We had some of the kids up from Katherine way (Clyde Fenton school) recently come and visit our sports biomechanics laboratory in Darwin. We gave them the full elite athlete treatment , including some MOCAP analysis of them throwing the traditional Australian spear. Great fun all round! Thanks Jim for taking them through the lab!
STEMfit Cup presentation the Holland Park State School
Congratulations to Matthew S., Olivia G., Evelina P & Lucas H. from Holland Park State School in Brisbane Australia, who together with team champions Mr. Gibney and Dr. Charlie were awarded with their Gold medals and the inaugural STEMfit Cup for 2021. In a very competitive field with entrants from Scotland, NewZealand, Outback Australia and Japan they competed to the highest of standards on the athletics track and in the classroom!. Also pictured is Mr Gribbin their out going school principal.
See their winning project entry below (For all of the other entries see Announcing the STEMfit Cup 2021 medalists )
Announcing the STEMfit Cup 2021 medalists
Congratulations to all our entrants in this years inaugural STEMfit Cup, where primary schools students had to compete on the athletic track and also with a STEM sports project. A big congratulations to all teams who entered from Ngukurr and Brisbane -Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Japan. With the various challenges of heat, rain , snow and COVID school closures it was impressive that all schools did so well. Not all schools could do all events, especially as some were constrained to backyards. The judges particularly liked the creativity of the Ngukurr video, the enthusiasm of the Haggis girls and the rock solid research performance of HPSS. Special mention to NZ’s young team who put everything together and we absolutely loved the precision of the 1/100’s of a second measurements from Team Japan..you guys rock!
| We awarded gold medals performance to team Scotland and Holland Park. With Holland Park taking out the overall STEMfit cup! A silver medal to team NZ…the land of the silver fern. Whilst Team Japan was outstanding on the athletic track and Team Ngukurr did an amazing project they were let down by their other event, we award them Bronze medals and our hearty congratulations . |
| Thanks also to our judges Kim from the ISEA, past Olympian and sports research director Sue, Sports Sensor manufacturer (former NASA engineer) Alex and STEM education expert Anna for your efforts…a truly international team of judges with a range of expertise across sport and STEM We also like to thank the International Sports Engineering Association and Gulf Data Concepts for their support. |
See our Announcement Video and all the student Project STEM entries
ISEA STEMfit Cup 2021 Project entries
As a part of the ISEA STEMfit Cup, our contestant teams had to participate in athletic events as well as complete a STEM project analysing human movements. neither extreme heat (Ngukurr), rain (HPSS), snow (Scotland) or COVID lockdown (New Zealand, Scotland) could deter our contestants. Here is a sneak peak at the video project entries from some of our teams. What will the judges think? .
Well done everyone you are already STEMfit champions…results are out tommorrow
See the YouTube playlist
ISEA International STEMfit Cup 2021, meet the judges
The ISEA international STEMfit Cup is now well underway and the entries are in. Tomorrow we announce our winners and medalists. Who are our judges you might ask?Lets meet our Judges…
Dr Sue Hooper AM
As an Olympian and academic, Dr Sue Hooper AM has been passionate about junior and elite sport in Australia. She was responsible for the inaugural leadership and management of the Centre of Excellence for Applied Sport Science Research at the Queensland Academy of Sport and before this was the Director of the Centre for Physical Activity and Sport Education at The University of Queensland. Currently she is the Director, Health and Medical Research for the Queensland Government Department of Health. In 2016, Dr Hooper was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to sport, applied science and medicine, to tertiary education as an academic and researcher, and to swimming.
Dr Kim Blair
Dr. Blair has extensive experience in the development of innovative solutions to challenging technical problems in academic, start-up, small-medium enterprise, and large corporate cultures and a long serving ISEA executive member and past president. He has proven skills in business development, strategic planning, program management, product development, team building, and engineering design and analysis. In academia, he has over ten years experience in developing and delivering innovative, hands-on educational programs in engineering, product development process, and innovation process. Currently Dr. Blair is Vice President at Re:Build Manufacturing, a family of industrial businesses combining cutting-edge enabling technologies, operational superiority, and strategic M&A to build America’s next generation industrial company.
Anna Albert
Anna Albert has spent over thirty years educating high school students Science in the Brisbane area. She has an interest in promoting science by engaging students in STEM in the high school setting. Anna has also worked with primary school students where she developed and delivered Excellence Science days. She has contributed to developing textbooks for middle school and senior Science curriculums. Anna is currently employed as Head of Department with Education Queensland. When Anna is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family exploring Australia’s landscape, bushwalking, camping, and getting back into nature. As a department she also run year 5 and 6 excellence days for local primary schools.
