I recently had the privilege of attending Catholic Education Melbourne’s STEM Making A Difference (MAD) Showcase at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne.

The Showcase is designed to acknowledge and promote STEM learning initiatives that address real-world problems and demonstrate how students in Catholic schools take action that matters.

There were over 40 schools, including both primary and secondary schools, with 60 teams of students exhibiting.

The design brief was to develop a product, service or innovation to help others and that will ‘make a difference’ (MAD).

The main aims of the event were to:

• CELEBRATE students taking action that makes a difference
• SHOWCASE deep learning
• ENGAGE schools in effective STEM based multidisciplinary inquires
• PROMOTE high quality STEM education for future focused learning
• CONTEXTUALISE STEM in the core curriculum
• ENACT SOCIAL JUSTICE for the Common Good

Some of the innovations included a mobility walking device, original app designs, stair climbing wheelchair, an arcade game and an elephant ball. It was a fantastic exhibition of innovative thinkers and problem solvers, who represent Catholic School students.