STEM

Skills in science, technology, engineering, and maths continue to be in high demand in Australia and globally. The STEM focus at University Senior College aims to ignite passion for those subjects and assist students and staff to deepen their knowledge, challenge their thinking and ensure we provide authentic learning opportunities.

As part of USC STEM Community Connections & Partnerships with The University of Adelaide, we arranged several tours of various departments, all tailored for USC needs, and our students visited research labs and heard from academic staff and Ph.D. students about real-world issues firsthand. Students visited and engaged with staff in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronic engineering departments and the Andy Thomas Resource Centre. The students engaged in a community focused seminar taking place on campus involving a guest speaker from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab hearing about NASA’s Plans for the Dark Universe and attended Women in Space - Impacting the World and Beyond seminar at National wine Centre. These activities engage students in high levels of learning while developing their critical thinking skills, thus increasing student interest and achievement. At USC we make great connections with the academic staff and invited them to visit USC to make our partnership even stronger. Through their visits they delivered STEM Focus talks to interested USC students.

Students also learned about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Dr. Paul Dalby, CSI Adelaide and Somerton Man mystery from Prof. Derek Abbott, Science from Dr Nicole Foster, Optical Fibres from Prof Shahram Afshar, Nuclear Medicine from Prof. Eva Bezak, and more.

In the future we commit to on-going improvement in our practice to increase our connections with The University of Adelaide, as well as other organisations such as the SAHMRI, CSIRO, to enhance the learning experience of students, while contributing to the professional learning of staff to ensure USC remains the senior secondary school of choice in South Australia.

Zahra Pirvali
Coordinator
STEM Community Connections & Partnerships