More students turned to engineering under Scott Sleap at Maitland Grossmann High School than at most other schools.
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Three times the state average in fact.
His challenge now is make the Hunter a prime example for other states and boost participation across science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
“It’s a massive challenge, but I want to see this hugely successful program spread across the state and Australia,” Mr Sleap said.
The Duns Creek resident farewelled his students last term to take charge of the ME Program he helped establish with Regional Development Australia Hunter.
The program involves industry partnering with schools to create practical challenges.
New technologies like robotics and three-dimensional printers support the classes.
In turn, more students go on to tertiary study and enter the workforce with higher skills and, importantly, stronger problem solving ability.
“We knew that the workforce wasn’t being serviced properly by existing subjects,” Mr Sleap said.
“But the ME Program operates outside the school system, across public and Catholic schools, and that’s one of the key reasons for its success.”
Fifty schools across the Hunter will have a ME Program in 2016.
The Hunter Region is one of only three across Australia that has established anything like the ME Program.
Regional Development Australia is a federal government initiative that brings together all levels of government to enhance regional prosperity.
A program designed to combine physical activity with maths will be introduced to Maitland schools from next year.
Known as Encouraging Activity to Stimulate Young Minds, the program uses simple playground tasks to encourage children to be active during maths lessons.
“There is evidence to suggest that children around the world are showing less interest in mathematics,” former teacher and physical activity researcher with the University of Newcastle Nick Riley said.
“But at the same time, physical education is becoming marginalised as the curriculum gets more crowded, so we need to look at new and innovative ways to teach.
Mr Riley said children usually spent about 80 per cent of their learning time sitting down, which resulted in negative consequences.
“The results of our trial showed a significant rise in physical activity levels across the maths period, while on-task behaviour in maths improved by around 14 per cent,” he said.
“The children would get a kilometre of walking without them realising it. Boys and girls were also volunteering to do push-ups, whereas in a PE lesson they probably wouldn’t want to.”
