What an incredible three days it’s been!
I had the privilege of travelling to Rolleston and Arcadia Valley with STEM Punks and Santos to deliver hands-on STEM activities to enthusiastic students—and what a joy it was!
The goal was to Inspire curiosity and collaboration through hands-on STEM activities, introducing core concepts in circuitry, coding, robotics, and problem-solving. Promote playful exploration of real-world applications while integrating science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literacy, and design across disciplines.
After arriving at Emerald Airport, I was warmly welcomed by Melissa, Santos’ amazing Community Liaison Officer, who was my guide, driver and indispensable assistant! The next day was spent at the local primary school, where students and staff embraced a range of STEM activities, including:
Designing and constructing playground equipment using Simple Machines
Coding a “nervous game” with MicroBit
Mapping a circuit for Cutebot to follow a black line and building environments with air clay
Creating torch drawings, peg puppets, and experimenting with Squishy Dough.
That evening, we stayed at Santos’ Pyramid Camp in Arcadia Valley—an amazing unforgettable experience!
The following day, we visited a one-teacher school with just 12 students, ranging from Kindy to Grade 5. The Principal, Susan, was truly inspirational and incredibly supportive. Together, we achieved so much:
Younger students built peg cars and air-clay figures which then explored movement around a world mat
They also created torch drawings to reveal hidden objects and crafted caterpillars powered by air pressure
Older students explored Makey Makey, playing banana pianos and building foil keyboards to interact with Joylabz apps
They coded flashing hearts, name tags, dice, and played Scissors-Paper-Rock using MicroBits
We continued with a look at codebreaking and the Enigma machine’s role in WWII. Students built cipher wheels, decoded secret messages, and created their own for friends to crack.
The day ended with every student designing a piece of playground equipment that demonstrated at least one of the six simple machines—a perfect blend of creativity and engineering!
Hearing students say how much they enjoyed the day was the ultimate reward.
I flew back to Brisbane from Roma with deep gratitude for the opportunity.
A huge thank you to Santos(especially to Melissa for her outstanding organization) and STEM Punks for this incredible opportunity, to the wonderful team at Santos Camp and to all the passionate teachers and brilliant students we met along the way.
Thank you, STEM Punks, for making this experience so memorable.