Regional WA’s largest scientific showcase making grand return next week as STEMathon comes to Waroona

A Waroona primary school is set to host the region’s biggest scientific showcase this week with the return of their annual epic event STEMathon. St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Waroona is set to draw in more than 500 primary school students from Harvey, Pinjarra and Mandurah to get involved with science, technology, engineering and maths. Principal Ronan Kelly said he and the school staff were looking forward to bringing the event back for the third time during National Science Week, which runs from 9-17 August. “All of the local students will get exposure to awesome STEM based activities that on a normal basis, they probably wouldn’t,” he said. “It’s great for our students. They get their core subject learning every day, but to get this exposure to such a wide variety of STEM based activities, I think it’s really important for them so that they can get a feel for different potential careers or different avenues. “I’m pretty sure that the hands-on maths activities that the kids will do on the day will make them realise that maths isn’t always just about solving equations on pen and paper (and) that they can have fun doing hands-on maths based activities as well.” Mr Kelly said the event had several keynote presentations planned with World of Maths, Mindflight7 VR and the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia attending. He said he was grateful for the support of community, with local organisations also getting involved in this year’s event. “We’ve had donations from Alcoa, our main sponsor, and donations from Schlam Engineering, Charles Hull Contracting and Waroona Local Ag Services,” Mr Kelly said. The Pinjarra Bakery, IGA, and the local police and fire department have all also been involved. “I am grateful to all those people, but also really grateful to the staff of St Joseph’s, who’ve worked really well together as a team to make sure that this event continued this year,” Mr Kelly said.