SPARK Your Curiosity
This month, Coomera Anglican College hosted the Future Anything “Spark” program on campus for our Year 7 and Year 8 cohort. This two-day, facilitated school entrepreneurship workshop was designed to spark curiosity, develop students' entrepreneurial skills, encourage collaboration, and empower our students to become innovative problem-solvers for issues that matter to them and College community.
The Future Anything team worked with our educators to co-design a mission that students would embark on, allowing them to design solutions for contextually relevant school or local community issues. In just two days, Future Anything's experienced and engaging facilitators took our students from exploring who they are and what matters to them, to elevator pitching their own prototyped solution to a panel of judges.
The workshop consists of four stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.
Discover involves identifying a problem or opportunity, Define is about narrowing down the problem and developing a problem statement, Develop focuses on design thinking and prototyping, and Deliver teaches how to pitch ideas effectively to judges.
Our Year 7 students were tasked with developing a product or service centered around the theme of transitioning from Primary to Secondary school and the challenges it entails, such as mental and physical wellbeing, bullying, and gender identity. The students presented their ideas to a panel of judges, which included relaxation rooms, friendship rooms, friendship apps, homework organizers, and information monitors.
The winning Year 7 team proposed 'The Amazing Race' event for next year's Year 7 students. This event will take the form of an amazing race-style challenge around the College, with a focus on building friendships within randomly assigned teams, while also familiarising themselves with the College grounds to prevent getting lost. The concept was designed to address the problem of new students struggling to navigate their way around the College school and to facilitate new friendships.
Our Year 8 students were challenged to develop a product or service aimed at addressing local and wider community issues such as sustainability and mental health and wellbeing. Following in the footsteps of the Year 7 students, the Year 8 students also presented their innovative concepts to a panel of judges. Among the ideas were repurposing car tyres to create weight-lifting equipment, a Minecraft-themed sleep aid device, and an app that enables users to report injured marine life.
The winning Year 8 team, however, impressed the judges with their product called "Eco Solez." It is a replaceable, moulded football shoe sole that is made of fully biodegradable and recycled materials. The design is intended to prolong the wear of football boots while reducing the number of discarded boots that end up in landfill.
Parents from within our College community and a few College Alumni, who are subject matter experts in their fields, were invited to participate by providing guidance and support to students. They encouraged students to collaborate with their peers, take risks, and push their boundaries.
The Spark workshop was an excellent opportunity for students to develop their entrepreneurial skills and learn how to solve real-world problems.
It taught students how to think critically and creatively, collaborate with their peers, and communicate their ideas effectively and most importantly – to SPARK their curiosity."