Most conferences currently being offered on STEM, STEAM and Entrepreneurship tend to be targeted towards teachers and involve a series of speakers and the occasional mini-workshops. This conference is designed to be different. This conference is designed by students and teachers for students and teachers.
The intent of the It Takes a Spark EDU Conference is to bring together Girls and their Teachers to connect with inspiring industry role models, share their current school based activities and projects using an authentic sharing and experiential model, create networks of teachers and student teams, and solve social justice design challenges.
Who Should Attend
- Students – those who are already (or aspire to be) Technology Leaders in your school
- Teachers – those who have little experience and those who have a lot
- Heads of Learning Areas / Curriculum – who wish to discuss how to create trans-disciplinary units that are powerfully engaging
- Principals and Deputy Principals – to witness what is possible by embedding the Technologies Curriculum in your school
OUTSTANDING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
MEGAN GILMOUR
Cofounder & CEO, Missing School Incorporated
Megan Gilmour created the Australian-first telepresence robot initiative connecting students with serious illness to their classrooms. She is a social innovator with experience across 24 countries in large-scale social change. She’s a Churchill Fellow, a keynote and TEDx Speaker, and an award-winning education ambassador for sick kids. She has co-founded a nationally transformative not-for-profit, and tech startups in the global development and the assistive robotics sector.
PROGRAM
This Mini It Takes a Spark will have the brightest educators, organisations and girls who are passionate about STEAM lead sessions at the hands-on STEAM Expo. These sessions are short, sharp action packed with activities / communications. After morning tea you will be posed with a real life Design Challenge and be led through the design process to ideate and present possible solutions.
STEAM Expo – 60 minutes
Who will present: students / teachers / university / sponsors / organisations
Audience: Students Years 4 to 10 and Teachers
Interactive, hands on STEAM or entrepreneurial activities
Grow in confidence by sharing ideas / innovation
Unique public speaking opportunity
Share knowledge and create networks
Problem Solvers Design Challenges – 70 mins
In the past we had challenges varying from Shaky Solutions – Earthquake simulator, Bee-pocalypse, TurtleGate, Self-Drive Cars, and Coding for Disaster Relief.
Each session will have a different real life design or STEAM challenge to solve aimed at Year 4 to 10 students and their teachers.
This session is an opportunity for schools, universities, industry, or community organisations to pose real life design challenges and lead students through the design process to ideate and present possible solutions.
*note: workshops listed are from the postponed 2020 conference – we are in the process of confirming all for 2021
STEAM EXPO
Machine Vision in Agriculture
Derek Long, USQ
Centre for Agricultural Engineering
Building a simple pulley
STEM Girl Power Alumni
Dept of Education QLD
Monkeying around with Python
Junior Engineers
Blast Off to the Virtual Universe!
Jackie Bondell, OzGrav
TechCentral: 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence & Electronics
IntegratedSTEM
Renewable Energy – I’m a big fan!
UQ Women in Engineering
Coding a LEGO maze
STEM Girl Power Alumni
Dept of Education QLD
Optimising Rocket Design
Matthew Billing
Its Rocket Science Adventures
Imagine. Prototype. Automate.
Shane Krog
Gatton State School
Using STEM to manage agricultural pests
Kristen Knight, Bayer
Putting the M Back into STEAM!
Ted Carter & Amanda Taylor
Edwooducation
Squishy Circuits
STEM Girl Power Alumni
Dept of Education QLD
Interactive IT
Dr Marie Bodén & Claire Cresswell
UQ – IT and Engineering
Use of chromatography in forensics
Jennifer McPhie
Toowoomba Grammar School
Learning with Micro:bits and Makey Makey
Emma Pukallus and students
Haden State School
First Lego League Challenges
Bianca Willis and Oakey State HS students
Makey Makey Activities
Joy Taylor
CoderDojo Toowoomba
Printing 3D Fashion
Jay Wright and students
Vale View State School
Maze Runner
Bianca Willis and Goombungee SS students
Programming a 5-Axis Robotic Arm
Lindsay Watt and Samual Ashcroft, RAWrobotics
Upcycling – making use of what we have
Sherie Navin
Junk Made
MORE STEAM EXPO SESSIONS COMING SOON……
PROBLEM SOLVERS DESIGN CHALLENGE
Each session has a different real life design or STEAM challenge to solve aimed at Year 4 to 10 students. You will be posed with a real life design challenge and lead through the design process to ideate and present possible solutions.
