Science Active School - St Mary's College

Years awarded: 2025

St Mary’s College is thrilled to be recognized as a SASTA Science Active School for 2025. This recognition highlights our commitment to fostering a dynamic and engaging science education, empowering students with the skills and curiosity needed to navigate the ever-evolving world of STEM. Science is not just a subject at St Mary’s; it’s a crucial part of our school culture, sparking curiosity and innovation across all year levels. 

At St Mary’s, being a Science Active School reflects our deep dedication to hands-on, inquiry-based learning that inspires the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators. It means celebrating student engagement in STEM, ensuring that science education is both relevant and exciting, and fostering a love for scientific discovery among our students and the broader school community. Examples of how we achieve this at St Mary's include:

• Offering students a range of science electives including Years 7-10 STEM and Year 10 Psychology.
• Providing curriculum-extension activities including STEM club, Minecraft club and Eco group, which involves students leading initiatives focusing on biodiversity and environmental conservation. All of these curriculum-extension activities build students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills across year levels and sub-schools.
• Hosting annual events including our Women in STEM breakfast, STEM Community Day, National Science Week activities and the Festival of Learning.

A strong science program begins with empowered and well-supported educators. At St Mary’s, we invest in our teachers by:

• Encouraging participation in SASTA professional development programs and conferences, both as delegates and presenters.
• Facilitating collaborative learning opportunities where teachers share best practices and innovative teaching strategies.
• Integrating a variety of digital tools including AI and VR to enhance science instruction.
• Providing opportunities to engage with scientists and industry professionals, ensuring that our teaching remains current and impactful. 

One of the highlights that truly reflects our passion for science was our participation in National Science Week in 2024. During this week students engaged in hands-on activities and interactive experiments that brought science to life not only in the classroom, but in a series of whole school events. Each day of National Science Week was dedicated to a specific scientific field, with related lunchtime activities hosted by science staff and our STEM captains. This culminated with a periodic table constructed from shortbread biscuits and a large-scale elephant toothpaste demonstration to the whole school on the lawns on the Friday for "Chemistry day".

One of the initiatives that was introduced in 2024 that we are most proud of is the St Mary's Festival of Learning. This two-day event was held in Term 4 of 2024 for all Years 7-9 students and was a celebration of creativity, collaboration and hands-on learning. The festival provided opportunities for students to participate in a range of different activities and experiences including a wide variety of STEM workshops and incursions such as forensics, rollercoaster science, chemical engineering, robot battles and cranes and cantilevers. 

One of the current projects in science for 2025 that excites us is our new Science Buddies program. This involves all junior school classes being assigned a middle school science buddy class that they will collaborate with on a regular basis to engage in a series of hands-on science activities related to the junior school  science curriculum. The aim of the program is to build connections between students from different sub-schools by providing them with an opportunity to experience and "do" science in a slightly different way to what they're used to. Other benefits of the program will include:

•  Familiarising junior school students with the labs and giving them an experience of middle school science.
• Helping to inspire younger students to see science as an exciting and essential part of their future.
• Providing middle school students with the opportunity to be scientific leaders and mentors.

As we move forward, we remain committed to providing our students with a science education that captures their imagination, revealing both the fascination of the known and challenge of the unknown. By fostering a love of science and encouraging critical thinking, we are equipping our students with the skills for a STEM-focused workforce and to make a difference in the world. We are excited to continue expanding our programs, strengthening partnerships, and inspiring the next generation of scientists and innovators at St Mary’s College.

Do you think your school has what it takes to be a Science Active School? Apply here!