FUTURE LEARNING MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 2021
Airseed Technologies World from Scratch
LING Ghana Ohmie Lamp Zero Positive Corinda SHS
Environment For Future Thinking Teachers - Brought to you by STEM Punks®
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Editor’s Note
This month we celebrated National Walk to Work Day at STEM Punks, but instead of walking to work - as some of our team work remotely and this would be impossible - we walked AT work. We took time out to meet in nature instead of in our office by having our team meeting walking a five kilometre nature trail. We are fortunate that the environment surrounding our Head Office here in Australia consists of many walking trails, creeks, State Forests, and Nature Reserves. The benefits of being in nature are well documented. From lifting moods, increased concentration, decreased blood pressure, better memory retention, and even reducing stress and anxiety, nature has the answer. What does your home or work environment look like? Can you increase time spent in nature? In this issue we’ve seen some great environmental initiatives, such as drone-operated mass seed planting, lamps made from orange peel, and some terrific overseas examples of sustainability in action such as World From Scratch in the USA and our Smart Garden tool in use in Ghana. Closer to home we learn about the Zero Positive initiative helping schools achieve netzero emissions, while Corinda State High School show us their fantastic Smart Farm. Our next issue is all about Space, so please get in touch if you have a STEM related story about Space. Fiona Holmstrom Editor & Publisher BFA (CW) MWEP fiona@stempunks.com.au
In this issue
03 Thought Leadership 05 LING Ghana - Testimonials 06 Corinda SHS 10 Airseed Technologies 12 World From Scratch 13 Ohmie Lamp 14 Zero Positive Contributors Writing by Julie Scott at Julie Scott Writing Services Graphic designer Leticia Packer at Arara digital creative For advertising enquiries, contact hello@stempunks.com.au Have a STEM related story for Future Learning magazine? fiona@stempunks.com.au
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The importance of environment for learning by Michael Holmstrom STEM Punks CEO
I grew up in a small town in Sweden where the winters were long, and the summers were short. I spent most of my teenage years in the garage making things, breaking things, and learning really fast how to fail. I have some vivid memories of upgrading my dad’s small whipper-snipper to a lethal tree cutting tool. I remember turning my first bike into a motorbike to my parent’s surprise and fear for what was about to come. The environment that I was in was a very open environment where I was able to explore, I was able to fail, and so I learnt really fast. I learnt by doing, by watching other people do and fail. The winters are long in Sweden and very dark so having this environment for creativity was a great asset to me and in many ways shaped who I am today. I’ve been fortunate enough in the latter part of my journey working with kids and young adults to embrace the mindset of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. I once worked with a group of foster care kids. These guys had a very rough background, being emotionally and physically abused since a very early age. This particular topic for the day was innovation and creativity using drones. In walked this group of kids, they all had hoodies on and I couldn’t see their faces. They were all looking away and weren’t interested in engaging at all. I spent five days with these kids and after the second day the hoodies came off and they started talking and interacting with the other kids in the room. The carers of this group were amazed; they couldn’t believe that these kids were talking let alone engaging. The learning outcomes of coding drones was not important - engagement, trust, and fearless behaviour were much more important. So why did this happen? Well, I think because we provided an environment where they felt safe to come out of their comfort zones. They felt safe to fail and explore and learn, and that’s what made all the difference. They were no longer afraid, and they all had a sense of “I can do it, and I will”. Having a great environment to learn and explore in is key to build resilience and to learn by doing. At STEM Punks we embrace this concept in all our programs to attract a diverse group of students. See the full TEDx talk from the STEM Punks CEO in the video below.
