Agriculture STEM Camp

Mrs Barling and Mrs S joined 13 Year 9/10 CSC students for this exciting opportunity.

We began the camp with a introductory session at Geelong Tech School where students from Lorne P-12, Lavers Hill P-12 and Colac Secondary College tried out their engineering and design skills with the marshmallows and dried spaghetti building challenge. The students also familiarised themselves with the vast amount of technology available to them for the camp. This included 3D printers, laser cutters, UV screening and an extensive array of software to create Apps and websites.

We stayed at the Coastal Forrest Lodge where we were all very well catered for and enjoyed the country lifestyle with horses ,cows, sheep and even a Llama to pat. Scotty the kelpie dog kept the students busy with playing fetch and the night-time activities included campfire, night walks, a low rope course and movie night which were enjoyed by all.

Day 2 saw us split into three groups and venture into three agricultural businesses – Cobram Estate olive oil, Boomaroo Nurseries, and the Common Ground Project. These businesses were very accommodating of us and easily explained their businesses and their issues they wanted us to help design solutions for. The groups brought their ideas back to the Geelong Tech School in the afternoon and begun to explore the possible solutions using the resources at hand.

Day 3 we continued to develop our ideas into solutions and as aa group agreed on the most appropriate solution to explore. We then spent time with Geelong Tech School staff bringing the solutions together and creating a presentation for the industry business representatives. For some of the groups this meant building prototypes, showcasing how their App worked or creating and using QR codes.

Day 4 was the final day and was focused on presenting our solutions to the industry representative from the businesses we visited and Gordon TAFE staff who gave feedback on our proposed solutions. This session was highly regarded by all staff and students were praised for their creativity, organisation and presentations from the Geelong Tech School and Gordon TAFE. The students gathered together at the end of the presentations and said their goodbyes, exchanged contact details and we all headed back to our schools.

Colac Secondary School students deserve praise for their positive attitudes, respect for staff and ability to get involved in their respective projects. Thankyou for being such a great group of young people to take to this very rewarding opportunity. Mrs Barling