FACT SHEET
Questacon Smart Skills
Australia’s future as a knowledge economy depends on emerging generations being engaged with foundation skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
Questacon Smart Skills aims to create an awareness of technology, engineering and design thinking amongst young Australians.
Questacon Smart Skills is a free programme that travels regional Australia delivering free in-school workshops that immerse students in ideas, technology and creativity. By encouraging students to play with technology and make inventive creations, it engages and challenges them to find the innovator within.
The interactive and challenging STEM-themed workshops expose students to the process of innovation and refining their ideas through set challenges.
Each workshop explores the process of innovative design thinking, and aims to equip students with the confidence to test and refine ideas through hands-on digital and practical prototyping, whilst developing their creative problem-solving skills.
These experiences will help to equip them with logical and creative thinking skills to tackle problems across the curriculum and beyond.
Questacon Smart Skills also incorporates a teacher support programme, acknowledging that while Questacon staff can inspire hundreds of students within a school, a teacher can inspire thousands. Questacon Smart Skills Teacher Workshops introduce hands-on design thinking activities so teachers can co-facilitate the Smart Skills workshops in their school, along with showing how they can incorporate digital technology into hands-on activities in the classroom.
The Questacon Smart Skills programme and the Questacon Smart Skills Teacher Workshops are supported by Technology Partner Samsung Electronics Australia.
Questacon Smart Skills undertakes three tours per year to regional areas around Australia. Each tour culminates in a regional Questacon Invention Convention— a three-day intensive programme that builds on in-school workshops to give self-selected participants a deeper insight into innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Questacon Smart Skills programme is delivered as part of the broader Questacon Smart Skills Initiative, a national initiative that engages young people in design thinking, technology, creativity and innovation through a range of programmes. The Questacon Smart Skills Initiative offers a significant skills development pathway for participants. Each step along the pathway brings greater skill development in design thinking, ideation, prototyping and working with technologies.
The Questacon Smart Skills Initiative operates in metropolitan, regional and remote areas across Australia. It is funded jointly by the Australian Government and Principal Partner, The Ian Potter Foundation.
60 Denison St, Canberra
02 6270 2800
Media enquiries:
0439 399 912
Current as of July 2015 [15139]