INNOVATE – Redland City STEM Competition aims to boost student engagement in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), through exciting activities and friendly competition. Students build their confidence, teamwork and practical skills by competing in robotics challenges, video-game design and science investigations. In addition to the competition events, students also engage in STEM-themed activities including hands-on experience of cutting-edge technologies, science and engineering activities, and a science show of chemistry demonstrations.
In its 6th year, INNOVATE 2025 was a spectacular celebration of student achievement involving 150 students from 8 primary schools. It was a high-energy day as the prospective engineers, designers and scientists competed in sumo-robot battles, trialled each other’s computer games and examined science experiment displays. Guest judge, Mr Jonathan Nalder from the Australian Computer Society, congratulated the students on their impressive competition entries and encouraged them to explore a future career in STEM.
A crowd favourite, students were wowed by the Mixed Reality experience from Mining Skills Australia and Motion Curve, which combined Virtual and Augmented Reality for students to interact with holograms and digital information appearing in their real-world environment. Other exciting technology activities included drone flying simulations provided by SkySim, and interactive stations of robotic arms, robotic vehicles, flying mini-drones, eSports, plus drone and 3D printing displays provided by the Centre of Excellence in Automation and Robotics.
For science and engineering, students designed and tested miniature boats, examined microbes and insects using microscopes, constructed chemical models and identified mystery insects using scientific keys. The day ended with an amazing chemistry show, presented by Griffith University’s ‘Science on the Go!’, that literally went off with a bang (imagine stunning fireballs) and was a huge hit with the enthralled audience.
INNOVATE is proudly coordinated and hosted by Alexandra Hills SHS in partnership with the Australian Computer Society, Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA), universities and numerous STEM-related companies. This full-day event is for students from Years 5-6 and is open to all schools in Redland City.
We would like to thank our competition sponsors: