Igniting a passion for a STEM career
In Queensland’s Gladstone region, Shell supports the Future Makers program with Queensland Museum to encourage students to take up science. Discover how it helped two students grow their passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), while being challenged to develop a solution for a local biodiversity issue.
In the town of Calliope, just outside Gladstone, the Future Makers program is reinvigorating a love of STEM for students and educators alike, which is having a positive impact outside of the classroom and putting STEM skills to practical use.
Powering passion for STEM
Calliope State High School teacher Luke Houweling knows there’s much more to STEM beyond what he teaches in the classroom. He became involved in the Future Makers program to give students the chance to take their love of science outside the four walls of the classroom, by working on a project that makes a difference in their community. Luke Houweling encouraged his students to participate in the STEM Innovators initiative as part of the Future Makers program. “It provides free rein in a STEM-based project – it allows students drawn towards STEM to explore an issue in their local area and come up with some kind of solution,” Luke Houweling said.
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Solving a grassroots problem – literally
Students Annabelle and Emily from Calliope High School are Future Makers STEM Innovators participants, looking to use their skills to make a difference. “We were thinking about the biodiversity of Queensland and specifically invasive species.”
They identified a problem in their community – dry rats tail grass, to be exact. Its roots impact local biodiversity by killing native plants. The students decided to use their skills to tackle the problem. “We thought we’d come up with something that could get rid of it and stop its spread.”
Enter Little Rooty, the robot created by Annabelle and Emily to move through areas infested with the weed, identify it and contain its seeds. It combines agricultural technology with coding and greatly impressed the Future Makers team at Queensland Museum and Shell.
A focus on real-world connections
We know we need the best and brightest minds to fill jobs of the future. We want the communities where our businesses are located to receive every opportunity to be part of our future success. The Future Makers program provides educational opportunities and importantly creates real-world connections for students with Shell staff and local professionals, demonstrating the career paths available to them. As Luke says, “It’s preparing students for a future that doesn’t even exist yet.”
Since launching the Future Makers program in 2015, more than 600 teachers have completed professional development workshops and more than 17,000 students have participated in one or more of the initiatives in the program.