Alex Kooney
Alex graduated from Louisiana State University (USA) in Mechanical Engineering and started his career in the aerospace industry. For over 10 years, he worked production engineering and R&D on the External Tank for the NASA Space Shuttle program. He left aerospace in 2006 and co-founded Gulf Coast Data Concepts (GCDC). GCDC designs and manufactures custom data acquisition products including inertial sensors for clients worldwide, including military, space, medical, and wildlife research applications.
Jim’s Hat Trick at NT Science Week Awards night
Earlier this week Dr Jim attended the inaugural NT Science Week awards, celebrating Science and STEM in the NT. The night was hosted by local ABC radio local legend Joel Spry. On hand to present the awards were Martian Redhead, Director of Business Innovation, NT anda representative from the Minister for Education and Prof. David Young, Dean of Engineering and IT, Charles Darwin university was the NT minister for Education to present the awards.
Congratulations to Jim on being awarded STEM Scientist of the year and representing STEMfit as Outreach Provider of the year.
There were ten awards all up on the night, with STEMfit winning the Peoples choice award as well.
Mercifully for Jim (and the audience) he didn’t have to give 3 acceptance speeches.
Other members of the STEMfit team were there, not only in spirit, but also online and from as far away as Ngukurr in Arnhem land via Zoom.
If you want to hear more about STEMfit. Joel interviewed Jim on ABC radio last week
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/darwin/programs/saturdays/saturdays/13528128
The interview starts at 4:52:10
Congratulations to all the other award winners as well its great to see so much happening in the NT
Ready, set..Science…The Movie!
Fresh back from Dr. Jim and Dr. Charlie’s trip to Arnham land and Katherine regions , it was straight to the editing room to put together this little movie about our trip , as told by jnr STEM ambassador Matthew. We hope you enjoy!
With special thanks to Inspired NT and TVHouse
National Science Week peoples choice award…..help us win!
Hi Everyone. We would love your vote for STEMfit…just one click CLICK HERE
Our STEMfit National Science week videos from 2020 have been nominated as the best National Science week NT project for 2020. Introduced by Dr. Jim, they feature Master Matthew taking us through sport and science from a school students perspective, Dr. Charlie and the biology of the body to improve performance and Dr Keane, Nagarabal man about the transformative experience of Science and Sport. We would love your vote for STEMfit…just one click CLICK HERE
Here are the videos
Ready, Set…Katherine!
Our STEMfit Ready , Set… Science Roadshow found time to go back to where it all began, spending time with with STEMfit co-counder and school Principal Jeff Parker. These days Jeff is the school principal at Clyde-Fenton school in Katherine, so after a quick dip at Mataranka Springs it was straight into the classrooms and playing fields at his school.
Jim had his radar unit out and everyone got to see how fast they can through a ball!
One of our highlights was working with a young man who has just recently moved to town from the bush….. it was a joy to work with him as he experienced the joys of the classroom and technology with fresh eyes.
All too soon it was time to head back to Darwin, Charlie achieved a new personal best passing 6 road trains in a row. For any not familiar with roadtrains they are a truck with up to 6 trailers towed behind it and dominate the remote highways of Australia up North. Our junior STEM ambassador Matthew did the maths, and tells us that that is 36 trailers to over take. They can take some time to pass and often the only thing you can see through the bull dust is the road train drivers indicator signalling to you that its OK to pass..talk about trusting your mates in the outback!
We rounded out our trip with a stall at Darwins STEM Innovation playground, which had the kids 5 deep at times and ran our STEmfit team ragged…all great fun!
Thankyou Inspired NT, Inspire Australia for your support of our trip.
Alo Ngukurr!
We are a few days in on our Ready , Set…. Science roadshow to remote NT. Our first school is a Ngukurr on the Roper river in Arnhem land. Its only 8hrs from Darwin and Junior STEM ambassador Matthew recons it a great ride, especially if you get to ride shotgun at 130km/h (this is the speed limit on the highway to Katherine).
Charlie had a great time with the kids , doing up anatomical models with them and explaining about the heart and brain, and how its important to fuel them with the right things, and only the occasional treats.
Jim put everyone through their paces using light gates and other sports technologies.
Matthew even found time to phone his regular school back in Brisbane, where all the kids enjoyed a video hookup with tales of crocodiles and sharing stories about what everyone likes to do in their spare time. His new friends in Ngukurr were astounded to discover that his school is 1/2 the size of the entire Ngukurr community. He also liked the idea that you don’t have to wear shoes to school. Matthew also got to participate in language class and was stunned to learn there are 7 Australian language spoken at the school…and all he knew was English!
Next stop is Mataranka springs, to wash off some of the red dirt and then on toward to STEMfit co-founder Principal Parker at Katherine’s Clyde Fenton school
Farewell to the beautiful people of the Ngukurr community, we came to teach… but learnt so much more ourselves
Image Credit: Ngukurr School CEC
STEMfit 