A professional development project first rolled-out at East Kempsey Public School is giving students throughout the Macleay more opportunities to learn skills relevant to the 21st century.
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‘Building minds for the future’, now in its second year, was made possible when Schools Plus put East Kempsey in touch with a group of philanthropists known as the Yulgilbar Foundation.
The subsequent funding supported the training of the school’s dedicated teacher/librarian/coordinator, Katherine Lollback, and has allowed her to implement a cutting edge STEM program, as well as train other teachers at her own school and across the Mid North Coast.
By sharing her expertise with a group of 28 computer coordinators in schools all over the region, a relatively small amount of funding has developed the skills of about 40 teachers and hundreds of students.
“It’s an exciting time because we’re networking and sharing with other schools across the Macleay and Hastings,” Mrs Lollback said.
The program itself engages the students in hands-on problem solving activities which require computational thinking.
“They use tech such as We Do 2.0, Edison, Spiros and Makie Makie to create rather than play games,” Mrs Lollback said.
“This is equipment we didn’t have before.
“It teaches them to meet a criteria, design and build with purpose, and identify problems, and how to solve them by applying real-world thinking.
“It’s a way for them to express themselves as well.”
Through Dragon Drop programming the kids even learn how to create algorithms, write simple coding and program devices.
“They make the devices do what they want it to do, as well as debug and fix problems,” Mrs Lollback said.
East Kempsey Public is now integrating ‘Building minds for the Future’ across math, science, technology and literacy.
Mrs Lollback said our community is rural and low socio-economic with a high percentage of indigenous population, and this program addresses the needs of children accordingly and bridges the education divide.
She said it couldn’t have been done without the assistance of Yuligabr and Schools Plus.
“They have been so supportive, it’s been fantastic,” she said.
Schools Plus is an organisation which connects donors with schools seeking funding for activities and equipment to improve students’ outcomes.
Schools Plus was founded as a direct result of Recommendation 41 of the Gonski Review, which called for an organisation ‘to provide national leadership in philanthropy in schooling’.
