FLEXIBLE THINKERS
An innovative group of students have been working in diverse ways for a better future YEAR 10 students from Saint Stephen’s College have been tackling the ever-changing future through a course designed to provide the skills and experience necessary in the 21st century.
Flexible Learning provides students with a supportive atmosphere and an increased flexibility in its requirements — such as its location, time of work, and the type of assessment pieces available.
Through the program, these students have taken up the challenge to make a difference in their community, whether it be local, national or global, while improving their groupworking skills.
One group of students
produced a short film to help promote the Gold Coast’s tourism industry.
They highlighted many of the hidden treasures around the city, including breathtaking landscapes on the Burleigh Headland, the beaches and surf along the Coast, and many other lesser known areas.
Five girls have been working on bringing a support dog into the school library.
Their idea was to help young children overcome fears relating to public speaking, as well as to help older students relieve stress from tests and assignments.
They believed the support dog would be a great asset to the school community.
After much effort they were able to successfully bring in a Cavoodle named Jack, which students responded to very well. The girls look forward to having Jack at the school on a regular basis.
“The most rewarding part of working on this project was seeing how well the children responded and having the positive outcome that we hoped to form,” said Team Projects member Sophia Capolupo.
A group of three worked on a plan for building a community centre on the Gold Coast.
The idea came to the students when they heard of the clearing of homeless camps in Sydney and the riots caused by police removing homeless people from Melbourne’s CBD. The three girls drew up blueprints, created 3D models of the centre and even searched for a possible location. They believe like everyone else the homeless should have a roof over their head and access to the most basic facilities until they can support themselves. If the community centre was to be built it would have to run off the support of sponsors and donations.
Inspired by the rise of dronebased technology, a team wanted to build a fully functioning drone and display it at the Science Pop-Up show, hosted by Griffith University. The students designed and 3D printed the drone body, complete with installed electronics, including motors, flight-computers, and other necessary parts.
Logan De Groot, one of the team members, said: “It was a challenging project, but was very rewarding when we participated in the local science show”.
At the Science Pop-Up show, while displaying their project, they encouraged younger members of the community to study STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), one of the goals for their project.
Some girls worked on raising awareness for both pollution and domestic violence as they are two of the biggest issues currently affecting Australia.
For their project they made baskets from left over plastic bags and filled them with products to give to people affected by domestic violence.
Team projects member Amber Cowie believed becoming “more aware of the problems affecting the world and helping in any way possible is of great importance to us, even if the effects are only small”.
Another group made plans to solve transport and traffic problems around the Gold Coast. It researched the main forms of transport and the most effective and environmentally friendly methods to get around the Coast to formulate and suggest ideas to improve the system.
The results took the form of a new Gold Coast Monorail, around the areas of Coomera Waters, Upper Coomera, Oxenford and Helensvale.
Kyle Day, a member of the group, said: “It would be a great alternative to the other methods of transport on the Gold Coast, and ease a lot of the traffic in the area.”