STEM Explorer Program

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Education.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr TEAGUE: Can the minister update the house about activities of students engaging in STEM studies in the course of these school holidays?

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier is warned. Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (14:43): I am very pleased to have that question from the member for Heysen, who I know is greatly interested in his local schools and the activities of students. During the school holidays, I was very pleased to go to Mylor in the member for Heysen's electorate and spend some time with 108 students from around South Australia who are engaged in the STEM Explorer Program, year 7 and 8 students, who enjoyed their—and can I say from experience—extremely cold day in Mylor, indeed a cold week in Mylor. We also visited some other facilities around the state as they learnt more about STEM careers and the opportunities available through science and mathematics studies, the opportunities available to them further in life.

One of the key roles of the National Youth Science Forum and their STEM Explorers Program was to grab these year 7 and year 8 students from around Australia, and in this instance 108 South Australian students, and give them ideas about what science can do for them at an age when they are still making decisions about what they might do further in their studies and what they might do further in life.

By years 7 and 8, students understand that science is not only test tubes and lab coats, as it was described to me on the day, but indeed something that is integral to our everyday life. It also gave them facilities to understand and to talk to their peers when they go back to school about how they might themselves benefit from more science learning.

I thank particularly the role of the National Youth Science Forum, represented on the day by Rowley Tompsett, the board member, and Professor Tanya Monro—of course, very well known to this house—the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia, who particularly described to students her journey as a young scientist and a young woman in primary school years and high school years interested in science, and how she wished such a program had been available for her so that she could help get more of her friends involved in science.

It was a good day in Mylor. I also appreciated the opportunity to go with the member for Heysen to the Mylor Primary School and the Bridgewater Primary School and talk with educators and principals who wanted to share some of their thoughts with us during their school holidays, and that was terrific. People from all around South Australia came, including teachers and volunteers, and I thank those teachers and volunteers who supported the forum.

I really enjoyed talking to the high school and primary school students, students from a diverse range of backgrounds. South Australia is the only state with year 7 still in a primary school setting and, of course, this is a program designed for year 7s and year 8s. In other states, year 7s and year 8s are naturally in that high school setting. Years 7 and 8 are, of course, a joint period in the Australian curriculum to which we signed up.

Students were represented from Burnside Primary School, from the Deputy Premier's electorate; Craigmore High School; Curramulka Primary School and, in your electorate, sir, East Marden Primary School had students in attendance; as well as Hallett Cove School and Henley High School from the south-west and west. Kangaroo Island Community Education, the member for Mawson's electorate, had students attending from Parndana and from Kingscote, the Deputy Premier's old campus; Loxton Primary School in the member for Chaffey's electorate; Mount Barker High School in the member for Kavel's electorate; Murray Bridge North School in the member for Hammond's electorate; and the Port Augusta Secondary School in the Minister for Energy's electorate all provided students.

Port Lincoln High School from the West Coast, the member for Flinders' electorate; Salisbury North R-7 Primary School; Tea Tree Gully Primary School in the north-east; Yorketown Area School in the member for Narungga's electorate—all of these areas sent students along. The ideas that were taken from Mylor, from the University of South Australia, from all the other site visits that were undertaken are being spread across the state as we speak, and it is tremendous to hear. I am particularly grateful to those adults, those volunteers and those teachers who took their own time in the school holidays, some of them paid, some of them not, to support the students on their STEM journey. I commend the activities of the National Youth Science Forum to the house.