The STEM teaching method allows students to work with a hands-on approach, to solve challenging problems and projects.

Members of the Oaklands Crossing Grade Separation project team first visited Seaview Downs Primary School in July to meet the years 2, 3 and 4 students, introduce the project and present a car park design problem for them to solve.

The team explained the requirement to build an additional 50 car parks, as part of the Oaklands Crossing project. It was then up to the students to investigate how they would help the project team to design the car parks, with consideration of car park dimensions, safety, available space, environmental impacts and timing.

Over the two terms, the team visited the school to provide further information, answer questions and hear the students’ ideas.

On Tuesday 27 November the students presented their models.

The solutions were incredible! The team walked around to listen to presentations and view the models that the students had built. The models included signage, speed humps, lighting, vegetation, security cameras and mobility and emergency services car parks.

The students came up with some fantastic ideas and really enjoyed the challenging project. We think there may be some future engineers and architects in the mix!