STEM
STEM in the Sun: Mickleham Students Shine in Design Competition
Recently, Mickleham Secondary College students took part in the STEM in the Sun design competition in partnership with Hume Tech School. This 2025 project invited young designers across the City of Hume to shape the new STEM Centre through creative, laser-cut shade structures.
Working from a real industry brief, students explored the theme “Creating connected community through STEM”, using the official shade-template and engineering constraints provided by Hume Tech School. Designing with bold linework suitable for laser cutting, students prototyped ideas, refined their concepts, and submitted digital artworks for judging.
We are proud to celebrate the achievements of our entrants:
- Almina 7D – Winner
- Mariya 7G, Inaya 7G and Sarah 8K – Winner
Warris 7G and Aksdeep 7G – Finalists
Hume Tech School has confirmed that Almina’s design and Sarah’s team’s design will be laser-cut into the permanent shade structures installed at the brand-new STEM Centre. A third design from another partner school will complete the final set. As part of the recognition, these students will also be invited to the Centre’s official opening ceremony and will feature on a commemorative plaque.
Warris and Aksdeep’s thoughtful and well-crafted piece progressed to the finalist stage, and although not selected for fabrication, Mickleham will receive a ceramic prototype of their design to celebrate their achievement.
This partnership has given our students an authentic design-industry experience, connecting digital design, engineering, creativity and real-world problem-solving.
Year 7 STEM: Designing Apps for Future Students in Partnership with Banyule Nillumbik Tech School
Our Year 7 STEM classes have recently completed an exciting digital design project in partnership with the Banyule Nillumbik Tech School, using Figma to create their very own mobile apps. The challenge was authentic and purposeful: design an app that would support future Year 7 students as they transition into MSC.
Throughout the project, students explored key themes identified by current Year 7s, including making friends and socialising, navigating the school, understanding timetables, and even light-hearted features like ranking teachers. Working through user-centred design, students planned interfaces, created wireframes, and developed interactive prototypes, mirroring real industry practice in app development.
This partnership allowed students to build digital design and problem-solving skills while also reflecting on their own experiences starting at secondary school. The creativity and thoughtfulness displayed have been outstanding, and we are proud to share their work with our community.
new Year 7 STEM – App Design.mp4
Robotics club
Students completed their final session of robotics club for the year. They have been working on creating robots that could compete in a tug of war contest. Students learnt about gear ratios and how they influence speed versus torque, as well as considering the weight of the robot and how that might influence the contest. They were then able to put their robots to the test and had a lot of fun trying their robots out.
We are looking forward to continuing the club in 2026 and trying new challenges.