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LING Smart Garden
Teacher Testimonials Miss Shamsiya Abdula from Northern Ghana’s Methodist Experimental J.H School spoke about the STEM Punks Smart Garden tools and her positive expectations that these practical tools will have in developing interest and building confidence for her students learning STEM. “We are hoping to engage with them for three weeks to enable us to tap into a practical approach to learn science, uses of STEM, and to use the Smart Garden tools. We are also going to be taken through the coding process with STEM Punks and we will learn how to use the Smart Garden tools to make a determination of soil, water, moisture and temperature. “This practical learning approach fits perfectly with our curriculum. It exposes our girls to practical, realworld learning and it goes a long way to supporting their confidence. We are happy that by the end of the sessions, it will encourage these girls to aspire into science, with their careers in the future.”
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“Thank you to LING Project and STEM Punks.”
Educator Madam Feruza from Ghana’s Nathanzoo Primary School spoke enthusiastically about the STEM Punks Smart Garden tools. “We asked them to make learning more child-centric and less of a task centred approach. The application of technology in learning is lacking on our side of the world. So, we were happy to use the Smart Garden tool to explore soil moisture and temperature. We also used WhatApp and the Merge Cube.” “We are very thankful for the period of engagement, and we look forward to collaborating in the near future. Kudos to STEM Punks for hosting a great workshop and to all those whose contribution has made this workshop possible. We say thank you.” NOVEMBER 2021
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Corinda SHS
School Spotlight
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Agricultural Innovation
The farm at Corinda is not really a farm – it’s a living laboratory, and an integral part of the agricultural course at Corinda State High School, one of Brisbane’s leading co-educational public schools. The nine-acre Smart Farm lines the banks of Oxley Creek and is situated in a beautiful, leafy setting in the western suburbs of Brisbane just 20 minutes from the CBD. A unique asset to the school, the farm has evolved since its establishment in the early 1960s into an agricultural innovation hub boasting cutting-edge programs and facilities, including animal husbandry with cattle, goats, sheep and alpacas, egg production and grading, beekeeping and harvesting of honey, hydroponics/ aquaponics, and maintenance of a full market garden, allowing students to experience the future of sustainable farming. Renowned for offering learning experiences that have not been previously available in schools, Corinda’s unique selection of agricultural learning opportunities are built on the following pillars: • Agriculture and the 21st Century Learner - ensure that educational priorities such as research, inquiry and problem solving are key features of our Farm’s purpose. • Design and Build – ensure the Smart Farm is prioritised as a valuable learning hub where students design, build and test concepts towards developing the critical skills linked to future employment. • Farm Curriculum Integration – develop Smart Farm concepts and units of work, which are integrated into the Curriculum. • Agriculture Innovation – establish innovative technologies in Agriculture Science that emphasise the elements of the Smart Farm so students conceptualise the future of farming and contemporary practice. • Global Footprint – showcase Smart Farming systems that illustrate viable technology and automation in agriculture on the global stage.
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This year, Corinda’s Agricultural Science department introduced a range of farm sensors to gather data to inform students about the Farm’s health and develop a dashboard to monitor these variants. From this data, students can make decisions about productivity, profitability, efficiency and sustainable practices. There are currently two LoRaWAN networks installed that gather data from a range of sensors that include a weather station, soil and moisture sensors, tank water supply, micro greenhouse station, NDVI monitoring station, and sap flow metres. This project will expand to include student-built devices made from BBC micro:bits and Raspberry Pi that will also gather data. Corinda has an ongoing partnership with the Oxley Common which gives the Agriculture program room to grow beyond the school’s farm gates. In addition, the Farm boasts many industry connections including the University of Queensland and the University of NSW who were jointly involved in the Neck Band Solar Sensor Project. The Farm also conducts joint emersion classes in relation to Smart Farming and IT with Ga-On High School in Korea. For more information about the Farm at Corinda State High School, please visit https:// corindashs.eq.edu.au/facilities/agricultural-farm. Corinda Smart Farm Fun Facts • Residents at the Farm include 40 head of cattle, 26 Suffolk sheep, 3 Boer goats, 21 Barnevelder chickens, 40 Commercial Brown chooks, and 1 Barnevelder rooster, 3 Huacaya alpacas, 10 bee hives. • Watermelons, sweetcorn, peas, and assorted small plot mixed vegetables are grown on the Farm. The Farm also raises lots of flowering plants, herbs, and trees in the greenhouse which are for sale, planting out, and as part of a native tree planting scheme with a local group. • In addition to the nine acres at the school, the Farm utilises 100 acres at the neighbouring Oxley Common. • The Farm has bred a state finalist for junior sheep judging at the Royal Brisbane Exhibition (the Ekka).
