Digital Technologies Junior Job Kit

YEAR 5-6

CAREERSwithSTEM

™

JUNIOR JOB KIT

Digital

Technologies Fun activities, career stories and real-world tech!

SUSTAINABILITY + HEALTH + SPACE + MORE

INTRODUCTION

DIGITAL : S E I G O TEC HNOL er world t t e b a g n i t a C re

they're changing the world! e us ca Be s? gie olo hn tec l ita Why study dig

Digital tech is more than just coding : it helps us connect, lets us learn about our own and other cultures and can make the world a better place!

The magic of 3D printing

• Artificial limbs from 3D printing

• Helping people with disabilities

• Saving money

BEN MITCHELL / SHUTTERSTOCK

Australian engineer Mat Bowtell makes and gives away 3D-printed body parts to people who need them. Read more

Have you ever used a 3D printer at school? First, you create a design using a digital design program such as Tin kercad. Then, the 3D prin ter makes you r design come to life. It’s like mag ic, but it’s actually tech nology!

The 3D printer works by creating man y layers of a materia l such as plastic. One great use of 3D printing is making artificia l limbs for people who have lost an arm or leg. These limbs are light, cheap and made to fit each person.

But that’s not the only use of 3D prin ting. This tech nology can also be used to bui ld cheaper homes and special med ical equ ipment that’s made just for you .

There are also many other ways tech nology is used in hea lth and med icine. This can be as simple as a fitness tracker or as complex as usin g artificia l intelligence (AI) to check med ical images for signs of disease.

Mick Ebeling, founder of Not Impossible Labs, made South Sudan's first 3D-printed prosthetics lab. Look Inside.™: Mick Ebeling | Intel Read more: Project: Daniel | Not Impossible Labs Did you know?

Amsterdam is home to the world's first 3D-printed steel bridge.

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Sharing culture Digital tech can help preserve First Nations languages. For example, First Languages Australia made a digital map called ‘Gambay’, which displays and showcases more than 780 First Nations languages. Have a look here Watch Pink, the humanoid robot, in action at the Maitland Lutheran School. Click here

• First Nations Australian lan • Digital story telling • Sharing cultures

guages

l for sharing and Digital tech is a great too tions Peoples and learning about First Na ita l story tel ling tools, their cultures. With dig world ’s oldest we ca n lea rn about the their stories. For continu ing cu ltu res and ral South Australia used example, a school in ru dents ca lled Pin k to teach stu a litt le hu ma noid robot the of e ag cu ltu re and langu and teachers about the get nts de Not on ly did the stu local Na ru ngga people. w ho t rn and Place – they lea to connect with Country e! to code at the sa me tim

The Empathy Museum uses tech such as virtual reality (VR) to help you see life through another person's eyes.

For example, from the perspective of a refugee or a person with a disability. Look here

The future of work • More jobs • New skills • Remote work The way we work is changing and digital tech is leading the way! With digital skills, you could get a job in many exciting areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence and data analysis. Plus, thanks to digital tech, you could work remotely as part of a team of people from around the world.

Learn what it’s like to work from home for Atlassian, a big tech company that was started by an Australian.

Click here

Connections and caring

• Connecting online • Vir tual reality • Safe spaces

See 10 STEM careers you could land with a computer science degree. Click here

Watch Mikaela Jade’s story of creating a business that uses augmented reality (AR) to connect people with Country and tell stories from one of the world’s oldest continuing cultures. Watch here

Did you know? By 2027, Digital tech helps us about 2.6 billion people understand and are expected to be using connect with others.

AR and VR. *Statista For example, virtual reality can make us feel ces. This can help us like we are in different pla e’s viewpoint and lets us see life from someone els each other better. Digital understand and care for safe online spaces. In tech also helps us create connect, share their these spaces, people can other. stories and support each

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

SUSTAINABILITY

t e g s ’ t e L ! e l b a n i susta of the best tools we have Digital technologies are some eryone on Earth to build a brighter future for ev

is they can out digital technologies ab s ing th ing az am the and data One of . Did you know that tech ble ina sta su re mo rld wo ies like make our through renewable energ ge an ch te ma cli t ba com can help us use digital nd energy? We can also solar power, hydro and wi ng, preserve fast forests are disappeari technologies to track how and create smarter, d stories about Country, Indigenous knowledge an ). atering gardens and parks cleaner cities (think: self-w gineer and en are tw sof uld become a co u Yo s? job am dre for As endangered scientist who helps save ta da a p, ap g lin yc rec a ne pilot! create als from bushfires as a dro im an e cu res uld co u yo species or

Virtual park ranger

career snapshots

Name: Mikaela Jade Industry: Education Cool tech used: Artificial int elligence, machine learning, vir tual reality headse ts, 3D sof tware Skills: Maths, design, codin g, problem solving, programming Mikaela, a Cabrogal woman, was a park ranger, until she realised she could use technolog y to share First Nations culture and Country with the world. She does thi s using vir tual reality headsets and augme nted reality, a technolog y that helps you see a computergenerated image over the top of a real-world place, like in Pokemon GO.

Love gaming? Help protect the Great Barrier Reef by playing a mobile game called KATOA: Grow & Nurture Oceans!

Digital technologies like smart cameras and GPS are being used to make beaches in Manly and Lake Macquarie safer for everyone.

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City Planner Name: Dr Soheil Sabri Industry: Technology and urban planning Cool tech used: Digital twins, maps and computer data Skills: Planning, using computers and maps, teamwork, problem solving Dr Soheil Sabri uses tech to make cities nicer places to live. Right now, he’s working on ‘digital twins’, which are like mini cities inside a computer! These virtual models can help us make choices, like where to build a bus stop or building, that have a minimal impact on the planet and people.

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BEN MITCHELL / SHUTTERSTOCK

Autonomous (or self-driving) cars could soon be everywhere, making travel safer by reducing accidents. See an autonomous car in action here

Things to do...

Design a ‘smart park’ You might have heard of smart cities and smart houses. Read through the list below. What digital technologies might be used in a park?

 Sensors

 Cameras

 Data

 Robots

 AI

 Internet of Things

 Drones

The Smart Gardens project in Singapore uses

Learn how to create a smart garden device to monitor the health of your plants, measuring temperature and wiring up a simple soil moisture sensor.

This activity on the Digital Technologies Hub uses BBC micro:bit and Blockly.

Click here!

digital technologies to save energy, improve security, kee p plants watered and soil hea lthy!

Read more here

Design a wearable Smart devices can include things like fitn ess trackers that monitor heart rate and track distance and location. Your task is to inve nt a wearable device that could track informa tion that can help us understand more about the way people use our cities. Use the followin g questions to design your device:

i. What is the device? ii. What does it measure? iii. Why might we need this information?

iv. Show your device to a friend, relative or teacher. Can they suggest a way in which it could be improved?

[answer: all of the above!]

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

HEALTH & MEDICAL

career snapshots

Heart hero

d n a y p p a H healthy ed to help our Digital technologies can be us ways! minds and bodies in so many

BEN MITCHELL

See how VR technologies in healthcare work at the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments at the University of South Australia. Watch it here Tjuntjuntjara is an Aboriginal community 650 km north east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was cut off from its usual fly-in, fly-out medical staff. Telehealth and digital health technologies allowed the local health service to continue providing care.

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When you go to the doctor, you probably don’t think about all the incredible tech being used to keep you healthy. But there are so many cool examples!

Virtual reality (VR) allows medical professionals to look inside bodies so they can make better decisions about treatments and care. VR can also be used to help kids who feel nervous about medical procedures and operations.

Telehealth is another great digital technology. It allows doctors, specialists and other healthcare workers to provide care via phone or video – handy if you live remotely or can’t leave home! Artificial intelligence (AI) could soon take telehealth to the next level; researchers are using AI to get better information from patients so they can help them recover faster after surgery and track their progress.

Then, there are smart devices, such as fitness watches and even smart toilets, that are equipped with sensors and other tech so they can share information and monitor people’s health.

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Name: Dr Clara Chow Industry: Health and medic al Cool tech used: Artificial int elligence and wearable sensors to hel p patients in their homes Skills: Researching, data analysis, working with sof tware en gineers Dr Clara Chow is a cardiolog ist. Right now, she’s working on an app that sends personalised health advice to people's smartphones based on data it collects from wearable sensors that record things like activit y levels, blo od pressure and heart rate.

VR pro Name: Daniel Paull Industry: Technology and healthcare Cool tech used: Virtual reality (VR), computer graphics, simulation technology Skills: Programming, computer graphics, problem solving, teamwork Daniel Paull is a soft ware engineer who builds special VR games to help doctors and students learn new skills and prepare for trick y operations.

His big goal? To help doctors make fewer mistakes and save more lives.

Things to do...

