CQU's STEM Central in Gladstone turns four

CQUniversity and Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) celebrated STEM Central turning four this week at the CQUniversity Gladstone Marina Campus.

Birthday cake and traditional Indigenous foods were features of the celebrations for the coordinators and visitors to the site including Year 3 and 4 Indigenous students participating in the Buraligim Weiber program.

STEM Lead Dr Linda Pfeiffer said it was an important milestone for the STEM Central partners' CQUniversity and APLNG' who had seen the centre go from strength to strength in the past few years.

"STEM Central has had an impact on tens of thousands of people by having a presence' not only on campus in Gladstone' but through greater outreach through STEM clusters' the Advanced Technology and Innovation Centre in Rockhampton and Maker Space in Bundaberg'" Dr Pfeiffer said.

"It has also been involved in events such as the World Science Festival and through organisations such as Questacon."

Dr Pfeiffer said STEM Central had also enabled its staff to publish books' book chapters' journal articles and present at many conferences' providing greater impact and outreach for the centre.

In addition to the centre's Buraligim Weiber program' which is a 20-week Indigenous numeracy and literacy program for Indigenous school students' the centre has also implemented the Australia Pacific LNG Future Cities STEM Innovation Challenge' along with numerous community and school experiences' festivals and camps over the years.

The book STEM Education in the Primary School also won the centre's staff the Best Tertiary Resource 2021 award at the Education Publishing Awards Australia in 2021.