to participate in professional development blended workshops linked to the Design and Digital Curriculum.

These educators are affiliated with the College through the Queensland Association of State School Principals (QASSP), which boasts 1300 members and advocates for the best possible education for 315,000 primary school students across Queensland.

Calamvale Community College has been hosting educators from the QASSP Acacia Branch for five years. This year, our College Secondary staff – Ms Mel Ellis, Ms Marie Moo, Ms Elke Schneider, Mr Zac Cheng, and Mr Eamon Hickey – facilitated these hands-on and engaging workshops.

Visiting primary school educators experienced first-hand what the College offers in terms of STEAM curriculum and facilities. Over the course of the afternoon, participants rotated through a variety of in-depth sessions which focused on boosting their problem solving capabilities, refining their specialised mathematics and scientific knowledge, and recognising transciplinary curriculum links in the classroom.

The educators explored the functionality of MakeyMakey by using conductive materials to create an input device. A Virtual Reality tour allowed them to hear, see, and understand how a specialised teaching space can be repurposed in innovative ways. Our staff imparted practical knowledge about and increased competency in Scratch, and the educators created a short animation.

In the Sumo Robo Challenge, the QASSP educators worked in teams to design and build competitive robots. This workshop activity required participants to apply block, drag, and drop coding to program their robots to seek and destroy all opponents. All teams worked collaboratively to adhere to competition size and weight rules, and applied their problem solving skills to re-program and re-build as necessary.

The teams also met Pepper – a humanoid robot created by Softbank Robots in Japan – and explored her programming features and her utility as an educational tool.

Overall, these workshops provided an invaluable opportunity for all QASSP educators to build productive relationships, share knowledge, and strengthen interschool communication through a professional network. Following the 1.5-hour workshops at CPAC, school teams enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at the College’s 3Trees Restaurant. This was the largest event on the restaurant’s calendar, and their service and menu did not disappoint.

The success of this annual event rests with our exceptional Secondary staff members, our talented hospitality team and students, as well as our outstanding venues and event facilities. Our local QASSP educators are sure to keep coming back for more each year.