Data and you Digital technologies can help our health in many ways, but it’s important to consider where our data goes, who can access it and who should own our data. In the table below, list the types of data that could be created by each digital technology and think about who might need to own or have access to this data. We’ve done the first one for you.

Digital technology / service

Data created

Who should or does have access?

Visit to a hospital

Your name and the type of injury you had

The hospital, your doctor, your parents

A smart watch A telehealth call An X-ray Listen to this video on First Nations Australians' data sovereignty here What do you think ‘deficit narrative’ means?

Virtually better In this image, radiation therapy student Natalie Peck is using VR to position a dummy correctly for radiation therapy.

What are three ways VR is used in medicine?

1. ___________________________ 2. ___________________________ 3. ___________________________

BEN ASHMOLE/CAREERS WITH STEM

Imagine a story about someone who lives in a remote area, on a spaceship or even on another planet. How do they get medical help? Who helps them and what technologies do they use? Draw a picture of the system they use to get medical help. Label the technologies included and describe what they do. You could even use an AI image generator to create your picture using text and filter (try this one in Canva)!

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

SPACE & CONSERVATION

Outta ! d l r o w this

s on Earth, it helps so many thing re he rk wo t jus n’t es do y log Techno … all the way from space ble ina sta su re mo be t ne pla r on ou Have you ever heard of NASA? Well, Australia has its own space centre: The Australian Space Agency. It builds space tech that helps monitor weather and events like bushfires and floods so emergency workers can see what’s happening before it gets too bad. Space peeps connect tech that helps farmers know when to plant crops and monitor livestock, and which helps mining companies dig for resources in more sustainable ways.

Other techologies like space stations and satellite dishes keep our internet secure, facilitate internet banking and allow Google Maps to find you the most eco-friendly route. And, of course, there’s the Wi-Fi that lets you learn about STEM from basically anywhere!

ePaddocks is a mission

by CSIRO to use artificial intelligence and satellites to map every paddock across the Australian grain region, making it easier for farmers to use other digital services.

Victorian forest and wildlife officers used drone and infrared technology to search for koalas affected by the bushfires of 2020.

Read more here

career snapshots

Super cool space jobs

Space star

 Space researcher  Robotics engineer  Cyber security specialist  Satellite engineer  Data analyst  Agricultural consultant  Environmental engineer  Space scientist CAREERSwithSTEM.com

Tech detective Name: Alisha Child Industry: Space technology Things Cool Tech Used: Computers, Internet of gy (IoT), satellite technolo Skills: Data analytics, coding, problem solving Alisha is a data engineer at Myriota, an over Australian company that helps machines all k Thin llite. sate via r the world talk to each othe tes upda ing send n of a wind turbine in the ocea s and about how it's doing. Alisha uses her math so s coding skills to understand its message fixing! people can find out if the machine needs

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Name: Jaslyn Gray Industry: Aerospace Cool tech used: Robotics, sim ulation, sensors, projectiles Skills: Researching, progra mming, data analysis, problem solving, working with scientists, engineers and tech experts When she was a child, Jaslyn loved shows like Star Wars and was fascinate d by spacecraf t, robotics and technolog y. No w, she's helping the Air Force to measure dam age to air and space vehicles and structure s.

TINA SMIGIELSKI / SHUTTERSTOCK, COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA 2019

You might not be ready to fly to Mars but there are heaps of great jobs you can explore (as well as being an astronaut!).

Tick which careers you might be interested in.

. . . o d o t s g n i Th manage land You’ve been tasked to be a conservation detective for the Nari Nari Tribal Council. These traditional custodians are using modern and traditional techniques to monitor and improve wildlife conservation, water use and food production. Gayini is a vast 88,000 hectare property owned and managed by the Nari Nari Tribal Council. Together with non-profit organisation The Nature Conservancy and tech company Nearmap, they're using traditional land practices and technology to better manage this important wildlife area that’s part of the Murray Darling Basin.

ANNETTE RUZICKA

Research a land management plan that uses digital technologies to help the council manage this area. Create a presentation to share with your class.

Your questions might include:

1. Where is Gayini and how much land does it cover?

8. D escribe one technology that can help with conservation, and how the data can help people to understand and improve these lands.

2. What wildlife is in the area?

3. What traditional or other crop foods are grown here?

4. Who looks after the land?

Research tools:

•N ew Aerial Technolog y Tack les the Impacts of Climate Change | Nearmap AU • Exploring Gayini - Nari Na ri Country • E yes on Nature: How Satel lite Imagery Is Transforming Conservation Sc ience - Yale E360 • Gayini - Nari Nari Country - ILSC • 5 planet-saving careers using AI + data

5. Who might be interested in a land management plan?

6. W hat types of data can help with land management?

For example, animal populations, water and land maps, maps including data such as temperature or forest cover, the number of people in the area.

