Vision and focus of the Centre in the NSW AgSTEM landscape.
Through partnered learning and strategic educational planning , with deep knowledge of syllabuses and current and emerging industry practices, research and tertiary pathways, the Centre provides students and teachers in the DoE schools with a competitive pathway to a promising future in the growth industries of the NSW and global economies.
As a city based AgSTEM school the Centre provides local, high value educational and employment/tertiary study pathway opportunities to the students of Sydney and in particular the students of Greater Western Sydney.
The Centre is focussed on the provision of AgSTEM futures, peri-urban agriculture to meet the demands of local production in the Sydney basin linked to protected cropping, new and emerging hi-tech production and industries such as aquaculture and closed circular systems, and agribusiness, agritech and agri-engineering linked to the new Western Sydney Airport and associated industries.
The Centre's programs focus on:
- AgSTEM Tech: including IoT, blockchain, avionics, satellites, GIS, coding, apps, sensors
- AgSTEM Science: including Research, Climate Science, Biology, Physics, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Food Science, health sciences and field trials.
- AgSTEM Business: including economics, logistics, finance, policy, regulatory systems, international economics, law.
- AgSTEM Engineering: including computer, aviation, mechanical, space/satellite, design thinking.
- AgSTEM-Maths : including big data, data analytics, IoT. Block Chain
- AgSTEM production: including peri-urban production grown in production systems. This includes protected cropping, aquaculture, vertical production, closed systems new and emerging industries.
- AgSTEM futures : including current research, aerotropolis, exports markets, provenance - food security , health and wellbeing, international sustainability regulations and export market requirements, financial and futures trading and international Comparative Advantage.
- First Nations Knowledge Integration: developed into land management, product development and sciences.
- Agri Education: including supporting non trained teachers delivery AgSTEM program in schools currently and supporting new and pre-service educators to deliver modern, 21st century AgSTEM programs within the NSW syllabuses, Research informed pedagogies that deliver authentic, engaging learning programs for students.
The Centre's programs see students from the AgSTEM selective and specialty cohorts and students and teachers from across NSW immersed with industry leaders, researchers and new and emerging practices, to ensure the NSW syllabuses are delivered in a manner that actually benefits young people, provides clear articulated pathways to employment and future studies in industries that have demand as growth industries.
The Centre showcases the opportunities in delivering partnered, authentic, innovative curriculum that excites new and emerging teachers, attracts industry and research partners, attracts enrolments, and provides most importantly clear pathways to further study and employment for children without narrowing their thinking to one specific career. The programs and industry partnerships develop academic knowledge and capabilities that have been mapped to a broad range of university degrees, TAFE degrees/diplomas/Cert courses and employment. They have also been verified by work undertaken in partnership with academic/research partners and industry.
The integrated educational model developed by the Centre, as an educational and industry partner on the Hawkesbury campus, has continued to evolve since 2018/19 and continues to benefit young people and teachers not only in the AgSTEM streams, but across NSW. The Centre's co-location and integration on the WSU campus, is the primary driver to enable these partnerships to facilitate deep learning and educational pathways. The co-location on the Hakwesbury also allows deep integration with NSW TAFE.
In addition to swrvicig the AgSTEM streams, the Centre has continued to deliver programs aligned to AgSTEM, sustainability and Aboriginal Knowledges for students in K-12 across NSW. This has included schools in the DoE, Catholic Education and Independent Schools sectors. The Centre also delivers teacher professional learning for pre-service, primary and secondary school educators across NSW.