Demand for STEM, Especially for Women

The demand for students leaving school with STEM skills has never been higher. South Australia is continuing to grow and attract global companies in the STEM fields – particularly space, robotics and engineering – and we are constantly hearing about the opportunities that exist for students who are interested in these fields. Women are also massively underrepresented in the fields of STEM, with approximate 16% making up the workforce. This imbalance identifies the need for girls to be educated with the knowledge and skills required to be leaders in the field of STEM.

Here, we take a quick look at how Wilderness is preparing students for success.

Increase in Technologies in Three Years

At the beginning of 2021, the Technology and Enterprise faculty underwent a restructuring, with the focus on creating a curriculum that inspired the next generation of engineers. Since then, we have seen an increase in the number of girls who are choosing Technology and Enterprise courses, as well as a desire to study at a higher level. This year has seen the introduction of our first Stage 2 Design, Technology and Engineering (DTE) course—Industry and Entrepreneurial Solutions. The course is a combination of seven Year 11 students and 11 Year 12 students. Overall, we have seen an increase from 282 students studying Technology courses in 2020, to 385 students in 2023.

The pathways that are now offered to students can be viewed here.

Immersive Technology

There have recently been several studies and reports generated about the use of immersive technologies and their ability to increase engagement and student focus. This technology has existed at Wilderness for a few years, with students using basic VR headsets to plan and view virtual and augmented reality projects. This year, the faculty has invested in a set of 20 Oculus Quest headsets. The benefit of these, over our previous models, is students can now create in a virtual world, not just on their laptop. These headsets are currently being used by the Stage 1 and Stage 2 DTE students; however, they will also be implemented specifically through the Year 9 Digital Futures program and Stage 1 Digital Communications. These headsets will also become available for other faculties looking to implement immersive technologies into their programs. The benefit of the Oculus Quest headsets is that we can have 20 students creating and engaging with immersive technologies all at one time. This will allow our students to be more productive when compared to smaller immersive setups currently being installed at other schools.

Having access to this technology is allowing our students to investigate more emerging technologies, such as the Metaverse. One of our Stage 2 students is currently investigating the role which architecture can play in the Metaverse. Her entrepreneurial solution is to create housed designs that can be sold as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for people to deploy within their chosen Metaverse. We certainly look forward to seeing her completed project.