Bundaberg Mayoral Telstra Innovation Awards

The final presentations for the MTIA were held on Tuesday 18 June. Two Shalom teams participated along with eight other teams from Bundaberg Schools.

The purpose of the MTIA awards is to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, by helping students in the Bundaberg Region unlock their problem-solving potential and take their big technology ideas to the next level.

Students are inspired to be innovative and collaborative throughout the process. They attend seven, two hour mentoring sessions with industry mentors who provide specialist and technical guidance in the areas of marketing, business modelling, finance and legal considerations, customer base and how to pitch their idea to possible investors.

The two Shalom College teams presented two fantastic ideas on the night.

Team 1 – Adaptipal proposed a solution to the issue of loneliness in the elderly. They designed a small robot that would be able to converse with people whilst also challenging them mentally with games and quizzes. The Adaptipal team consisted of Callum M, Cameron W and Luke M.

Team 2 – Farm to Fertiliser proposed a solution to the waste from produce farms that is created by produce that is unable to be sent to market. They proposed collecting the produce and turning it into compost that could be sold to major retailers. The Farm to Fertiliser team consisted of Rhys N, Ryder D and Archer K.

Whilst the Shalom teams did not win they did a great job in their final presentations and I am sure they would all agree that they learnt a lot throughout the entire process over the past three months.

Congratulations to Bundaberg Christian College who won First prize on the night.

Academy for Enterprising Girls

On Tuesday 22 July, 35 Year 9 and 10 female students participated in the Academy for Enterprising Girls. This workshop is run by Youth Change Agents and Shalom College was fortunate to be selected for a fully funded one day program worth $2500. The program was run by Tiffani Seaton - Programs Manager and the Indigenous Engagement lead here at Young Change Agents. 

We opted to participate in a Design Challenge workshop and the topic was on Mental Health for young people. The students explored and defined issues in Mental Health for young people, specifically in the areas of connection, anxiety and social media use. They then worked together in small groups to design a fix to the problems they identified. At the end of the day they all stepped up and out of their comfort zone to pitch their ideas to the rest of the workshop and all did a fantastic job of this. Some groups also decided to continue further and enter their ideas into a National Design Challenge competition with Youth Change Agents.

A big thankyou to all the girls that attended the workshop on the day. You all engaged extremely well, and I hope that you now wear your Enterprising Girl T-shirt with pride. You earnt it.

Mrs Deborah Bishop
STEM Committee
bishopd@shalomcollege.com