FIRE Project
The Fisher Innovate Research Enterprise is a new semester long programme for Year 9's at St John Fisher College. FIRE has been introduce to ensure our students are prepared and equipped with the skills and capabilities required to successfully navigate their futures in an increasingly complex world. The semester is spent developing a project which addresses the following elements:
- Collaboration and team work,
- Responding to a social problem,
- Grounded in research, and
- Requires the use of technology
The project is based on the University of Melbourne’s 21st Century skills, basic design procedures and cooperative learning structures. Students form teams and negotiate a project with teachers that meets the above criteria. Specific skills of collaboration, communication, problem solving, resolving conflict etc are taught to start the project. Some work on personality types and learning styles is also used to assist with group selection to avoid grouping with friends only.
Today we live in a technology and media-suffused environment with access to an abundance of information, and continually changing technology. To be effective in the wider world, young Australians must develop skills that enable them to create, evaluate and effectively utilise information, media and technology. FIRE gives students the opportunity to think critically and creatively, whilst collaborating with other students, with the aim of developing thinking and learning skills.
Examples of Work
St John Fisher College Bursary was founded by three Year 9 girls in the pilot year for the FIRE program. Realising and appreciating the opportunities their education provides, the founding students, set about to create a Bursary to make an education at St John Fisher College available for students whose families are experiencing financial hardship. Distributions for this fund will assist St John Fisher College in allowing students to start or continue their schooling at the College. A Bursary Committee has stewardship over disbursements made to the College, and is charged with the responsibility of awarding bursaries to students with the greatest financial need. For more information on the Bursary or to donate visit https://catholicfoundation.org.au/articles/endowment/st-john-fisher-college-bursary-fund/
COVID Activity Booklet
During the height of 'at home learning when Coronavirus was sweeping the globe, a group of Year 9 FIRE students collated a booklet to both educate, entertain and distract primary school age students. The booklet contained COVID-19 crosswords, mazes, short stories and colouring activities. Below are three primary school students from BCE primary school, St Columba's Wilston, enjoying the fruits of their labour.
© Brisbane Catholic Education, St John Fisher College Bracken Ridge (2019)