Budding young engineers at Pine Rivers State High School are learning to live life in the fast lane, through the construction of their Building the Education Revolution (BER) funded engineering annex and science centre.
The million dollar facility, part of the schools Science and Language Centre (SLC) component of BER, features a racing track within the classroom compound, allowing the speed demons in class to learn the engineering mechanics of race car driving.
The high school received $1.97 million under the BER’s SLC component for its Student Focused Science Centre, as well as an additional $200,000 under the National School Pride (NSP) element for minor refurbishments at the school.
The science centre features two separate buildings, the engineering annex and the refurbished science facility. The science centre, features state-of-the-art general learning areas and classrooms as well as a food quality laboratory and chemistry laboratory.
School Principal Janelle Deakin said the BER facility allowed the school to change the way teachers taught their students with 21st century resources. She said the facilities also changed the community’s perspective on what the school could offer upcoming students.
Through utilising the school’s new engineering annex, students can now practice their engineering skills for the F1 in Schools competition. The competition is world-wide testing the engineering skills of high school students to produce the fastest model of racing cars.
The F1 in Schools is the world’s largest science, technology, maths and engineering program, involving more than nine million high school students in 33 nations.
Pine Rivers State High School is a hub school for Re-Engineering Australia (REA) School’s Programs, an exclusive supplier of Pitsco's F1 in Schools technologies.
Principal Deakin said science was important in the school curriculum as it fosters students' curiosity, imagination and knowledge, enhancing their understanding of the natural and physical world around them. Scientific thinking and problem solving are used to explain how things work, or to understand why things are the way they are.
The Australian Government has approved more than 4500 BER projects totaling $2.1 billion in more than 1200 Queensland state schools.
These BER facilities complement the government’s delivery of a 21st century education throughout the state.
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2011.