St Augustine’s STEM team wins National Award with the Innovative Commotion Controller
Three St Augustine’s Primary School, Coffs Harbour, students won the 2021 STEM MAD Event in the ‘Wellbeing Category - Primary School’ section. (16 November 2021)
Congratulations to St Augustine’s Primary School, Coffs Harbour, Year 6 students Maggie, Harper and Malia for coming first place in the 2021 STEM MAD (Make A Difference) Competition in the Wellbeing Primary School Category.
STEM MAD is a National competition that encourages students in Catholic Schools to address real-world problems and to ‘Make a Difference’ in the world by acting for justice and the common good. Participants were required to identify the way their solution or product intends to make a difference through the lens of Catholic Stewardship, solidarity, common good, citizenship, humanity and wellbeing.
Earlier in the year, the St Augustine’s team won the Diocesan level of the competition, gaining a hard-earned place in the virtual National competition alongside finalists from other Catholic schools around Australia.
The St Augustine's team concept was called the ‘Commotion Controller’. This idea is a visual cue for students to know when they’re getting too loud in the classroom. The product is designed to increase student focus in the class and support students with sensory needs. Their invention was also placed in the Top 3 across all primary school categories.
‘The students persisted with this project when they came up against technical obstacles and, using their newfound skills, re-programmed the device to better suit the classroom setting,’ said Principal Peter Watts.
‘We had such fun trying to solve the difficult problems. It was a lot of trial and error,’ said the team.
You can learn more about their design process and prototype in their video submission.