August 2007 Update
C2C in August 2007
The month of August has been especially busy and productive with the start of the Tenix Aerospace UAV project, Science Alive at the Wayville Showgrounds and Science @ the Lakes activities at Mawson Lakes as well as a whole host of Lean Manufacturing Workshops, OHS&W Workshops and C2C idea development.
The Tenix Aerospace Genesis UAV Project is being piloted (pun intended) by 4 schools, Parafield Gardens High School, Riverton & Districts High School, Valley View Secondary School and The Heights School. About 62 year 11 Physics students have accepted the UAV Challenge developed by Mal Tutty from Tenix Aerospace.
Students are required to learn to fly remote controlled aircraft, fit the aircraft with sensors and collect specified data. There have been a number of technical malfunctions with the aircraft so far (otherwise known as prangs) and we are not sure if students are getting better at flying or repairing.
On the 15 August the UAV students and teachers attended a UAV Workshop day at UniSA, Mawson Lakes.
They went to seminars conducted by Tenix Aerospace, UniSA, DSTO and University of Adelaide UAV and aeronautical experts. This was followed by lunch at Parafield Airport and an airside tour of the airport. Back at UniSA they had ground school instruction from another UAV expert and a go at the flying simulators.
Next stop will be a tour with Tenix Aerospace in late September. In the meantime they are working on research, project management plans and trying to become UAV pilots.
Watch for more Industry projects with BAE Systems planning to kick start another robotics based project and GM Holden an engineering challenge which will carry over into 2008.
Well done to the NAMIG team who talked and talked and talked to the 1000s of people who attended the Science Alive - Science Weekend on 11 & 12 August. The Science Alive organisers are to be congratulated with over 20,000 science enthusiasts attending over the 2 day event.
The longest science week in history (I believe it was 16 days long) also included the highly successful annual Science @ the Lakes at UniSA, Mawson Lakes. The NAMIG contribution was a series of Lean Manufacturing Workshops conducted by the NAMIG team- thanks Bob. Also a great effort from Guy Wallis from Intercad who gave up his day and gave Test Drive CAD workshops to student groups. Keith Ladd from Parafield TafeSA also performed beyond the call of duty when he worked with 3 schools on a Flying Challenge on his rostered day off. (Keith then rocked up to the SA Museum on Saturday for more science promotion)
And last but not least, The Future Thinking for Future Scientists Youth Forum on 27 August at Innovation House was an impressive morning. Dr Alex Grant and Dr Mel McDowell met with 48 students from 9 area schools to give their views on the careers they have chosen. They then set a series of discussion questions for the student teams who then brought their take on the subjects – Information Theory and Sheep Genome Research - back to the group. It was a very impressive gathering of students engaging with two exceptional young research scientists. One thing is for sure Science and Northern Adelaide do mix!
Thanks go to the Science @ The Lakes Committee which includes UniSA, the Delfin Corporation, the City of Salisbury, Rotary, local schools and NAMIG assisted by the Tall Poppies Campaign who worked to make this special event a great ending to Science “Week”.
By the end of August a rough estimate of over 600 students from over 20 schools had a significant C2C experience. This couldn’t have happened without the many organisations and people who made this possible.
Here’s just a short list of the organisations in no particular order. I won’t list the people – we would run out of room.
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UniSA UniSA Peer Mentors University of Adelaide DSTO Delfin Mawson Centre Adelaide Airport Ltd (Parafield Airport) Tenix Aerospace Parafield TafeSA Tall Poppies Campaign Science Alive Science @ The Lakes Committee RAAF Alex Grant and Mel McDowell Intercad NAMIG Team Craigmore High School Endeavour College |
Tyndale Christian The Heights School Paralowie R -12 Trinity Blakeview College Temple Christian College Trinity Senior College St Michael’s College St Francis de Sales College Virginia Primary Whitefriars College St Martin’s College Riverton and Districts High School Salisbury High School Salisbury East High School Smithfield Plains High School Valley View Secondary School Para Hills High School Parafield Gardens High School |
PS – Almost forgot – the Year 11 Science Class from Salisbury High School went on a tour of Tenix Aerospace facilities at the RAAF base as well.
Cheers
Connie Woodberry
