25 years of STEM engagement in 2025 for the Science and Engineering Challenge!
The Science and Engineering Challenge was established by the University of Newcastle in 2000 and since then has reached over 480000 students, inspiring them to take up STEM studies in senior school and gain the skills they need to enter tertiary STEM studies.
In 2025, the Science and Engineering Challenge will reach over half a million participants since 2000, a great milestone in the 25-year history of the University of Newcastle program.
"This is our 25th anniversary year and it is amazing to think back to when it all started that we did not realise then that it would have been such a wide-ranging success – success in the number of students involved, the number of states participating, the core support of Rotary and the generosity of the sponsors." - Emeritus Professor John O'Connor, founding member of the Science and Engineering Challenge team and current Chair of the SEC National Council.
2024 was a great success involving 24941 students at 88 SEC school events and well over 34000 members of the public attending SEC activations. 2025 promises to be even bigger with over 290 event days already scheduled and many more activations yet to be confirmed. The highlight of the anniversary year is sure to be the National Final in October, where the best 8 schools from across Australia will travel to the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus to compete for the title of National Champion of the Science and Engineering Challenge.
The 2024 student survey data confirmed the considerable impact of the Science and Engineering Challenge at encouraging students to select STEM subjects in senior school. The statistics also showed a huge diversity in participants which included 49% female, 38% low ICSEA, 5% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and 55% of participants living in rural or remote locations. This diversity is vital to combat inequities in STEM fields and to provide a wider range of experience and insights to solve future STEM problems.
"Its longevity and recognition are also due to our overwhelming success at exceeding our goals of convincing students to change their misconceptions about what a career in science and engineering entails and thus study physics, chemistry and advanced mathematics in their final years of secondary education to keep these options open. In 2024 we updated our survey process to provide us with more timely and statistically significant measures of our success. This has reaffirmed that what we do matters and to extend it further we have updated our survey of commencing university students to gauge the longer-term impact." - Emeritus Professor John O'Connor.
The Science and Engineering Challenge's success relies heavily on volunteers and STEM industries. If you would like to volunteer or get involved with sponsoring an event, please contact challenge@newcastle.edu.au
For a full list of events running in 2025, go to the Science and Engineering Challenge website www.newcastle.edu.au/challenge
See the latest videos from the Science and Engineering Challenge YouTube channel.
Contact
- Lisa Campbell
- Phone: 0448971846
- Email: lisa.m.campbell@newcastle.edu.au
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