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 (Year 4 to 10) 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 real life 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.
STEAM EXPO
Machine Vision in Agriculture
Derek Long, USQ
Centre for Agricultural Engineering
Interactive IT
Dr Marie Bodén
University of Queensland – IT and Engineering
Monkeying around with Python & CoffeeScript
Andrew Brodie and Adam Jacobs, Junior Engineers
Blast Off to the Virtual Universe!
Jackie Bondell, OzGrav
TechCentral: 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence & Electronics
IntegratedSTEM
Melting Metal Mementos
Mark Baker
Assumption College Warwick
What is Energy?
UQ Women in Engineering
MicroBits Mayhem: MicroBits in the Curriculum
Rachel Harlen
St Saviour’s Primary School
Optimising Rocket Design
Matthew Billing
Its Rocket Science Adventures
Science in Action!
Eve Malone
Street Science
Using STEM to manage agricultural pests
Kristen Knight
Bayer
Heads Blown with Ted’s Drones
Edwooducation
Environmental Science
Students
St Saviour’s College
STEM @ Queensland Museum
Chae Swindell, Tony Coonan
Future Makers
Use of chromatography in forensics
Jennifer McPhie
Darling Downs STEM Hub
Household Engineering
Students
St Saviour’s College
Learning with Micro:bits and Makey Makey
Emma Pukallus and students
Haden State School
Engineers Make Things Happen
Engineers Australia QLD
Upcycling – making use of what we have
Sherie Navin
Junk Made
Electrical circuits with Playdough
Students
St Saviour’s College
Lighting the way out of Poverty
Olivia King & Magdalene St Clare
SolarBuddy.org
Printing 3D Fashion
Jay Wright & students
Vale View State School
Bringing Designs To Life
Alison Seppanen & students
Laidley District State School
Tower of Terror: Egg drop design challenge
Gabrielle Austerberry & Raymonde de Lathouder
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
Biomimicry: where nature inspired ideas helps humans clean up their mess
Gabrielle Austerberry & Raymonde de Lathouder
It’s Rocket Science!
Cran Middlecoat
Its Rocket Science Adventures
What a load of rubbish!
Dr Marie Bodén & Sarah Matthews
University of Queensland
Coding drones to solve problems
Edwooducation
SolarBuddy Social Innovation Challenge
Olivia King & Magdalene St Clare
SolarBuddy.org
BattleBots: A Tale of Mayhem & Destruction
Lizzy Cleland
IntegratedSTEM
Reading, Writing, Robots
Megan Gilmour
Missing School Incorporated
Renewable Energy – I’m a big fan!
UQ Women in Engineering
United Nations Goal 12: Ensure sustainable production and consumption patterns
Tammie Ward-Hawkins
Tambourine Mountain College
FLOW OF THE DAY
TIME
EVENT / ACTIVITY
LOCATION
8.45 AM
SIGN-IN, 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 QLD 4350
DATE Friday 4 June 2021
TIME / AGENDA
Doors open sign-in: 8.45am
Begins: 9.25am sharp
Concludes: 1.00pm
CONFERENCE RATES
Early bird Teacher $65*
Full fee Teacher $90
Early bird Preservice $35*
Full fee Preservice $45
Student $15
Inclusive of GST, Morning Tea for ALL
*book by 30/04/21
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
Sharon Collins – St Saviour’s College
Bianca Willis – Goombungee State School
Jennifer McPhie – Darling Downs STEM Hub
Adrian Bertolini – Spark EDU Conferences
Sharon Wilson – QLD Department of Education
Geanine Richardson – QLD Department of Education
Nicole McTigue – QLD Department of Education
“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' School
Spark Scholarship
Gold Sponsor
In-kind Sponsor
GET IN TOUCH WITH US
Rachel Manneke-Jones
Registration & Bookings
Ph: 0411 270 277
E: rachel@spark-educonferences.com.au
Dr Adrian Bertolini
Conference Co-Ordinator
Ph: 0413 036 382
E: adrian@spark-educonferences.com.au
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