Tech Ambassadors

TERM 3 Round-up: What did our Tech Ambassadors get up to?

As we head closer to the final Maker Faire, the Ambassadors have been diligently working on their projects to present to the nearby primary schools. We look forward to what they come up with!

Tech Ambassador workshop (25th July and 17th October) – Planning out Maker Faire activities!

On Monday 25th July, our student ambassadors arrived at the Whittlesea Tech School ready to further plan out and test chosen activities for the upcoming Maker Faire. As our ambassadors joined their allocated teams, they continued to work through various processes in planning and creating their activities for neighbouring primary school students:

• prototyping and test-running the activities
• discussing material costs and quantities required throughout the day
• managing any potential risks involved and determining practicalities of running their chosen activity with primary school students
• determining the location of their activity station in the Tech School

This was also continued in term 4 on Monday 17th, where they worked on their posters to decorate and display their activities. All have been working especially hard to get their projects up and running!

Science communication workshop @ SciGallery (22nd August)

Ambassadors headed to Melbourne University’s SciGallery to observe and explore various different projects which combine art and science in interesting ways. The theme of the exhibit, SWARM, explored the idea of uncovering the very essence of human behaviour and questions what drives humans to be social – can we go it alone, or will we eventually join the pack?

Students spent half the day finding out their most favourite exhibits, then joined into groups with other school tech ambassadors to create a science communication poster to display their favourite exhibits to the public. They practiced their science communication skills to create posters to draw the general public’s attention to visit the SWARM exhibit.

Theo (9G): “My favourite exhibit was the Egg. It reminded me of the globe used by Slovenia in Eurovision 2022 as a lot of people also wondered if something would hatch out of it.”  

(The Egg is a kinetic sound sculpture that reflects on the impact of overpopulation. Driven by real time data generated by the World-O-Meter, the world's most comprehensive counter of all things human. Each new human birth makes the egg vibrate and release a bass sound, making the egg seem like it will burst at any point!)

Izabela (7I): “one of my favourite exhibits was the digital tree. I liked how it was designed

and how it related back to country and Adam Goodes movements in his footy games.”

(Izabela really liked the Ngapulara Ngarngarnyi Wirra (Our Family Tree) exhibit, which explored the idea of connection between our data and kinship. It is a cultural dive into the significance of Goodes’ dataset (his movements in every AFL match) expressed through the Adnyamathanha kinship system.  )

Paxton (8A): “I liked the Egg and the speaker room. The Speaker room used YouTube tutorials to make the sounds.”  

(Maelstrom (or the Speaker room, as known by Naman and Paxton), converted snippets from all internet audio content into a synchronised symphony. Multiple speakers in a room played these converted sounds in an enclosed room.)

Naman (8A): “I also liked the Egg and the Speaker Room!”

(Naman digitised and ready to be lumped with other digital bodies in a digital cosmic fossil.)

(The digital Planet of People where 3D scans of individuals are lumped into the digital 

 cosmic fossil! The idea is to overcome 

limited space we have on earth for burials 

and creative ways to solve this issue.)

Ms. Achmad: “I liked the exhibit where you took a 3D photo and your digitised self was lumped into a planet of people in space. It’s a novel idea into how we can creatively dispose of human bodies into space!”