Young Innovators Australia is an organisation for the youth to take charge of their individual learning and future careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). They build up their leadership and entrepreneurship skills in STEM building their own capability to introduce new innovations into the future.

 

During the school holidays, parents want their children to engage in healthy activities. Young Innovators Australia runs STEM learning and leadership workshops for students to learn about computer technologies and take charge. These workshops enable students to become independent and innovative STEM learners. They take hold of their STEM knowledge, effectively becoming more productive in their studies and creative in their assessments, projects and activities. In this way, they build up their leadership and entrepreneurship skills towards careers in STEM and innovative areas. 

The best aspect of these workshops is that they are run by the youth themselves developing deeper connections suitable to the younger audiences. 

Young Innovators Australia recently ran four workshops: Computer Coding, Robotics, Ethical Hacking and a workshop on How to Design a Digital Portfolio. 

 

Computer Coding Workshop

 

In the Computer Coding workshop, participants from 7 to 12 years old learned about the basics of computer coding through the google design block coding program. Every student was given the project based on their interest and capability. The younger students were working on storytelling, where they were learning how to animate different objects and how to animate dialogue between different characters. Where the older students were working on game programming, where they were designing different games, and learning about concepts relating to game development and design.

This two-day workshop was expanded over two weeks. On the second day afternoon, they were rewarded with certificates. In the certificate award ceremony, Dr Habib Bhurawala (Consultant Paediatrician, Head of Paediatrics, Nepean Hospital) came as a special guest along with Mr Omair Ziaee who is a tech guru himself and runs an IT company. They talked to students and emphasize the importance of learning these skills at that age. Miss Aamina Haq was given the code master award for game programming and Mr Hamza Saqib was given the junior code master for his storytelling project.  

The programme ended with a great group photo and refreshments were offered to the guests.

Robotics Workshop

 

Robotics is one of the learning areas where students apply all of the STEM subjects learning and it is normally followed by the coding learning experience. The Robotics workshop kick starts with information on what are robotics and where are their real-life application for participants aged 10+.

This two-day workshop was spread over two different days in two weeks. Students were introduced to the lego EV3 learning robots. They had a great hands-on experience that way, learning how to program and try their code in the workshop and working collaboratively as a pair. On the Young Innovators Facebook page, you can see great videos of young as nine-year-old students trying their robots and overcoming different challenges. The workshop concluded with the completion certificates award ceremony, where guest speakers came to see student learning and their achievement as they appreciate their achievements. Miss Sonali Luthra the principal of Al-Faisal College Minto spoke to the students acknowledging their learning. Mr Masud Khalil, local councillor of the Campbelltown city council, also acknowledged the efforts of mentors to train these young learners.  Mr Faisal Athar, a tech senior cyber security expert, spoke highly about the value of learning the skills at this early age. The program was mentored by a young high school student Mr Usman Dayyan. He also acknowledged Mr Richard Baranski who supported the robotics program and couldn’t make it to the award ceremony. This holiday the Robo master award was given to Abdur-Rahman Ibna-Aamir who stood very well and even he was one of the youngest in the robot show.

The award ceremony as usual concluded with the refreshment and thanks to the parents, guests, and participants.

Ethical Hacking Workshop

 

The Ethical Hacking Workshop featured the students enjoying their journey in the ethical hacking workshop and learning hacking-related skills from a young high school student, Zawiyar Khan. The workshop was the kick-start with the basic introduction to ethical hacking, the differences between normal hacking and ethical hacking and the importance of the skill they were about to learn.

This was a one-day workshop where students came and learned the basic techniques of hacking, special guests were also invited: Mr MP Greg Warren Shadow minister for local government and Mr Masood Chowdhury, Councillor of Campbelltown City Council, highly recommended to students to continue their passions and encouraged them to invest in these special skills. Mr Asim Saleem (Assistant Director Infrastructure Ops Oceana EY NLP Certified Master Coach Accelerated Certified Coach) also came there to include more insight into the world of ethical hacking. Mr Brian Laul (Founder/Director at Oz Funland, VP Festival Director and Founder of Good Morning Macarthur) motivated the students rewarding the students with workshop completion certificates alongside the other guests. 

The workshop ended with taking a group photo and with refreshments for parents, guests, and participants.

Digital Portfolio

 

It seems with the rise of digital media, the need for paperless material has grown, and participants in the Digital Portfolio Workshop learned how to record all their skills and experiences in one, online place. The workshop provides high school students with a portfolio with easy accessibility for them to gradually record and add their skills throughout their working experience.

The two-day workshop concluded in two weeks. In the first session, students were introduced to digital resumes that could be transformed into a presentation for a more visually appealing format. The second session was conducted both online on zoom and face-to-face by Young Innovators Australia’s president Shafqat Ali. Here, the previous presentation was modified into a personalised website, creating a textual, visual and interactive trio formatting for each participant’s portfolios. Mr Saad Younis a Civil Engineer from UNSW and Executive Member of Young Innovators Australia was invited there as a special guest. He talked about the student’s benefits of making a Digital Portfolio and how Digital Portfolios will soon be important in future our social, educational and professional lives.

At last in the award ceremony, he awarded the completion certificates to the students whereby the Best Portfolio Award was given to Mr Sami Ul Haq for his both aesthetic and concise efforts.

Conclusion

The STEM learning workshops are delivered by the Young Innovators Club members who volunteer their time to mentor younger children as well as develop their own leadership skills in STEM Education. With the overwhelming response from parents and students, they want to continue their learning, and Young Innovators Australia is developing weekend classes that will begin running soon. At the moment learning opportunities are being offered in Campbelltown, but online hybrid classes are being offered for children in Australia. To enrol in these programs, please use this link to join us in our exciting new journey: https://tinyurl.com/yinenrol