STEM CPP CASE STUDY 
Western Sydney High School

This case study describes the implementation of the STEM Community Partnerships 
Program (STEM CPP) at a high school in Western Sydney, focusing on 2023. The STEM 
CPP aims to create strong partnerships between local schools and industry, with the 
goal of highlighting local STEM careers and opportunities and providing avenues for 
students to develop their STEM skills in an engaging and rewarding way.

Context

The high school that is the focus of this case study has chosen 
not to be identified; it is located in the Greater Western Sydney 
region of Sydney. The school offers years 7 to 12 and school 
enrolments were less than 1,000 in 2023. The school’s ICSEA1 
value is over the Australian median of 1,000. The school first 
became involved in the STEM CPP program in 2022 and is 
currently involved in a number of other STEM or STEM-related 
programs and activities. The school took part in most aspects 
of STEM CPP including the student inquiry project, student 
showcase, and industry mentor. At the school in 2022, only 
year 9s were involved in STEM CPP, but in 2023 students from 
years 7, 8, 9, and 10 participated. STEM CPP is run outside of 
class time on a voluntary basis, primarily due to the school’s 
unique timetabling (four sessions a day). The lead teacher is 
hopeful of establishing a STEM elective in 2025.

Case study questions and methodology

The questions that this case study sought to answer included:

• What outcomes did STEM CPP contribute to for students, 
teachers, and the school?
• What factors contributed to the program’s success?
• What barriers and issues were experienced?


This case study is based on semi-structured, face-to-face 
interviews with two teachers implementing the program at 
the school and CSIRO program team feedback. In addition, 
11 students responded to the STEM CPP evaluation survey. 
The industry mentor did not respond to requests for 
an interview. 

Findings

Based on feedback from the two educators (interviews), 
11 students (surveys), and program staff (feedback), it was 
clear that STEM CPP contributed to a number of changes 
and outcomes, with many directly attributable to STEM CPP. 
The following two pages summarise the key findings in 
three areas: observed changes, what worked and facilitating 
factors, and barriers and issues. Evidence for these findings are 
outlined in the Appendix.

Conclusion

A common theme running through the school’s involvement 
in STEM CPP is growth: the program and the inquiry 
project led to growth in student skills and engagement, 
growth in the number and type of connections to the rest 
of the school and community, and growth of interest from 
under‑represented groups. The connection to real-world 
STEM and local community issues was also a highly valued and 
engaging feature of the program. Despite some challenges 
connecting with the industry mentor and communication 
technology issues, educators and students reported that 
STEM CPP is achieving intended outcomes, assisted by a 
number of facilitating factors and the local environment.

Acknowledgements

This case study was written by Christopher Banks, Impact 
& Evaluation, CSIRO Education and Outreach. The I&E team 
would like to thank all those who volunteered their time to 
participate in the interviews and surveys openly and honestly.

csiro.au/generationSTEM


1 ICSEA is the Index for Community Socio-Educational Advantage, which 
provides an indication of the socio-educational background of students 
attending that school. The median ICSEA value in Australia is 1000.



STEM CPP outcomes

The outcomes that STEM CPP seeks to achieve or contribute to are:

1. Students have increased knowledge and 
understanding of STEM
2. Students have increased interest in STEM
3. Students have increased confidence in STEM 
4. Students increase their transferrable skills
5. Students have increased awareness of STEM pathways 
and careers 
6. Teachers have greater confidence and skills to teach 
STEM through inquiry-based learning methods
7. Council and industry develop challenge scenarios that 
reflect their local needs
8. Schools, councils and industry engage more with 
one another
9. Students have an increased aspiration to study STEM
10. Students have increased awareness of available STEM 
education pathways
11. Schools develop a culture that promotes and supports 
students to study STEM
12. Students are more engaged with community issues
13. More students choose to study STEM after Year 10
14. More diverse students choose to study STEM after 
Year 10
15. More high potential students choose to study STEM 
after Year 10
16. Council and local industry increase investment 
in activities that promote and link students with 
STEM‑related careers
17. More students pursue NSW-based STEM education 
pathways post school
18. More students are STEM literate in their education 
and careers post-school 
19. More students are employed in STEM roles




Observed changes

KEY CHANGE

STEM CPP DIRECT 
OR CONTRIBUTION 
TO OUTCOME2 

OUTCOMES 
CONTRIBUTED 
TO:

DESCRIPTION

More diverse 
participants involved

Contribution

2, 14

Educators observed more interest and participation 
from girls and students that were more ‘mainstream’ 
(not in the highest academic levels and pathways).

