Inspiring and engaging high school students with science and technology education in regional Australia

Yujuan Li; Robert N. Hibbard; Peter L. A. Sercombe; Amanda L. Kelk; Cheng-Yuan Xu

doi:10.3934/steme.2021009

Article Contents

2021, Volume 1, Issue 2: 114-126. Doi: 10.3934/steme.2021009 open access

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Inspiring and engaging high school students with science and technology education in regional Australia

1.
School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, University Drive, Bundaberg, QLD 4670, Australia
2.
Bundaberg Christian College, 234 Ashfield Rd, Ashfield QLD 4670, Australia

* Correspondence: c.xu@cqu.edu.au; Tel: +61-7-41507173
* Correspondence: c.xu@cqu.edu.au; Tel: +61-7-41507173

Received: March 31, 2021

Revised: April 30, 2021

Published: May 2021

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Abstract

In the last two decades, there was a continuing declining participation rate in STEM education, especially in secondary schools in regional Australia. To reverse this trend and inspire rural school students with science and technology education, both federal and state governments identify the new strategies to promote STEM engagement of school students. In this study, with Queensland government's Engaging Science funding support, Central Queensland University researchers collaborated with rural school to deliver a demonstration with hand-on experiences of drone technologies to students. The activity led students to understand the application of drone technologies in daily life, especially agriculture sector. These activities impressed local communities including both teachers and students by demonstrating real-world problem-solving skills, with increasing over 25% participating students' interest in STEM education. This also leads more future collaboration opportunities to deliver other projects to supporting rural schools' STEM education. Future challenge for conducting these activities would be preparing the activity materials that fit the learning style and time schedule for different knowledge levels of students.

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Mathematics Subject Classification: Case study.

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Figure 1. The drone used for aerial mapping demonstration in this case study (modified from DJI Phantom 3 Advanced)

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Figure 2. Flight route for aerial mapping in DroneDeploy software interface

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Figure 3. Instructor interacting with students to explain safety regulation, operation gears, and flight procedure

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Figure 4. Aerial image of Bundaberg Christian College's oval

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Figure 5. Student making hand-on operation of Pix4DMapper software to examine the 3D map

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Figure 6. RGB orthomosaic map of Bundaberg Christian college. The green question mark highlights the oval area showing abnormal lawn development

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Figure 7. Normal Difference Vegetation Index map of Bundaberg Christian college, with red indicating high grass biomass and blue-purple color indicating poor vegetation coverage. The yellow question mark highlights the oval area showing abnormal lawn development

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