Duration: 5 minutes 02 seconds

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Dr Scott Sleap

Someone told me once that we all are born with an interest in space and dinosaurs and we grow out of our interest in dinosaurs, but we never grow out of our interest in space. And that's certainly been true for me.

If we want to develop the future leaders, we need to develop those skill sets. Complex problem solving, creativity, teamwork. The type of skill sets that we need to solve problems in space. These are the skill sets that have been identified by the World Economic Forum as a skill sets that young people are going to need now and into the future.

So throughout our curriculum, we need to develop those skills within a STEM platform. It doesn't matter if you're actually in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics classroom. STEM skills are important in all faculty areas because the skill sets that we're looking at underpin the future jobs and our future prosperity in Australia. I grew up in the the age of the space shuttle.

My parents grew up in the age of the Apollo missions. This generation is going to grow up in the age of Artemis, where we're going to send a person back onto the moon. Also, if we're going to go into space, we're going to be looking back on Earth. So the big problems that we have on Earth space is where some of those solutions are going to come from.

Problems like climate change, for instance.

If you want to engage young people, you have to do it in a way in which the work is real. So what's better to do than working in a program where you're putting experiments that you've designed yourself using a design process and putting them into space? New South Wales Department of Education is now working with a large number of different groups to do integrated STEM based learning in space.

We're currently working with a powerhouse museum and a company called Magnitude IO to design a mission that will go on to the International Space Station where students from around the country will then be able to tap into that experience. So that is a first for New South Wales public schools. So in terms of inquiry based learning, project based learning, this is one of the ultimate programs that you can do.

New South Wales Department of ED develop the STEM curriculum. I STEM is the subject in which this particular program is being developed. We're also working with the Older and Family Foundation to develop programs with their maps that will be in New South Wales schools. So we're working with space agencies such as NASA in the Australian Space Agency, to get programs into our schools.

These are using curriculums that have been developed by the Curriculum Secondary Learners team to be able to inspire young people.

So we're looking at particular geographical areas around Australia and what are the particular skill sets and industries that are required. So we've designed ISTEM to be looking at programs like Space of course, but also aero, cybersecurity and a whole range of other areas that relate to the type of industries we're going to see in the future. Being a regional and rural program as well, Agritech is one of the most popular areas that we're looking at, which is going to underpin what we're going to need as our populations grow and be able to feed generations into the future.

When we developed the ISTEM program, we worked with industry particularly to look at what are the skill sets in and industry that are going to be future focused. The skill sets that are required for these future jobs is why this syllabus exists.

It's really important that we bring the outside world into our classrooms. If we bring experts in, then our young people have a broader knowledge of what is available. And also there's an ever changing environment out there of what's happening with work. So industry is our tapping in point for that. So if you want to get involved with industry, there's many different ways to do it.

Engineers Australia have a directory which you can connect into to get people to come into your school. The CSIRO have a STEM Professionals in Schools program. You can reach out to and get people into your school. But I still think the best way is to connect with your local community, go to your local councils, your local business chambers and the parents.

The parents are often the people in the school that are working in the industries that are important to your region. So connect, get them in, utilize their skill sets and work together to solve problems in STEM.

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