Improved student 
engagement, 
confidence, 
and resilience

Direct

3, 4

Educators observed, and students self-reported, 
increased levels of engagement, confidence, and 
resilience due to involvement in STEM CPP.

More parental 
engagement

Direct

11

Educators reported that parents were supportive of, 
and highly engaged with, their child’s involvement 
with STEM CPP.

Peer support

Direct

11

Educators observed that students (including from 
different year levels) were helping each other with 
inquiry projects.

Broadening view 
of what STEM is

Direct

1, 5

STEM CPP was reported to have increased student 
awareness of the diversity of STEM careers and 
options available.

Student collaboration 
and school pride

Direct

4, 11

Educators reported that students collaborated with 
each other as result of the inquiry projects, and that 
the projects led to larger, school-wide activities.

Improved 
real‑world skills

Direct

4

The inquiry projects were reported to have led to 
broader school-wide work that involved real-world skills, 
such as grant writing and critical thinking.





2 As assessed by author



What worked and facilitating factors

Flexibility of program

Educators at the school appreciated the flexibility of STEM CPP and its ability to fit in with 
existing school processes, activities, and ability levels, particularly because of the unique 
timetabling at the school.

Content, structure, 
and purpose of 
the program

The program’s focus on local challenges and engaging with local experts, and the 
inclusion of excursions, was attractive to educators and engaging for students.

Inclusion of 
younger cohorts

Educators strongly supported the expansion of the program to Years 7 and 8 students, 
who may benefit more from the program than older students who have made up their 
minds about education pathways.

Excursions and 
real‑world science

Student excursions to real world STEM businesses and sites were highly valued by 
educators and students. The program’s focus on real world science and applications also 
appealed to participants.

CSIRO brand 
and support

CSIRO’s reputation and brand awareness made the program more easily accepted, 
and the CSIRO program support officer was respected by the school.

Ability to let inquiry 
projects evolve and 
connections

Student inquiry projects were the catalyst for wider connections in the community, 
including with businesses. Also, students were given space for their projects to evolve to 
meet their interests and address school/community needs (beyond original plans).

Curriculum alignment

Educators benefited from STEM CPP’s alignment with the New South Wales’ curriculum, 
and the program has been part of the rationale for establishing a STEM elective.

Engaging 
under‑represented 
students

The school was using several strategies for engaging under-represented students, 
including not calling activities ‘STEM’, focusing on hands-on activities, offering 
opportunities to align with students’ interests, and showcasing a variety of people 
working in STEM.

Experience and 
dedication of 
teachers

As with many initiatives and activities, STEM CPP greatly benefited from the passion 
and dedication of the teachers implementing it.

Using technology

Some of the inquiry projects and STEM CPP activities were not feasible using 
purely hands-on approaches but technology was employed to simulate or replicate 
hands-on activities.

School leadership 
and P&C support

School leadership placed trust in the relevant educators at the school to run 
STEM CPP and the Parents and Citizens Association (and parents in general) 
were also very supportive.







Barriers and issues

The school’s 
timetabling / voluntary 
and extracurricular 
program

Due to the school’s timetabling structure, it was difficult to include STEM CPP as a part 
of any classes and so was offered as a voluntary, extra-curricular activity; this had the 
consequence of some students (mostly Years 9 and 10) dropping out of STEM CPP during 
exam time.

Lack of next steps 
from the program

Educators strongly felt that, although STEM CPP was a high-quality program, the lack of a 
next step for participants limited its impact.

Lack of contact with 
industry mentor

Scheduling difficulties, time constraints, and mis-matched expectations meant that the 
school and the industry mentor did not establish a strong connection.

Using MS Teams

The school does not regularly use MS Teams and therefore this communication channel 
used by program staff was not optimal.







