The creative juices were flowing at Murrumbidgee Regional High School, where students are coming up with designs for a citrus sculpture to represent the merged school in 2020.
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Students from MRHS and Griffith Public School went on a joint "workplace engagement" excursion to learn the finer points of design and brainstorm ideas of their own.
The first stop was the Visitors Information Centre, where Georgina Horton explained the intricacies behind the sculptures' design and the rubber band system that holds it all together.
Afterwards they took a tour of the sculptures to get some artistic inspiration before heading to the Careri Gardens.
There they learnt from Collier and Miller engineer Paul Giovinazzo, the man behind over a dozen of the citrus sculptures on Banna Avenue.
The event was part of Regional Development Australia's SISP program, which aims to inspire students to consider a STEM career through local industries.
The students will incorporate STEM into their design for a modern twist, such as solar panels or programmable nanochips to make the sculpture light up and make noise.
MRHS careers councillor Melina Ragusa, who is running the project, said it was a good way for students to get a foot in the door and connect with Griffith's industries.
"It is a real lesson about what students can learn locally with businesses," she said.
"It also challenges the way schools interact with business and increase their interactions with students.
MRHS instructional leader Jenna Woodland said the project would also train teamwork and communication skills that would make them vital assets in the job market.
"They used 21st Century skills including creativity and innovation, collaboration and team work, critical thinking and problem solving and communication," Mrs Woodland said.
"The idea is to plan, design, seek feedback and critique, redesign, seek feedback, critique and so on - all higher order thinking skills," Mrs Woodland said.
Student leaders will be peer-coaching other students and coming up with a design for MRHS and Griffith Public School.
Once the designs get greenlit they'll be using their newfound engineering skills to put the sculpture together in time for next year's Spring Festival.
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Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
