Design School

Learn design skills to transform your teaching and help your students succeed in STEM.

Professional Learning

What do we teach?

Our courses specialise in practical design & innovation skills, engineering & digital technologies. Check out our current courses below. We are also happy to bring our Design School to you. For further information or for registered training please email us.

Cool Controller Competition

NSW DoE Design Thinking Competition

Students will be encouraged to apply innovative ‘blue sky’ thinking to produce a design concept for a ‘Smart’ device and prepare a pitch to sell their idea. Each finalist team will receive a micro:bit ‘Lab Pack’ that can be used in the classroom for STEM activities. The first 100 teams to enter will get Splat 3D design tools (Design Excellence and Sustainable Design - Australian Good Design Awards 2019). The first 100 teachers to register will get a free PD Masterclass in Designing for Sustainability.

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Why Design & Spatial Skills?

Research clearly points towards these two fundamental skill sets being critical for success in STEM across all fields.

Design skills require creative thinking and complex problem solving skills, and is recognised as one of the hardest skill sets to automate.
Visual spatial ability is often cited as the number one predictor of long term success in STEM across all fields.
As teachers we are already required to teach design and production skills, our training helps teachers focus on delivering authentic and impactful skill development to maximise their students success in STEM.

Splat - Getting Started

Free Online Course

You will learn how to implement Splats in your classroom using a simple three step approach to engineering design. You will draw and render all five core 3D objects for design and practise how to combine these objects to generate new design ideas K-8

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Drawing for Design

Online Masterclass

From the early years students are communicating their ideas visually. Drawing is universally an integral part of the design process. It helps engineers and designers to think for rapidly generating ideas and visual problem solving. During this 2 hour course you will learn the drawing basics for engineering design to confidently help your students visualise their ideas. Suitable K-8

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Future Focused Design

Online & Face to Face Course

Are you teaching Design & Technology? In this innovative course participants will explore a step by step integrated approach to designing future focussed products. Designed to help teachers immediately feel more confident running design projects in the classroom, this course is based on industry practice and a sound knowledge of effective pedagogy. Using this step by step approach Seraj Soroush, a 12 year old student, created this award winning design proposal and was featured at the World Engineers Convention 2019 in Melbourne.

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Splat - Maths Fundamentals

Online Masterclass

This fantastic hands on course focusses on 4 key areas for developing your students geometric thinking and spatial reasoning skills. This course is research based and designed with a cross curriculum focus to support the development of math skills that underpin success across STEAM.

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High Quality Courses

AITSL advocates high quality professional learning occurs when training is:

Relevant

Our courses are based on curriculum, current research and effective pedagogy.
Collaborative

Our courses use technology to enrich collaboration, learning and access to experts.
Future Focussed

Our courses expose teachers to new and emerging practices and the research that underpins them.

What teachers are saying about our courses.

Classroom Teacher

Chris NSW

Informative and supportive. Excellent demonstrations. Outcomes achieved.

Classroom Teacher

Jeremy NSW

This is outstanding, hands on, relevant and can be implemented immediately.

Classroom Teacher

Rainnie NSW

Great project idea with plenty of well articulated scope.

Classroom Teacher

Erin NSW

I loved the hands on practical focus. It makes it easier to follow a program when you know what can be created at the end.

Classroom Teacher

Grant NSW

Great delivery. Well presented material.

Classroom Teacher

Robert

Great hands on course with lots of ideas and potential.

Classroom Teacher

David NSW

Excellent resources and great ideas to assist students learning.

Classroom Teacher

Greg NSW

Hands on opportunities suit my style. Resources well prepared. Relevant to my needs.

Classroom Teacher

Jennifer NSW

Fantastic course! Very well explained. Great resources. Can't wait to attend another.

Classroom Teacher

Mark NSW

Great ideas. Presented brilliantly. Very interesting.

Professional Learning

Our courses are offered as both AITSL Teacher Identified Professional Development and NESA Registered Hours.

2.1.2 Proficient Level – Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities.
6.2.2 Proficient Level – Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities.

What we teach is guided by principles of good design.

Authentically solve problems
Promote sustainability
Evoke curiosity of the senses
Inspire intuitive engagement
Embed usefulness & accessibility
Empower the user
Deliver on durability

Instructors

Teacher

Kylie Burrett

Kylie is a dynamic educator and award winning designer who aims to help teachers and students fulfil their creative potential. Professionally, Kylie has worked extensively as a media and education consultant for: ABC TV, Weta Workshop NZ, Chapman Entertainment UK, and for the past 5 years has been working in NSW schools resourcing and developing innovative STEAM programs. As co-creator of the Splat ® – Engineers Australia sponsored STEAM 3D design tool – Kylie’s creative out of the box thinking has demonstrated her exceptional capacity for innovation and developing tools, from concept to market, that support diversity in design.

Lead Designer

Glenn Lawrence

Glenn is an award-winning industrial designer and knowledgeable educator who loves to help students design and create. Professionally, Glenn has worked as an industrial designer in both Australia and China, and has over 10 years of experience Design & Engineering Studies in NSW secondary schools. He is passionate about developing visual thinking skills in learners, to enhance STEAM innovation in the classroom and beyond. His real-world experience and love for STEAM based learning opportunities has allowed Glenn to lead enrichment programs and professional learning workshops for both primary and secondary teachers.