Appendix: Evidence for findings3

Observed changes

More diverse participants involved

…for Year 7 this year I had a very mixed cohort, which is fantastic. 
I did obviously have my gifted and talented students but then I 
actually had about four or five who were more of the mainstream 
classes…which is a lot more than usual.

We probably in the seniors have four girls to six boys. In the 
juniors we have seven girls to the 15 boys. We do have more 
boys in that one…it’s a lot more than I’ve had in the past, which 
is fantastic…we actually had a pretty good balance of Year 7s 
with girls and boys. We are getting there. There’s a lot more 
interest [from girls]…I think that’s a generational thing as well 
as the access.

Improved student engagement, confidence, 
and resilience

I’ve definitely noticed a few students coming out of their shells 
a lot more. Some of the Year 7s, absolutely quiet, barely hear 
a peep out of them, they were collaborating with their groups, 
asking questions. One of them has actually moved up in classes, 
he’s not mainstream anymore next year, he’s actually moved up. 
He’s definitely grown in confidence.

They’re interested and they’re really keen, they were doing coding 
and everything like that. And just watching them. There was a 
problem and they were like, “How do we fix this?” and going 
through the little processes and things. Whereas I’ve noticed a 
lot of students in my classes, a problem comes up, they just give 
up. But a lot of these kids [in STEM CPP] were like, “Okay, there’s 
a problem, how do I fix it? What do we do with this and stuff?” 
There was a lot more resilience I noticed with the students they 
were developing.

…they’re really amazing kids, to be honest. I think confidence was 
a big thing. We have a few that I think struggled a bit with the 
showcase, they were very nervous. I think it’s easy to forget that 
as a teacher. I talk to so many people every single day, I forget it 
can be scary to talk to people that you don’t know. They start off 
with nerves, but then they were just amazing. They broach that, 
talk to people.

More parental engagement

Yeah, they [mainstream students] absolutely love it [STEM CPP]. 
You also get a lot of buy-in from the parents as well for those 
students because…these kids do miss out on these opportunities 
because it seems that every time we think STEM, we think gifted. 
There’s a lot of buy-in and support from the parents which is 
fantastic but there are some of my most enthusiastic students, 
yes, super keen. We’ve created a garden of native bush plants, 
like bushtucker plants and things like that and that was run by 
kids who were in the mainstream.

Probably three quarters of our students had parents attend the 
showcase...and the ones that didn’t, all made contact at some 
point with me to let [me] know that they were working, they 
couldn’t go, and that’s obviously completely understandable.

Peer support

Having the blend of the year groups was actually really good. 
We had Year 9s working with Year 10s. We had Year 7s working 
with Year 8s and just collaborating, and that was really good.

Broadening view of what STEM is

Definitely [students] think it’s [STEM] nerdy, 100% yeah. A lot 
of the parents as well, the ones that I’ve been working with 
have realised it is pretty good. But some of the parents think 
STEM is science competitions, maths competitions. They do the 
competitions; they win the high distinctions. They get all this 
ICAS, big science, all that stuff which I had done competitions 
in the past...and then some kids get involved in these [STEM] 
programs, and they’re like, “Oh, it’s a little bit more than that”, 
which is why we’re looking at maybe doing some more snapshot 
activities next year. But we’re definitely moving away from only 
nerds do it.

…working with the student support officer, I’m actually looking 
more at how we branch [out into] the trade aspect, more hands‑on 
aspect of it to support students who maybe don’t want to do 
the full-on academic year…side of it...I think as we get traction, 
I’ve been able to get more of these things up and running.

I’ve got other ones [students]; they actually work more with 
the teamwork aspect of STEM and the communication aspect of 
STEM. I had a Year 7 girl, she’s amazing, but she said, “Oh, I’d like 
to be a politician. I know they have a lot of bad raps about them 
and this and that, but I think I could do real well for people and 
things like that.” She’s very socially minded, the recycling aspect 
that she focused on [in STEM CPP] was very much what she was 
about. Yeah, it’s actually been really good to see their different 
strengths come out. I think in some way or another they’ll end 
up in a STEM background but I think some of them don’t realise 
what they’re looking at as a STEM background at this point.

