VCE Vocational Major

🤔 Design Thinking Challenge Puckapunyal

Ethan Fisher and Angela Klein were selected from St Mary’s to participate in a week long program at Puckapunyal for the Design Thinking Challenge. This was organised by Ventia and the CRLLEN and supported by Mind Shop Excellence. The students, from a number of local schools worked together as a team, on solving a Work Health and Safety workplace issue for Ventia. At the end of the week the students came together and presented their groups findings to Ventia, CRLLEN, school staff and families.

Reflection from Ethan and Angela...

Starting from 2nd September and ending on Friday 6th was a Design Thinking Challenge that took place in Puckapunyal and the people who ran these were part of Mindshop Excellence that helps develop skills of people in education. The main goal of this challenge was to ‘foster skills such as teamwork, self-confidence, problem solving and critical thinking.’  The attendees were 2 students from 4 different schools. There was St Mary’s College, Seymour College, Go Tafe and Seymour Flexible Learning Centre. To participate you would need to bring lunch, snacks and a water bottle, laptop, pens and paper, however everything was provided to us on the first day except for food on the first day. We all got on the bus, and we left to go to Puckapunyal at 8:35am. We had a few helpers that didn’t work in Ventia itself such as:

▪️ Central Ranges LLEN school industry project manager - Tara Kirk

▪️ Mindshop excellence facilitator - Greg Humphries

▪️ Various Ventia management and staff including: Brett Kelly, Luke Taylor, Gary Frost, Barry White, Janine Cole

By the end of the week, we completed the task we were assigned to make a presentation on. The presentation was with the whole team to Ventia defence personnel, teachers, school partners, friends and family. 

We worked as a team of ‘consultants’ for the week on a Ventia challenge. We were given the problem of “Identifying opportunities for improvement in the application of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and finding improvements in the incidents/injury in the workplace.”  The first day at Puckapunyal was very awkward but the staff were very welcoming and nice, shortly everyone became familiar with one another, and we got the presentation to a state where it was nice and presentable.  

Ethan’s Comment...  As the leader of the group I enjoyed the experience, I feel that it was very beneficial and I will use the skills that I learnt throughout the workshop. Some of the skills I used last week were leadership, computer and public speaking skills.  

Angela’s Comment... When I first got to Puckapunyal, I thought I would not like this however after adjusting to the room we worked in, I found myself making friends and learning about techniques to actually do the presentation. The food was great 10/10.

☕High Tea 

On Monday 9th September students in VCE VM prepared and shared in a High Tea. Students worked for the week prior to the event researching and collecting appropriate recipes and collating shopping lists. Students chose to work independently or as a pair to prepare their selected recipe, showcasing their teamwork, measurement and cooking skills, time management and presentation skills. Students invited the Ignite group and a few select staff along to share in the High Tea  with them.  

We had lemon meringue tarts, macaroons, cheese and vegemite rolls, scones, cream cheese, dill and cucumber sandwiches, melting moments, short bread, red velvet cupcakes and brownies. The students showed great independence and initiative in preparing for the event and meeting the set deadlines. 

Words from the Students: 

Ethan Fisher... Today Jarrah and I made Lemon Meringue Tarts, I think they tasted very good.  We started by making the lemon curd, then we had to cook the meringue for 2 hours. I work with Jarrah a lot and I believe we work well together. My favourite dish was the cucumber sandwiches.

Travis Jones... The High Tea was a great and enjoyable experience, I made 38 short bread pieces with Angela. It was easy to make, it only had 3 steps which was adding the ingredients into a bowl, kneading it well into a dough and the final step was baking it in the oven. It tasted rich and sweet. Me and Angela worked well together and we worked in a timely manner with open collaboration, any problems we faced we would work together to solve and we were not shy to ask for help from the experienced teachers.  My favourite out of the many dishes that the VM and Ignite students made was the cucumber sandwiches. They were tasty and soft and were not as full of sugar as the other dishes which were dessert oriented.

Thomas Hall...today Nat and I, made French Macaroons we dyed them pink, with a red filling. I think they tasted very good, but I think we overmixed. Overall, I think it turned out great and would love to do it again. 

Micah Padgett...Today for PDS and WRS as an activity, we organised a high tea.  I worked with Michelle to create and make melting moments with lemon filling.  I believe our melting moments turned out well and they were filling and light.  The teachers enjoyed it and Mrs. Hard even liked it.  I feel this was an enjoyable and good activity working with others.

Angela Klein...I came to school very surprised because I didn’t know high tea was on today (I had been at the Design Thinking Challenge) but I got paired up with Travis and we made shortbread which was really pleasant. Everyone did really well making food.  There were cucumber sandwiches, lemon meringue, brownies, macaroon, vegemite and cheese scrolls and more. My favourite was probably lemon meringue because the meringue itself melted on my tongue and was really delicious. The shortbread was really easy to make. I found I work better with Travis and we make a really great team at times when we are not angry with each other.

🏠 Barrabill House Work Experience

Students have been participating in work experience at Barrabill House this term. They have been involved in a range of different activities with the aged care centre and the community support group. Students have shared the news, spent moments reminiscing about travel, shared stories, played games, run bingo, participated in trivia and garden walks and cooked with the residents, just to name some of the activities they have been a part of this term. The students formed relationships with the residents and will each take something with them from the experiences they have had this term. Students work experience culminated in a literacy task where they interviewed a resident about their values. Thank you to the residents, families and staff at Barrabill for allowing the students to work with you this term.

Ashlee Touissant... Throughout this term myself and my class have spent most days of the week going and seeing the residents at Barrabill House and joining in on activities with the residents. Each day we alternated and a different person from our class would

go. We normally went in pairs or small groups of 3, spending time with the residents there.  We spent our time in the activity room at Barrabill and made lots of great connections and I found I learnt lots of things from the residents and what they had to say. I found it very interesting talking to the residents and learning their past occupations and how many jobs they did before it led them to their final job. I found it interesting as there were jobs that I wouldn't have expected and jobs that didn't seem like that resident would be into. I found it very inspiring and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and make an impact on resident's lives. The stories I heard, and the conversations said were truly interesting and eye opening on what it was like for certain people and how their life so far has been going. It made me realise that so many people have different experiences and life challenges.

Amanda Hard, Melissa Wood