STEM Education

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Minister, can you provide details to the house on unique learning opportunities for South Australian students in the aeronautics and aerospace industries?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:35): I am very pleased to speak about this. By way of introduction, I think we would all be powerfully persuaded that we need more of our kids to study more STEM subjects. We know that that is the future and we know that the people who are particularly adept at STEM subjects ought to be doing the most difficult ones possible and that every child (and, in fact, every adult) ought to be more numerate and more scientifically literate, if at all possible.

Of course, there are many features to making that easier for kids and one of them is to have the right kind of infrastructure. It is about the right kind of teaching, but it is also about putting before them something that excites the imagination, that engages the children, particularly as they transition into high school, which is the danger period in terms of engagement with STEM subjects. One of those ways is to look at space, at aeronautics, because it is one of the areas that students—and some of us are still science nerds—and particularly younger people are extremely interested and excited about. A number of our schools have been using that interest not only to encourage them to understand more about aeronautics, which is a legitimate future industry and a current industry, but also therefore to engage them more deeply in STEM.

For example, Hamilton Secondary College has established strong partnerships with NASA and the European Space Agency, with astronauts or cosmonauts visiting the school every year to motivate and inspire their students. Hamilton is building on this existing focus and is currently in the process of re-creating—it says here 'life on Mars', but at present we are not aware that there is any life on Mars—the experience of being on Mars, with a $200,000 planetarium designed to deliver an extraterrestrial experience for students and to be the cornerstone of the school's innovative STEM program.

An integral part of the project will be an outreach program as part of the Marion Inland Partnership which is for primary school age children from metropolitan and regional South Australia to participate in the Mission to Mars activities and camps. Students will play a role in space practices, which includes mission briefings, flight control and simulated space exploration on the surface of Mars, as it has been reconstructed.

The planetarium will provide an exciting experience for students, who will be able to communicate with astronauts in real time and use the very latest software. The space dome landscape at Hamilton Secondary College is expected to be completed over the next year and will comprise three main components: the Mars surface, the mission control room and a briefing room. The space dome planetarium will be complete with red dirt reminiscent of that which we understand to be on Mars.

On the theme of space—and this is extremely pleasing—four Aboriginal South Australian students will experience what I imagine will be an experience of a lifetime to go for a week-long immersion trip to an American space camp. These four students, Piper Harvey and Ashley Tong from Woodville High and Tyson Evans and Kiara Tilmouth-Presley from Playford International, will be flying out to the US later this month.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: No, they're not going to Jupiter, but they are going to the USA to a space camp.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: And, yes, it will take off, member for Lee. The involvement of these young Aboriginal people is about building interest in STEM, interest in positive learning dispositions and, not least, giving them an extraordinary experience and insight into aeronautics which may well form a part of their future. Two teachers will be accompanying those students in order to develop further skills and understanding about conveying the importance of STEM in general and aeronautics in particular to other students. The opportunity has been supported by Northrop Grumman, a global aerospace and defence technology company that is providing scholarships to the students, and I thank them for that.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has, alas, expired. The deputy leader.