Student collaboration and school pride

There is a definite change in the students that I find in 
collaboration and I think pride in the school. They were talking 
about creating an environmental and sustainability club next year 
because we’ve got compost set up because we actually applied for 
some donations from Bunnings. We’ve got a native bushtucker 
garden that we started and we also have some compost that 
we started, and it’s got the ball rolling, the kids are really into 
it. They’re even telling their friends; their friends come up and 
they get involved with it. More hands-on. The robotics team, the 
Year 8s, they just want to take it so much further. We’re actually 
starting a STEM thing for robotics next year.

3 All quotes are from the semi-structured interviews with school staff.



Improved real world skills

I think they [the students] also get a little bit of an idea in how 
the world works a little bit as well, when they’re talking about 
grants. Because I went through the grant application with them 
as well. The Year 7s, trying to get them to justify, “Okay, well why 
are you doing this? What are you doing it for? We need to write 
this,” and getting them to actually be a little bit more focused 
and work out, like actually if I want this, I need to justify what I’m 
doing. I need a list of my equipment,” rather than just being like, 
“Oh, I know what just happened.”

…this isn’t that kind of program, this isn’t school, and this isn’t 
class where your teacher brings in all the resources, what do 
you need?” I think that [the inquiry project] was really good for 
them, even just researching like “Okay, well I need this series of 
equipment or if I want to do this, I need to actually work with 
this and these are the materials I need. This is actually how 
much it’s going to cost, so here’s my budget.” I think that was 
really good with them, it developed, and problem solving was 
a big thing, yeah. The whole problem solving, critical thinking 
communication, that was improved significantly with all of them 
especially Year 7s, I think, the younger ones. And Year 8s actually, 
the coding did work, they were really good with like, “Okay, wait, 
how am I going to fix this, go back, do it again.”

Yeah, I know that’s a big thing for me [accepting failure as part 
of science]. Any one of my classes will know that I’m like, “The only 
way you failed is if you don’t take this as a learning opportunity.” 
We just change the plan and do it again and see if it works.

What worked and facilitating factors

Flexibility of program

Running a full program considering we don’t have a STEM 
elective is not really feasible for us at this point. I was looking for 
something that was a little bit looser on its requirements from 
us as a school rather than saying: “You must run this program 
in a class setting.” It was more like: “Okay, we’ll run a STEM 
initiative and it’s your choice on how you do it.” We’d been doing 
a few bits and pieces and I was just looking for something more 
flexible…and something we could do at our school.

But I think just getting more of a vibe about what our role is 
as a teacher in the program was really beneficial going to that 
[teacher professional learning], because I felt we had to do one 
topic and that was it. And I found that really hard last year when 
I tried that, the kids wanted to branch out and I had the feeling I 
was restricting them and I hate doing that. But then it was like, 
“Oh no, actually if you want to [be flexible],” I was like “Okay, 
amazing,” that made it a lot easier, that was great. I think more 
insight into what our role was, was fantastic.

Content, structure and purpose of the program

I think it [STEM CPP] was very much ticking all the boxes, it was 
about a local program, problem-solving. There were experts 
who were from the area. I think that’s really important for the 
students that they are doing things that relate to their local area. 
It does get a lot more buy-in that I’ve noticed, the little bits and 
pieces they had done until that point. I was really keen on the 
fact that it was really based on that, the fact that there was a 
lot of excursions and opportunities they were talking about. 
We could go to different workplaces because I found that’s where 
the kids really start to actually go, “This is really good. I’m seeing 
real‑world examples of people working in the field.”

[Without STEM CPP], I would attempt to do it myself, but it does 
work really well when you have like a supportive organisation 
behind you. That’s why I tend to gravitate towards those more. 
It does make it a lot easier with obtaining excursions and doing 
all these things, especially with my time or lack of.

Inclusion of younger cohorts

We don’t always get an opportunity for that [STEM programs] 
especially for younger students. It’s more like if we’re talking 
about career stuff, we’re talking Year 11 and 12, but by then 
they’ve already decided on all their subjects and stuff.

