When using Day of STEM in the classroom, teachers can provide hands-on extension activities for students to continue their STEM skills development. This handy list is suitable for Grades 7-12 and can be used to complement each Day of STEM program.

For more information, please email Renee Hoareau, Day of STEM Director, Education and Engagement: renee@lifejourney.us

Women in STEM (Access here)

• Research statistics relating to women working in STEM industries. Discuss why it is important to achieve gender balance.
  • Eg. Use recent media coverage of women’s sporting teams (AFL, NRL or Olympics/Commonwealth Games), women leaders in banking, finance or large mining companies.
• Talk about girls entering STEM careers and steps students can take to achieve in these careers.
  • Ask students to discuss what is meant by soft and hard skills and why these are needed in modern workplaces.
• Create an honour roll of women that students admire.
  • What are the personality attributes or soft and hard skills of these women?
  • Are these skills that will assist students in being successful in future STEM careers?

Optus Cyber Security Experience (Access here) 

• Discuss the outcome of the simulated cyber threat scenario asking students to put together an action plan to implement strategies for a new upcoming threat.
  • Students should consider the soft and hard skills needed (emphasising teamwork, negotiation and risk-management skills) as well as the hardware considerations.
• Students create a infographic that differentiates cybersafety with cybersecurity demonstrating when individuals and/or organisations are accountable.
  • Use recent data breaches as examples: WannaCry, Equifax, Yahoo and Uber.
  • Discuss Australian Cyber Security legislation including the most recent mandatory data breach notification amendment.
• Complete and use the cyber challenges in the Optus Cyber Security Experience to learn how data is transmitted and secured.
• Create a Cyber dictionary.
  • Discuss terms, concepts and trends that have emerged in the last year.

Australia 2020 (Access here)

• Talk about the predicted future and innovations featured in the Australia 2020 interactive challenge.
  • Students research and present ways in which their personal, family and work life will change by 2020.
• Many Futurists are predicting innovations and planning for change in Australia for 2020 and beyond. Brainstorm possible STEM careers based on the innovations of the future.
  • Use the Australian Computer Society’s commissioned research by Deloitte, Australia’s Digital Pulse as reference.
• Write a dictionary of Digital Disruptors including the dates in which the technology, product or service was introduced.
  • Students can work in groups and pick a range of dates from 1960 (with the introduction of the Internet) to the present day.
• Students make-up a future career of their choice and present to the class with a job description and the key hard and soft skills needed for the role. The career of choice may not have been invented yet.
  • Students can present as an infographic, animated slideshow or theatrical play.  

Collingwood STEM Cup (Access here)

South Sydney STEM Cup (Access here)

• Discuss the history of using data analysis and statistics to predict and create decisions in sport eg. Moneyball in baseball.
  • Imagine what the future of sport may look like using sensors and the IoTs to collect data.
• Discuss current examples of sports that use data analysis to improve performance including where sensors are located, what sort of data they are collecting and how that data could be used for good or bad.
• Discuss salary caps in sports and consider the important role of the Capologist.
• Work out the percentages of each player’s salary from the cap, ranking highest to lowest.
  • Create a list to rank the top ten most valuable players in the team. Work out the median, mode and discuss outliers.