Monash Tech School recently launched its new Superimagery program, welcoming Wellington Secondary College and Wheelers Hill Secondary College for its first deliveries.
The students participated in three activity rotations throughout the day, each of which aimed to answer the question:
“How can we use technology to capture and visualise the world in ways not normally possible with the naked eye?”
There was a palpable buzz throughout the building as the students responded positively to the range of activities covering diverse topics such as aerial imagery, 3D scanning and microscopy. The entire MTS programs team was on delivery for each of the days, which helped contribute to the carnival atmosphere.
Imagery is at the core of many of the most important technological advances in the last two centuries. Without microscopy, modern medicine and the microbial model of disease would not exist. Without aerial photography, urban planning, bushfire preparedness, and conservation would still be using 19th century techniques.
It isn’t surprising, then, that imagery is also at the forefront of developing technologies. Drones allow specialists to safely visit remote locations to assess damage, scanners allow rapid detection of melanoma, hyperspectral tools enable Antarctic core samples to be analysed in minutes or pharmaceutical tablets to be inspected for dose and tampering.
The pathway from paper to delivery was much tighter than a usual program with the ideation stage flowing over into early February. This left the team with a six-week window to develop program rotations that would not only speak to the overall theme of Superimagery, but also be engaging, age-specific, and with a focus on how imagery is used within industry.
We settled on three core technologies. The aerial imagery rotation spotlighted how drones and geographic information systems are used in disaster scenarios such as bushfires. In contrast, the scanning rotation looked at the real-world application of 3D environment scanning through the lens of forensics. The microscopy rotation focused on the biomedical advancement of creating virtual copies of tissues and biopsies, and how this can be used to promote collaboration, particularly in the historically lab-based department of pathology.
The team was delighted to see the students so bright-eyed about the day and were thrilled to have received such a positive reception from those in attendance. Astoundingly, 97% of students agreed that they had learnt something new from the day, and 93% of students felt that they had learnt about new STEM industries.