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• Corinda also has a student bee keeper named Jaymi Sleight who runs his own honey business out of the Farm using grant money received as part of a business entrepreneurship initiative established by Helen Jamieson, Corinda State High School’s Principal.
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Airseed Technologies The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates that since 1990, four hundred and twenty million hectares of forest have been lost due to conversion to agriculture and other land uses. According to the Global Forest Watch Project, 15 billion trees are cut down each year. Deforestation and forest degradation contribute significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity because forests are often more diverse than other ecosystems. They provide habitat for not just trees, but also a diverse range of plants, animals, fungi, and micro-organisms. Forests are also vital to combating climate change as they act as a ‘carbon sink,’ because they sequester large quantities of carbon and other greenhouse gases.
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Fortunately, an ambitious Australian start-up, Airseed Technologies, is committed to challenging this trend and is aiming to plant 100 million trees by 2024. How is this possible? Traditional hand sown planting is slow, labour intensive, and expensive. Airseed Technologies have brought together specialists across engineering, agriculture, marine and terrestrial microbiology to develop a high tech, rapid response solution. They utilise drone technology, artificial and data driven intelligence. Any area identified for reforestation is mapped and analysed for its topology, vegetation, and soils before a specialised seed pod is developed based upon the analysis. Drone ‘hoppers’ are then used to autonomously fly pre-programmed flight to predetermined planting patterns using GPS coordinates. This aerial delivery system is estimated to be twenty-five times faster than traditional planting methods. After the seed pods have been delivered to an identified area, ongoing aerial assessment and analysis of the forest canopy and biomass is calculated at intervals, to assess the success of the reforestation process. This is a terrific example of what can be achieved through bringing together the expertise of specialists from across a range of STEM fields. Further information about Airseed Technologies can be located at https://airseedtech.com 10
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World From Scratch
Jeremy Thiesen
Image caption Jeremy Thiesen is founder of the not-for-profit organisation, World from Scratch. STEM Punks spoke with Jeremy about his vision for affordable housing, the sustainable housing movement, and use of technologies that could significantly reduce habitation costs and negate the need for people to ‘work for a living.’ About ten years ago during a leadership course, Jeremy was asked to “imagine yourself as a blank slate, free of obligations, responsibilities, duties and free of relationships, skills and of the limits that you put on yourself. There are no limits to what you can do. If you were to take all that in, what would you do in the world? The answer didn’t occur to him straight away and he explained, “when you have a discussion around a barbecue, ‘what do you do’ is the first question, I guess that is what defines you as a person. The person says, I’m a banker, a lawyer, or an engineer. And it’s like, well hang on, what are you really passionate about? Then that’s the true passion, the true personality comes out.” Jeremy explained, “what if we all had that freedom to do what we wanted to do and go out there in the world and just go for it?” Jeremy realised that his passion was to help create affordable housing for people. ‘Working for a living’ is time consuming and prevents people from pursuing their real passions. He posed the question, “what if we had a house that took care of you? Instead of how we take care of our houses. If we flip that model and once you get a house that takes care of you, then you can have all the freedom.” Jeremy discussed the sustainable housing movement, the use of solar technologies to provide electricity, recycled water and cheap land that can often be purchased just outside of the urban sprawl. “I live 30 minutes outside of the city, but then I can follow whatever dream and do whatever I want in my life. I don’t have all these other things on me. That is what we’re doing.” More information about World from Scratch can be found at https://worldfromscratch.org