I branched out to 7s and 8s, which I’m also the year coordinator 
for Year 7. I actually found that really successful. And we’re really 
looking at 2024 because we want to be involved again actually 
using this as primarily a Stage 4 program and looking at how we 
can extend the Stage 5 in more like a targeted thing. But no, it 
was really successful [involving Years 7 and 8 in STEM CPP].

Excursions and real-world science

…we did a lot of the excursions that was provided.

But the excursions we did – like we went to the Sydney Olympic 
Park, that was really good for the students that were doing a 
biodiversity topic. We took the Stage 4 students there, because 
they were doing more biodiversity and recycling. That was really 
good for them to see the real world, and that inspired some of 
their projects. That was really fantastic. The Western Sydney 
Airport thing was fantastic, because we had Year 9s and 10s, 
I took them. They were doing the Aerotropolis, but actually all 
those conversations they had with the industry professionals…
those opportunities were fantastic. I actually found those a 
lot more helpful because I…don’t like restricting the students 
too much. There is a bit more guidance with Stage 4 and 5. 
We actually spent an entire term just learning but I think as 
they were doing such diverse things, it was great to have the 
experience to go out. Those were really good.

Our afternoon sessions were actually doing, learning about what 
biodiversity is and what recycling actually means. And we did bird 
surveys around the school. We went out and looked at different 
plant species. We looked at the vegetation at school and noticed 
how it was mostly invasive. We went to Lake Parramatta as well 
as a school excursion. It helps I’m an environmental scientist.

Yeah, basically I just walked them around and we talked about 
how we actually survey places? How we know what species 
are here? Should we have the species here? And yeah, we looked 
at that perspective.



CSIRO brand and support

…it’s a lot more attractive to do it that way [using a CSIRO 
program]…at the start maybe [using a CSIRO program]…made it 
a lot easier for people to say yes to it but I just said CSIRO rules…
especially when I walked into my principal’s office and said, 
“We’re doing this, is that okay?” And I was like, “It’s with the 
CSIRO,” and it was immediately yes. That was really easier, like a 
lot easier for me which was fantastic…Me, as a scientist myself, it 
wasn’t even a thing not to trust it but everybody else that I talked 
to were like, “Oh that’s really good.” And I think it also got people 
excited, the went, “Oh, wow CSIRO, that’s really big and we 
know it.” Yeah, that was good.

Yeah, that’s been fantastic. She’s been really good. She was new 
this year because it was [another officer] before. She’s been 
really good posting things about the different experiences and 
excursions. Yeah, that’s my fault for not being on Teams all the 
time that I don’t see it. Yeah, even talking to her at the showcase, 
that was really good talking about what we can do in 2024 
because we just did this to see how it would go. Last year it was 
very much experimental. This year we were definitely seeing 
some more structured approaches that we were doing to it. Next 
year, just having a chat with her and talking about what we could 
do and not only that but what we could do for the students that 
are now ageing out of it. It was a good opportunity to have that 
chat with her. I definitely have felt supported. She emails and 
checks in and sees that everything is okay. No, she’s been great.

Yeah, I think it was the fact there was a lot of support, that 
connection and saying that “You can ask us, you can talk to us 
about this,” that was something that I think I’d learned from 
previously, that that’s actually going to be really good.

Ability to let inquiry projects evolve and 
connections

…we had another group of girls who said there’s always rubbish 
around the school. They noticed there was a lot of trash. They did 
a survey with the whole school. We had posters up and QR codes. 
And then once these guys started doing this, they said, “Well, why 
don’t we use some of this as a compost.”

We’ve actually applied for grants from Parramatta Council 
so that we can get more support for the gardens because at 
the moment it’s very hodgepodge and we’re just giving it a 
go... They [the students] were like, “Let’s do some compost.” 
We organised some compost bins and things with Bunnings, and 
with the grants we’ll get some actual or hopefully, some green, 
yellow, and red bins. Because right now we only have red bins 
around the school… we also have the prefect, the environmental 
prefect, she’s also visited the kids and talked to them about the 
strategies. We’re also going to get the SLC involved and there 
is actually also Oaklands P&C. There is a…parent who actually 
wants to open as primary to get involved with doing some of the 
stuff we’ve been doing. It’s that whole thing has just evolved from 
a little idea to now.