7. W hat different technologies can help you gather this information?

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

NEXT STEPS

career snapshots

Game breaker

l a t i g i d e Th e c n e r e f f di discover your dream job to low be as are e th of e on th Match your tech skills wi Tech helps all parts of our world, from your neighbourhood to communities and countries on the other side of the world. Here are some of the ways in which technology is being used across all parts of society, and the careers that bring this tech to life.

BEN MITCHELL / SHUTTERSTOCK

Health

Fashion

Apps like Doctors on Demand mean seeing a doctor is easier to do from anywhere, even remote locations, so people don’t miss out on treatment and care. Job: app developer

Wearable tech – like sm art rings and watches – means pe ople can monitor their body and ma ke sure organs like the heart are healt hy and strong. Job: software designer

Ethics

Sustainability

nce and Using artificial intellige Brainbox e vir tua l rea lity, tech lik anies fig ure uses the law to help comp tware they out if the systems and sof ica l (the are using is legal and eth kes sure right thing to do), and ma . data is being used safely r Job: policy law ye

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Tracking your carbon footprint with apps like Greener can help people make better choices by showing the impact that small actions – like what you buy at the shops – can have on the planet.

Job: environmental engineer

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Name: Rachel Hempensta ll Industry: Technolog y / QA tes ter Cool tech used: Automation scripts like JavaScript and Py thon, gam ing consoles, VR headsets, 3D sof tware Skills: Design, coding, pro blem solving, programming, att ention to detail, writing 'bug' report s Rachel gets paid to play com puter games and try to break them. She's a QA (quality assurance) tester wh ich means she checks that games do wh at they say they’ll do, that the graphics all work and that the user experience (UX ) is the best it can be before games reach your Xbox or PS5. She even used her gam ing know-how to help invent a tra ining tool for helicopters using VR. Ra chel hopes that one day she’ll be able to move into the animation side of game design.

Culture

Goanna Group create tech learning and education so First Nations communities can have access to jobs in the digital world.

Job: STEM educator

Fresh water (Poverty)

From reducing food wa ste to helping poor countries ge t access to clean water with thing s like fog catching nets, solar pump s and inventions like WaterSe er, tech is turning the tables for the better in the places that need it mo st.

Job: digital technician

Things to do...

User testing To create great digital technologies, we need to make sure they work for the audience they’re meant for. Your task is to research a game that can help people understand what it’s like to have a disability that affects your mobility.

Step 1: On sticky notes or a shared board like Padlet, write down everything you can think of about this topic.

Step 2: Share this with a friend and ask them to add to it.

Step 3: Using your brainstormed ideas, plus your own research, decide on some questions you need to ask or problems you need to solve.

Step 4: Design some questions for the people who might use your game.

• Create a presentation for game developers that summarises the information you have learned so far.

• Investigate the user interface section of the Digital Technologies Hub. What activities might help you in the next steps of designing your game?

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

r e n n a l p r e e r a C Your name: Your favourite activity in this job kit: Your favourite career role model: Which of the topics did you like best:

Sustainability

Health & Medical

Space & Conservation

Career ideas: circle your favourite!

STEM educator

Urban planner Founder Agricultural consultant

Telehealth doctor Space scientist Conservationist

Radiation therapist

Engineer

Software engineer Wearables designer

Environmental engineer Smart garden designer

VR creator Computer systems and network manager Data analyst Digital health provider Digital language interpreter

App developer

Robotics engineer

Cyber security specialist

Satellite engineer Data scientist Space researcher

My next steps: you reach your career goal:

• Study digital technologies in high school

• Join a code club

• Watch YouTube videos on gaming, coding or design • Play around with Scratch Careers with STEM is a publication and trademark of Refraction Media.

Copyright © 2023 Refraction Media, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner or form without written permission. If you would like to reproduce anything from this magazine, or inquire about advertising, please email: info@refractionmedia.com.au.

• E xplore cool digital artwork on OpenProcessing • Read about careers on CareerswithSTEM.com • Talk to my parents about technolog y and how it's used This Job Kit was funded by Google for The University of Adelaide CSER STEM Professional Learning Team.

This edition was published on 1 August 2023. Cover image by Ben Mitchell

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