Maree Johnston is a QUT Graduate Diploma of Education student majoring in Junior Science

What a great two days at the Queensland Museum’s Creative Lab workshopping how to incorporate innovative learning experiences into our STEM teaching. Thank you so much to Step Up for the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with other like-minded educators. As an external student who has not had the opportunity to be on campus at all over the course of my Grad Dip Ed, this was a great chance to share, learn and network. The first thing that struck me was what fantastic settings The Queensland Museum and The Cube, QUT are for exploring contemporary activities for engagement, learning and assessment. The resources (and the views) are a bit different from what I am used to!

My favourite session was definitely the Collection Electronica workshop because it really opened my eyes as to how to use design as a teaching tool while embedding sustainability into my units. This one is definitely going in my ‘toolkit’. The other surprise was that I (a technophobe) could make a Stop Motion Animation. Wow. My students, who have seen my daily battles with the IWB, and my children, who know I can’t use the TV remote were equally amazed. While this process is engaging, and the technology is accessible, the design process would require much higher order thinking and I therefore I felt it would be a worthwhile inclusion in many units of work. To sum up, thanks again Step Up and sponsors for the opportunity and I hope all participants are inspired to incorporate more creative elements into STEM teaching so our students can be as enthralled by Maths and Science as we all are.

Step Up‘s involvement in the Queensland Museum’s Creative Lab program has enabled Maree Johnston and other pre-service teachers to participate in these workshops.