We were really fortunate…the Student Support Officer…has 
connections with a lot of Indigenous…industries. There is a 
nursery out in Penrith that is run by Muru Mittigar, and they 
actually donated 12 native plants to us, bushtucker plants. 
But the kids looked at the list, they chose, they looked at what 
actually attracts bees and unisex as well. They went through and 
they chose the ones they thought would be most appropriate and 
then they donated them to us and we planted them as a group 
which was fantastic.

Curriculum alignment

I definitely think it does [STEM CPP aligning with the curriculum]…
we don’t have a STEM elective and we don’t do anything across 
KLA [Key Learning Areas], my setting isn’t necessarily setup for it 
but it is definitely something that we are looking at in the future. 
It’s definitely something that’s been flagged with development…
my head teacher and the senior executive are very keen on doing 
a STEM elective. It’s actually something that we’ve been working 
towards improving. It will be something that will fit a bit better.

Engaging under-represented students

I guess my biggest thing is how we’ve been doing it [delivering 
STEM learning at the school] is actually not calling it STEM so 
much. Like doing programs with buy-ins, things they’re interested 
in, maybe like little programs that are fun. And I guess it 
depends, like I’ve got some students at the moment they’re really 
struggling with bullying. Like your older version students that 
really struggle with that. The garden actually provides them with 
a really peaceful environment. We come out, we do gardening, 
we talk about the plants. We talk about what’s good about them. 
They tell me about how they watch Gardening Australia with 
their families every Friday. They don’t realise that they’re talking 
about different plants and how they’re attracting bees and they 
don’t realise they’re doing that but they are. And I guess for them 
it’s providing a different space and a different support.

One of my other students, she is in mainstream and hers is 
more literacy issues but every single time that I’ve gone to an 
excursion, I’ve had people come up to me and say, “Is she in 
your gifted and talented stream?” She just knows facts about 
everything. And I’m like, “Actually no, she’s not, she’s mainstream 
and really struggles. Like you look at her writing and you think 
that she’s not but it’s her knowledge.” I think giving her lots of 
opportunities to actually show what they’re interested in and 
what they’re doing, more hands-on things is really good. Like if 
you start them off with research, they’re going to turn around 
and be like, “No, not a chance.” Little activities, little bits and 
pieces that you can do, buy-in about what they’re interested in, 
yeah, those are the things that I’ve been doing.

I think having role models for them that aren’t necessarily what 
you would think STEM is. I think that’s also been really beneficial 
for me as I’ve tried to increase the amount of girls involved, being 
a female myself and being the driver behind it, has also really 
helped. And obviously the other students who feel a bit different 
and stuff like that, I don’t look like a super nerdy teacher, like 
I may have glasses but I also have a lot of tattoos and wear 
colourful earrings and stuff like that. I think it helps to have a 
variety of people behind what they’re doing. But then you can 
control that, it’s just who is doing it, that’s doing it but I think 
that’s also been an easier approach for me to get more kids 
involved in buy-in.



Experience and dedication of teachers

I remember when I first started, I was like, “Oh my God, we 
must…not deviate, you must do this like that.” And I think no 
matter how many times I’ve been to TPLs [teacher professional 
learning] and I have talked to people, companies and supporters 
and they say, “Yeah, we just want to support teachers and we 
want you to fill this and that.” Until you’ve done it multiple times, 
you’ll never feel comfortable letting it go. It’s a part of being 
a teacher. A lot of companies ask, “Okay, how do we prepare 
teachers for this?” Honestly, yeah, I’ve always been a support 
there but I think giving opportunities to try things and recognise 
that it won’t work and it will work and things like that, and then 
being okay with it, that’s the biggest thing.

…I think it’s a lot of self-sacrifice as well a bit. Everyone’s like, 
“Well, why would you do this, you work all the time?” And I’m 
like, “Well, I actually enjoy this.” Like on Wednesday before the 
showcase I was Deputy, and it was a horrific day and then I just 
turned around and I was like, “I’m going.” And I had all of ten 
minutes to prepare for the showcase, get on the bus and go. But 
then at the showcase I was there, so it was a 14-hour day for me 
but it was rejuvenating seeing the kids and having the parents 
come up and they’re so proud of their children. And it’s like this is 
really what it is all about.

