Thanks to the support of Inspiring Australia and Inspire NT it’s only a month until Dr Jim and Dr Charlie set off for some of the remote communities of the Northern Territory.
From Darwin it’s tarmac all the way to Katherine, and some quality time at STEMfit co-founder, Jeff Parker’s, school at Clyde Fenton. Next we are heading off for Mataranka Springs and a left turn down a dusty track for 5 or so hours (Also known as the Roper River highway) to visit the Ngukurr Community on the shores of the Roper River. We are looking forward to catching up with principal Peter White.
Ready, Set…. Science takes the human body as a high-performance engine, down the rabbit hole of STEM to look at the Biology of the Body and what powers it. Dr Charlie from Griffith University all the way down in Brisbane, will be joining us this time to share what she teaches the doctors of tomorrow about the “biology of the body”. No stranger to outback communities (having done a PhD on health problems commonly found in rural communities) Dr Charlie will also be touching on how we can improve the health of our bodies by taking good care of them, and the changes we can expect as we journey into adult hood.
We are also delighted to have our junior STEM ambassador Matthew from Holland Park State School join us, with the permission of the Education Department through his school principal and classroom teacher (yes Matthew you will have homework to do on the trip too).
“One of the reasons we are so passionate about school children, particularly late primary is that often decisions about a STEM career are made at this age, so exciting engaging activities around STEM and ‘play’ now, mean we are much more likely to see them at university a decade or so later! ” says Dr. Charlie
Along the way we will be taking attitudinal and cognitive measures to look at how we perform as educators, as well as finding out more about the kids we are working with.
See Mathew and Dr Charlie in action from last years National Science Week productions.
