where our STEM primary school girls came in with an opportunity to be included as younger girls in this aspect of the program. Our primary students engaged in hands-on STEM activities and were mentored by the Year 10 STEM ambassadors.
This experience was mutually-beneficial for both sets of students - The Year 10 students had an opportunity to develop their science communication skills in preparation for their regional outreach activities during National Science Week, while the primary students had the opportunity to visit and tour the university, participate in hands on STEM activities and be inspired by the older students. This was certainly a fantastic opportunity for our female students excelling in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths to be inspired by the older students into STEM pathways in their own future.
We were even treated to the fact that the female student who ran our tour was a former Robertson State School alumni, in her third year of learning to become a pilot. She was excellent at explaining how pilots learned to fly planes using the flight simulators, while showing the computer lab to the students. Many of the girls remarked that they would like to apply for the STEM Girl Power program themselves when in year 10, or to come back and study medicine, engineering or science when they were older.
At the end of the activities, our students were presented with a STEM Ambassador Badge from Griffith University as well as a Girl Power STEM badge and metal water bottle. Please enjoy this video showing some of the activities they participated in on the day.
Upcoming Writing Competitions
If you would like your child to enter some writing competitions, please have a look at these links:
Writing and Art competitions:
https://alphabetsoup.net.au/comps-for-kids/
Multiple competitions in the genre of short story writing, poetry writing and art. Click the link to find out more.
Writing competitions:
https://www.furphystory.com.au/junioryouth/
Junior short story or Junior Poetry
https://youngwritersaward.com.au/entry-criteria/
Categories:
- The Children’s Picture Book category
- A short, structured story to 250 words, fiction or non-fiction.
- Story only, no illustrations required.
- The winning story will be professionally illustrated and produced as a 32-page hard copy book and in e-book format.
- The Children’s Short Story category
- A work of short fiction between 850 and 1000 words.
- Story only, no illustrations required.
- The winning story will be illustrated and produced as an early reader hard copy book of between 32 and 64 pages and in e-book format.
Savvy Science – Year 5 Science Program at Cavendish Road State High School
This week, our fourth group of Year 5 scientists from 5D have been selected and invited to head to Cavendish Road State High School each Wednesday afternoon for some hands-on science extension. We hope they enjoy their practical Science enrichment activities.
Students from 5C have recently enjoyed the experiences, take a look at their amazing photographs below. Students from other Year 5 classes will be invited as the year progresses.
Claire Ennis and Amy Feeney