I’m trying to reach out. Over the years of doing these programs 
and even a big part of Western Sydney women in their Future 
Is Bright program, working with girls to have STEM mentors 
and women in STEM programs. I tend to end up, like one of my 
goals personally has been to get more girls involved because 
when I first started to do these initiatives, it was just all boys 
who would want to get involved with it. That’s been a real focus. 
But it primarily ends up being the gifted and talented classes 
that go for it. I’ve really been trying to branch out and allowed, 
like move these programs to the things that can extend some 
students but also provide an opportunity for more hands-on for 
other students.

Using technology

Yeah. And some of it’s just they’re into practical but then when 
we say, like some people say to them, “Okay, well, you want to 
do practical, here’s a chemistry experiment and here’s all these 
chemicals and there’s all this,” and they’re like, “Whoa, no I 
meant actually something fully hands-on.” I’m really fortunate 
with Ben as the TES teacher, I don’t just have to feel like, “Oh, no 
we’re only doing science stuff.” I’m like, “Oh sweet, what can we 
do with tech.” And I’m learning how to do things with robots and 
coding and stuff like that and it also helps my partner is in IT. But 
yeah, all those things, I can be like, “Oh, yeah, we can do this and 
that.” We keep it as broad as possible, we more let their interest 
guide us in what we’re doing. But I think that’s confidence from 
doing all these programs over the years.

School leadership and P&C support

I just do these things and then I’m like, “Oh, by the way we’re 
doing this,” and they’re like, “Oh, that sounds really good.” 
But as far as like if I need to buy anything, they don’t have a 
problem with it. We’ve even liaised with the P&C for some of the 
equipment and things like that. They bought us robots; we’re 
going to do some more robotic related things as well next year. 
They’re really supportive. Actually, the P&C in general is really 
supportive. The parents are very behind it. 

…if I tell my head teacher, I need something or can I have that 
and stuff like that, they say yes. But it’s not really like they seek 
me out say, “Can you do more programs? Can you do these 
things?” It’s just, I do them and they say yes.

Barriers and issues

The school’s timetabling / voluntary 
and extracurricular program

Yeah, because we have a very strange timetable, we are four 
sessions a day only which makes us very inflexible for additional 
things. Because if you take a student out of a class, it could be 
their only class they have that fortnight.

All of the juniors did [completed STEM CPP]. The seniors we 
had a few of them drop out which I think is why the STEM 
elective would be better [than a voluntary, extracurricular 
program]. As they’re older they’re committed to a lot more things 
around the school. It can be a bit time stressful and especially 
with assessments, they get a bit stressed when they’re doing 
something outside of school. They could be studying and that 
kind of thing.

…with less structure [voluntary STEM CPP]…it can get a 
bit wayward...

Lack of next steps from the program

Probably the biggest thing for us with Year 9 and 10 is where to 
now? That’s the thing that keeps coming up with these students…
[it’s] incredible but what do we do now?...There’s no next step 
and that’s probably not so much for the Year 7s and 8s because 
we did actually…their projects more school based. But for the 
9s and 10s…they’ve done this amazing amount of research and 
doing all this stuff. So, that’s probably our biggest problem, the 
where-to-now for them.

Lack of contact with industry mentor

…not really any [contact with industry mentor]. No, that’s 
probably been the one frustration I guess, of the program that 
I’ve had because we did get paired with [mentor] last year and I 
did find it really hard to communicate...

Using MS Teams

I’m still learning Teams because…I had about two terms of being 
really on it with Teams and it’s like immediately replying back 
as soon as I saw something. But then also, we just drifted off, 
because we don’t really use it that much at the school.

…I am not very easy to communicate with. With the Microsoft 
Teams thing, if we got an email alert out that these things are 
happening, that would be so much easier for me because we 
don’t use Teams at school. That will be fantastic…



Students’ attitudes towards STEM before and after participation (n = 11)

CSIRO Science Connect

Christopher Banks, Executive Manager, Impact & Evaluation
+61 7 3833 5999 | christopher.banks@csiro.au

csiro.au/generationSTEM