Prepared for the Deakin STEM Education Conference 2021. This paper will be co-authored by a team of participating Year 10 students who are working on a challenge-based learning project in their TIDES (Technology Innovation Design Enterprise Sustainability) class at Peter Carnley Anglican Community School. They are considering a problem derived from the theme of National Science Week 2021 (Food: Different by Design). The focus on issues relating to Food Security has enabled them to create a body of work that supports deep engagement and a scope of learning that exceeds most traditional content-delivery models. They have been able to generate work that can be submitted across a variety of contexts and to enable entry to several external programs for recognition. With their teacher, the students will describe and evaluate the processes and ways of working they have adopted, as well as highlighting how their work has produced interdisciplinary artifacts that can be used to guide and assess learning across a range of subject areas within their regular school timetable. They will also consider the benefits of student agency and external audiences in building engagement and focus in their learning. The students will discuss how programs such as Game Changer Awards, ANSTO National Science Week Hackathon, STEM4Innovation and think tank events provide platforms for the practice and application of their collaborative human-centered design-thinking process to enhance their learning in STEM and other areas across the curriculum. Too often student experience of learning is not reflected in education conferences. As one of the most important voices in the whole system, they often struggle to be heard. This paper will provide insights into student perceptions of integrated STEM as an approach to meaningful learning that provides scope and depth of learning across many parts of the broader K-100 curriculum. Content and capabilities will be considered and the students along with their teacher will endeavour to unpack the benefits and challenges they encounter.

1. Student-directed
engagement in community-
linked STEM integration
through collaborative
challenge-based learning.
Kim Flintoff
Felix Abbott
Stephanie Beaumont Cabrera
Byron Silchinger
Caleb Whyte

2. Understanding the long term effects of our
present actions – developing solutions that
enable viable, manageable and ethical futures.
SUSTAINABILITY
Using and considering technology as a functional
tool in learning, design and purposeful
communication.
TECHNOLOGY
Developing new approaches to existing and
emerging challenges – thinking in new ways.
INNOVATION
Creating new products, systems and services as
solutions.
DESIGN
Shaping strategies and approaches that develop
sustainable business and/or or social benefits.
ENTERPRISE
W H A T I S
T I D E S

3. LEARNING AIMS
Sharing experience - Examining diverse concepts
- Articulating, applying and building understanding
- Communicating new powers and creations
PERSONAL LEARNING
Recognising and valuing the needs and cultures of
others - Active Involvement in addressing global
needs - Supporting the development of the social,
economic and environmental pillars
GLOBAL AWARENESS / SUSTAINABILITY
Exploring and understanding - Representing and
formulating - Planning and executing - Monitoring
and reflecting
CRITICAL THINKING / PROBLEM
SOLVING
Idea Generation - Design and Refinement -
Openness and Exploration - Working Creatively -
Creative Production
CREATIVITY
Establishing and maintaining shared understanding -
Taking appropriate action to solve the problem -
Establishing and maintaining team organisation
COLLABORATION / COMMUNICATION
This program is designed to support students via their collaborative
interaction with industry, government, and the broader community to
showcase their innovation and creative potential in addressing some
of the most challenging problems facing our society, locally,
nationally, and internationally.
REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS

4. CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING
The Challenge Based Learning (CBL) framework is collaborative
and hands-on, asking all participants (students, teachers,
families, and community members) to identify Big Ideas, ask
good questions, identify and solve Challenges, gain in-depth
subject area knowledge, develop 21st-century skills, and share
their thoughts with the world.
Challenge Based Learning provides an efficient and effective
framework for learning while solving real-world Challenges.

5. HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN
EMPATHISE TEST
IDEATE
DEFINE PROTOTYPE
CLARIFICATION
Clarify the part of
the problem that
will be specifically
considered
CREATION
Creating a
workable iteration
of the solution
through proposal
and modelling.
EMPATHY
Understand who
and how people
are effected by an
issue
CREATIVITY
Generate ideas
and plans to
address the
problem.
ANALYSIS
Putting the solution in
place (where possible), or
presenting it to
stakeholders to consider
viability and suitability.
IMPLEMENT
SOLUTION
Translating a
tested idea into
practice and
evaluating the
outcomes.

