{"id":50964,"date":"2019-08-26T18:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=50964"},"modified":"2022-10-31T22:25:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T05:25:16","slug":"school-plus-collaboration-forum-the-future-of-stem-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/school-plus-collaboration-forum-the-future-of-stem-education\/","title":{"rendered":"School Plus Collaboration Forum: The Future of STEM Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this month, Australian Schools Plus and Salesforce held a fantastic Schools Plus Collaboration Forum in Sydney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Schools Plus Director of Donor Relations Sherrill Nixon and Salesforce.org\u2019s APAC Director Davinder Mann to find out more, sat in on a couple of sessions at the event, and asked a few of the teachers about their schools and students.
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Q: What was the Schools Plus Collaboration Forum all about?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sherrill Nixon:<\/b> There\u2019s never a bad time to support disadvantaged schools in their quest to help students develop STEM skills (and we do it all day every day!). But in the same week as the ABC turned a MySchool dataset into an interactive tool<\/a> showing that Australia’s four richest schools spent more on capital works than the poorest 1800 combined, it did seem particularly apt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in partnership with Salesforce, we brought five Schools Plus coaches, inspiring speakers, and 43 teachers and principals from 41 disadvantaged primary and secondary schools all over the country to Sydney. For two days, the teachers could focus on building their ability to reach the kids and other teachers in their schools, to teach and promote the teaching of STEM skills and mindsets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every teacher who was there is running a STEM project in their school, funded by Salesforce, and we wanted them to be even more inspired about those projects. We wanted to give them the time (a day out of the classroom is hard-won!) and structure necessary to build practical knowledge, skills, tools and networks that would help them inspire and prepare the kids they\u2019re teaching for careers in STEM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, our first Collaboration Forum<\/a> had 28 teachers from 18 schools, so to see the event so much bigger this year was really rewarding and a great reinforcement of the value it brings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Why is Salesforce involved in the program?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Davinder Mann:<\/b> A few reasons. Firstly, we desperately need to build STEM skills in our future workforce, and Salesforce is really well positioned to help on that front. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we also firmly believe in equality in access to education. Globally, our Circle the Schools<\/a> program sees us support underfunded schools with training, time, money and more, and locally we partner with Schools Plus to \u2018circle\u2019 Australian schools. We consider the school sitting at the centre, with any resources we can provide looped around \u2013 our teams\u2019 knowledge, our offices, our volunteer time, our funding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far we\u2019ve contributed more than $1.7 million to the program, as well as our time and other resources, because what Schools Plus does in enabling schools to improve the educational outcomes of students is essential and built around moral purpose, and because no one else is doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard one teacher say \u201cWe\u2019re the champions of the students, and Schools Plus is the champion of us\u201d.\u00a0 What better reason to support their work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What was your highlight of the event?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SN:<\/b> For me it was the level of passion and expertise in the room. We heard from a pilot, entrepreneurs and engineers, each with a story to tell about the empowering nature of education. But the passion of the teachers, and their excitement to share expertise and encouragement, big challenges and even bigger wins, was awe-inspiring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And given the difficulties faced by some of the schools we partner with, their continued dedication to helping their students become life-long learners and build better futures is something to behold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also loved the design thinking workshop to see which team of teachers could make a marble roll for the longest time using just cardboard and tape. Sounds simple, unless you want to win! It was not only a chance to see the power of a design thinking approach to problem-solving, but a practical activity to take back to the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DM: <\/b>My highlight \u2013 apart from seeing the real impact of our support \u2013 was hearing the speakers who\u2019d built careers as rockstar engineers saying that they\u2019d been \u2018ordinary\u2019 students, not the \u2018star\u2019 pupil at school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felicity Furey was one of those speakers who didn\u2019t make her success look easy. She was encouraged by her high school physics teacher to apply for engineering at university, but she had doubts at the time about whether she was cut out for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s now changing engineering education every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felicity co-founded not-for-profit Power of Engineering<\/a>, which has reached more than 9000 school students across Australia, changing the minds of 75% of students who had said a hard no to engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s also co-founded Machinam<\/a> to help motivate high school maths students by showing them how maths plays out in the world outside of the classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felicity Furey: from failing maths to STEM superstar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We sat in on Felicity Furey\u2019s session, and couldn\u2019t agree more that it was a highlight!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought engineering was all about maths, and I hated maths,\u201d she said. But her teacher had recommended engineering, so she listed it in her preferences for uni \u2013 as her fifth choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGuess what?\u201d she asked wryly. \u201cI got in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Felicity walked into her first lecture and realised she was one of a handful of women \u2013 just 12 in a cohort of 300 students, it would turn out. And she didn\u2019t love engineering; she struggled to see how what she was learning was relevant, and failed first-year maths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a second year project, though, she had to design a housing estate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you know that you can\u2019t just design straight roads?\u201d she asked the crowd. \u201cPeople will treat them as racing tracks!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, she\u2019d seen that the decisions she would make as an engineer were relevant to real lives, and creativity and empathy were in play. \u2018Hard\u2019 STEM skills like maths needed to be balanced with empathy and complex problem solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Felicity passed maths. She graduated, started working with Brisbane City Council, took on a $45m capital works portfolio and has been a passionate advocate of getting women into engineering ever since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She brings her path to that effort \u2013 believing that real-life relevance is key to making engineering appealing to women. What does this look like in practice? Like sharing stories about how little Emma was able to play with toys, feed herself and hug her mum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n