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Ohmie Lamp Did you know that Italy produces approximately 700 000 tonnes of waste from its citrus production each year? An innovative start-up called Krill Design has developed a sustainable design solution to re-purposing some of this problematic bio-resource waste through the development of the Ohmie Lamp - ‘The Orange Lamp’. Following several years of development, Krill Designs devised a process to convert the citrus bio-waste into a bio-polymeric material that is suitable for 3D printing. Small organic pellets are created, and 3D printers are then used to print each circular lamp. The lamp is fully functional, and when the lamp is switched on, the heat of the globe warms the lamp so that it emits a gentle citrus scent. At the end of its lifespan, the lamp is able to be fully composted. The Ohmie Lamp amply demonstrates that creative thinking and sustainable design can contribute elegant solutions to food waste problems. For more information on the Ohmie Lamp, go to: https://www.ohmie-krilldesign.net/
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by Katie Norman Sustainable Schools Network
We’re not for profit — We’re for Zero One of Zero Positive for Schools’ Founders was listening to Dr Karl on the radio when a young person called in and asked about climate change, “What’s going to happen if we don’t change?”, the young person asked. After a long pause Dr Karl responded with, “There have been five recognised mass extinction events in which 90% of all species died, you’re living in the sixth.” This sparked the realisation that we (the adults) needed to assist schools and their students in being a part of the change required.
Schools are uniquely placed to lead the way in shortand long-term sustainable emissions reductions
Zero Positive for Schools is a world-first emissions reduction program, endorsed by the United Nations, developed specifically to empower Australian schools and their communities with the right tools, education, support and abatement to begin the journey towards reaching net zero emissions targets and becoming climate positive. There are 9543 schools in Australia that combined are one of the largest scope 2 emitters in the country. As a not-for-profit organisation, our goal is for schools and communities in every country across the world to reach net-zero by 2030, starting with the 9,543 schools and their 4 million students across Australia. The Zero Positive approach is built upon the United Nations, Climate Neutral Now initiative: To achieve being climate positive, we must measure what we emit and then reduce those emissions. Even with our best efforts to reduce, daily activities and business operations will result in unavoidable emissions. This is why offsetting, only after measuring and reducing, is key for climate neutrality. Reaching net zero emissions is a three-step process, which requires schools to: 1. Measure their climate footprint; 2. Reduce their emissions as much as possible; 3. Offset what they cannot reduce.
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Schools are uniquely placed to lead the way in short- and long-term sustainable emissions reductions. Zero Positive will provide the practical pathways, technology and know-how to support real change in schools and their wider communities. Wherever your school is on its carbon reduction journey, having a strategic roadmap, educational resources and a dedicated buddy to guide you is crucial to successful outcomes. Zero Positive offers a whole-of-school education program to reduce your school’s carbon footprint, effect lasting behavioural change, meet the challenges of maintaining budgets, high-quality facilities, and strong educational outcomes, while addressing rising consumption and economic costs. We believe in partnerships and building the capacity of schools to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 17 – ‘partnerships for the goals’ is at the heart of our work which is evidenced by the organisations involved in Zero Positive for Schools. Solar Schools, Rumbletown, EcoForce Global, Radian Energy and the Sustainable Schools Network are all collaborators working together to ensure schools have all the support they need to reach net zero and beyond. An authentic program, using real data to make invisible concepts like energy tangible, Zero Positive for Schools not only takes action to address climate change now, but will develop student confidence and skills to become advocates for our planet and future. We are registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and have signed the UN’s Climate Neutral Now Pledge, and invite you to join us. If you’d like to get involved, email info@zeropositive.org to start your zero positive journey. NOVEMBER 2021
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STEM Punks Ventures Pty Ltd ABN: 51 620 117 348 Phone: +61 7 3289 5092 Email: hello@stempunks.com.au Web: www.stempunks.com.au iLearn: www.stempunks.com STEM Punks respectfully acknowledges the First Nations people as the first scientists, first engineers, and first innovators, and we pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
For Future Thinking Teachers - Brought to you by STEM Punks®