6. REAL WORLD
CONNECTIONS
Students tackled the Technology in Agriculture Challenge to
design adjustments to Australia’s food production systems
that would improve quality and availability while minimizing
costs. Their solution involved an integrated system of
vertical farming, harvesting, packing and transportation to
ensure produce was available with minimal time and travel
from farm to plate.
EMHS YOUTH INNOVATION THINK TANK
Students convened at Royal Perth Hospital and worked with
Health Professionals as mentors to consider issues relating
to youth access to mental health services. The solution
created dove-tailed with those of other teams to offer real
value to the hospital in implementing meaningful change.
NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK HACKATHON

7. REAL WORLD
CONNECTIONS
Students have worked on two Health and Wellbeing Challenges – the Hospital
Immersion Challenge aiming to assist Professor Fiona Wood with viable
solutions for improved COVID-19 management technologies, systems and
practices within her operating theatre environment at Fiona Stanley
Hospital. The current challenge is offered by a team of Upper Gastrointestinal
surgeons to develop long-term educational solutions to the increasing incidence
of lifestayle related health conditions in Australia.
WATER CORPORATION THINK TANK
Students contributed solutions to the WA Water Corporation in response to
challenges around excessive domestic water consumption.
STEM4INNOVATION

8. The programs adopted under TIDES always require
students to make choices and commit to bringing
their own personal interests and capabilities to
engage in ways that are personally relevant.
PERSONAL RELEVANCE
The ways of working in TIDES create natural conditions
for POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE – circumstances
where the only way to successfully achieve outcomes is
when every team member commits to and fulfills their
responsibilities; and all team members are responsible
for team dynamics.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
STUDENT
AGENCY

9. IMPACTS
Students have the opportunity throughout TIDES
to direct and define their own learning
experiences, and to contribute to reports the
progress of themselves and their peers.
Personal Learning
TIDES creates conditions where it is
not enough to simply know about
something, students must be able to
apply and extend the skills that turn
knowing into purposeful activity.
Connecting Skills and Knowledge
Students begin to develop greater
awareness and connection to future
pathways and opportunities.
Futures Awareness
By working with stakeholders outside the school ,
students have the opportunity to develop insights
into the structures of industry, and to become
known by stakeholders in those industries.
Industry Connections
All aspects of working in TIDES
requires students to consistently
practice and demonstrate the full
scope of future-ready attributes.
21st Century Skills

10. IMPACTS
Students discover new dimensions to traditional
industries. The unseen but very exciting new
developments in Health, Science, Technology, etc.
Igniting New Interests
Students discover the relevance of
their learning journeys as the
outcomes are directly related to real
world issues, and often personally
connected.
Relevance of Learning
All students, but especially young
women and girls, begin to consider
STEM pathways as valid options and
gateways to related careers.
Women in STEM
By working on projects across a range of contexts
students are able to repurpose, refine, revise and
re-evaluate work they are already deeply invested
in – thereby expanding scope and depth of
engagement.
Extended Scope and Depth
Throughout the work in TIDES
students regularly find themselves
creating new expressions, new ideas,
new products, new systems etc.
Learning is seen as a creative rather
than a passive process.
Becoming Creators

11. • The TIDES program is
established
• Students introduced to
expectations
• New ways of working and
community connections.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
• Review and refine
strategies
• Establish community
partnerships and activities
• Build internal links across
learning areas.
• PCACS becomes
regional hub for
innovative learning
• TIDES leads and shapes
new opportunities and
student-devised learning
• Develop unique
PCACS-led activities
• Consolidate
expectations for staff,
students and families.
• TIDES and associated
priorities and attitudes
embedded in school culture
• TIDES provides unique and
adaptive experiences for
PCACS students.

12. S c i e n c e T e c h n o l o g y E n g i n e e r i n g A r t s M a t h e m a t i c s
TIDES COORDINATOR
Kim Flintoff
TIDES Coordinator
kflintoff@pcacs.wa.edu.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimflintoff/