Image Source: Microsoft Press. The flagship Microsoft Store in Sydney, located at Westfield Sydney on Pitt Street Mall

Need some educational entertainment for the final week of school holidays? From Sunday 19th January until Friday 24th January, the Microsoft Store in Sydney (Pitt Street Mall) will be hosting a range of workshops focusing on the development of skills in STEM fields. This follows the release of research commissioned by the store, which they summarised through the following key takeaways:

  • 6 out of 10 students hope to see IT and Computers as a core part of the school curriculum within the next 10 years
     
  • 65% of school students said they have an interest in learning coding in school, with one in three students saying they haven’t had the opportunity to do this 
  • Over 50% of students consider Computers and IT to be the subjects most important to their future careers
  • 42% of students would like to interact more with classroom computers via touch screen, and 27% would like to be able to interact with computers via voice command

Targetted towards school students aged 8 to 15 years of age, the objective of these workshops will be to ” aim to inspire and empower children to feel confident and excited about the future of technology” and arguably more aspirationally, offer “a taste of the Australian school of the future”. Below are some of the workshops on offer:

Microsoft Store Sydney Hosting STEM Workshops for School-Aged Students Next Week 1
Minecraft Key Art – 2017

Merge Cube Workshop:  Imagine holding the earth in your hand, or perhaps even a great white shark! In partnership with Merge Cube, students will explore the wonders of the world and see them come to life before their eyes. In this interactive session, attendees will be guided through a series of Merge topic cards and experience them in 3D using Merge Cube’s Augmented Reality technology. This session assumes zero student knowledge about AI and is suited to beginners. 

Minecraft Education – Element Scavenger Hunt: Blockheads get set to learn with Minecraft! Using Minecraft: Education Edition, students will learn about the earth’s elements and how they combine to form matter. A combination of science, gaming and a whole lot of fun, attendees will break apart material blocks to understand how they are made up of component elements in this hands-on ‘scavenger hunt’ style session.  

AI with Neuranext: In partnership with Neuranext, this fun, interactive session, students will learn the key scientific concepts of Artificial Intelligence with Neuranext AI. Attendees will learn how A.I. is all around us, get to implement computer vision using Python Code and Jupyter Notebooks with data and images they create. Students will also workshop future applications of the technology and their impact on the world. Students will participate in deploying computer vision and neural networks to activate autonomous robotic cars for a self-driving task. 

App Lab – Build your own app: Budding app developers, listen up! Inpartnership with Code.org,this 1.5-hour workshop, you will learn how to build your own app using fundamentals of JavaScript with block-based coding. Using Code.org’s App Lab, learn how to come up with an app idea and watch it transform from sketch to shareable app in moments. For students 13+ only. NB: To save and access their app following the workshop, students will need to bring an email address. 

Access to these workshops may be limited by capacity. You can register for them in advance via the official Microsoft Store Australia website. Each session is expected to be run for approximately 1.5 hours, and in general requires no prior learning.

We’re very excited that Aussie school kids are so interested in learning about new technologies in the school of the future. It’s even more exciting to be able to offer students the opportunity to trial technology and curriculums that they may not have hands-on experience in their school classes at the moment. By offering these workshops at Microsoft Store, we hope to inspire and empower children to feel confident and excited about the future of technology, ultimately inspiring them to pursue a career in the STEM industry.

Max Ferfoglia
Community Development Specialist at Microsoft Store Sydney
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