Determining the Eccentricity of the Earth’s Orbit
Stephen Broderick
St Ursula’s College
Growing Food as Medicine – a STEM project for schools
Professor Lindsay Brown
University of Southern QLD
War on Waste: The WarCry
Peter Harris
University of Southern QLD
It’s Rocket Science!
Cran Middlecoat
Its Rocket Science Adventures
What a load of rubbish!
Dr Marie Bodén & Sarah Matthews
University of Queensland
Island Escape
Amanda Kilgour and the Year 10 Girl Power team
BattleBots: A Tale of Mayhem & Destruction
Basem Aly & Lizzy Cleland
IntegratedSTEM
Reading, Writing, Robots
Megan Gilmour
Missing School Incorporated
Ground Zero Virus
Jay Wright and students
Vale View State School
An Indigenous approach to combating climate change
Joshua Waters
Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office
FLOW OF THE DAY
TIME
EVENT / ACTIVITY
LOCATION
8.45 AM
REGISTRATION, COFFEE/TEA & NETWORKING
9.25 AM
MASTER OF CEREMONIES
Welcome to Participants, Set up for the Day, Housekeeping
Assembly Hall
9.35 AM
Keynote Speaker – Megan Gilmour
Assembly Hall
10.10 AM
STEAM Expo
- 60 min expo
- a wide range of hands-on STEAM activities run by local schools, universities and even STEAM businesses and sponsors
- Activities at each station will last between 10 to 20 min
- Students and teachers will be able move around through the activities during this period
Assembly Hall
11.10 AM
MORNING TEA
An opportunity to network with other teachers and students, and explore trade displays.
11.35 AM
PROBLEM SOLVERS
- 70 min session – parallel sessions aimed at Year 4 to 10 students
- This session is an opportunity for universities, industry, schools, or community organisations to pose real life design challenges and lead students through the design process to ideate and present possible solutions.
Breakout Rooms
Pre-registration required
12.50 PM
WHERE TO NEXT, FEEDBACK AND CLOSE OF MINI CONFERENCE
Invitation to be on the Steering Committee for the following year.
Assembly Hall
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
VENUE
ST SAVIOUR’S COLLEGE
Neil Street
South Toowoomba
DATE Friday 4 June 2021
TIME / AGENDA 8.45am open
9.25am start – 1.00pm finish
CONFERENCE RATES
Early bird Teacher tba*
Teacher tba
Student tba
inclusive of GST, Morning tea provided
*book by tba
Upon registration you will receive a confirmation email and invoice, payment is via direct deposit or credit card. For full details click on the register button alternatively call Rachel on +61 (0) 411 270 277 to coordinate your registration or ask any questions.
Conference Steering Committee
Bianca Willis – Goombungee State School
Adrian Bertolini – Spark EDU Conferences
Amanda Kilgour – QLD Department of Education
Jennifer McPhie – Darling Downs STEM Hub
“I attended the It takes a Spark Conference on Friday - it was wonderful! I really enjoyed the sessions and can see ways to incorporate them into incursions and excursions for blind and vision impaired students. It was also a great chance to network and see students participating in the activities. Thank you again.”
Katie Niedda,
Sensory Vision Education, School of Special Educational Needs: Sensory"Many thanks for such a well organised and well run conference. From our perspective and the feedback from others, it was a resounding success."
Jacqui Butler,
Strategic Technology, John Curtin College of the Arts“Thank you, I greatly benefited from attending the conference and hope to attend future conferences and recommend it to my peers.”
Samina Hasan,
Student Teacher 2nd Yr Masters, University of Melbourne“Well done on a terrific conference at Scotch College last Friday. It was possibly the best STEM event I have been to over the past 2 years - and I've been to a few and the feeling around the event was very positive.”
Tony Doyle,
Junior School STEM Teacher, Ruyton Girls' SchoolSpark Scholarship
Gold Sponsor
