BUDDING entrepreneurs at Canadian Lead faced making a tower from marshmallows and spaghetti as their first design mission.
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Their constructions and approach to the task impressed teachers and business leaders in the opening session to the STEMpreneur program, encouraging pupils to think big for future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
For grade four pupil Archie, these are his favourite subjects at school. He hopes to become a palaeontologist or maybe an astronomer when he grows up but said the program has already got him thinking bigger about what he could already achieve.
The grade 4-6 composite class will spend 12 school weeks working with mentors from the Australian Business Community Network in the nbn program to develop an app. They will pitch their project against seven other schools nationwide.
WATCH BELOW: How Canadian Lead pupils make an apple and orange into a bongo drum.
Lesson one was learning about what makes an entrepreneur, playing with electronics and the marshmallow tower challenge - Archie said the tower secret was in a supportive base and sticky structure.
This is the second consecutive year Canadian Lead has taken part in STEMpreneur. Canadian Lead principal Darlene Cameron said children enjoyed following processes used in the professional, creative STEM industry, like design-sprints and pitching ideas.
"There is a real genuine idea collaboration between students in understanding what it is to work as a team," Ms Cameron said. "When it was put to us to take part again, we were just thrilled. We knew what was offered last year and the conversations this sparked with parents and the community in problem-solving."
Canadian Lead pupils last year designed and pitched an app to help monitor their behaviour and emotions.
Nation Broadband Network's Ebony Aitken said nbn research showed 7000 new jobs will be created by 2021 in STEM industries and by 2030, three in four Australians would spend more time using STEM and entrepreneurial skills in the workforce.
Ms Aitken said the STEMpreneur was an exciting way to start equipping school children with such skills and to show them they were using science, technology, engineering and mathematics more than they might realise. Like making a marshmallow and spaghetti tower stand.
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