Kedron teacher New York bound thanks to Qld Govt fellowship

A drama teacher at Kedron State High School has been awarded a prestigious Queensland Government fellowship to study education design at the famous Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy Leeanne Enoch congratulated Kedron’s Ms Dana Holden on being awarded this year’s $20,000 Queensland-Cooper Hewitt Fellowship.

“Ms Holden will spend 12 weeks in New York working with experts at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum looking at how design thinking can be used to engage students more fully so they get a lot more out of their education,” Ms Enoch said.

“Our teachers have an important role in inspiring our children and ensuring they are equipped with skills needed for jobs of the future.

“And Ms Holden, an exceptionally talented and dedicated performing arts teacher and President of Drama Queensland, the state association for drama teachers, will return from New York to her classroom brimming with new ideas,” she said.

“It is widely recognised that arts is an important addition to the focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the curriculum.

“Arts provides students with the critical and creative thinking that they can apply to develop effective innovative solutions to technological and scientific challenges,” Ms Enoch said.

Ms Holden will study at the Cooper Hewitt Museum while in New York.

“They have an exceptionally good design thinking program, working with schools across the United States. I want to see how they do it, what works best and how that knowledge can be applied to classrooms in Australia,” Ms Holden said.

“I will work with my fellow teachers, helping them to apply what I learn to their classrooms, including my colleagues in Kedron’s robotics program.”

Kedron State High School has a strong robotics program, with students competing in competitions in Germany and the United States.

Ms Holden said with a changing workforce and curriculum in Queensland, teachers were teaching students for careers that did not exist yet.

“In order to be successful, I believe that design thinking is at the core of how future classrooms will run. It is about learning how to learn, critical thinking, ideation and innovation,” Ms Holden said.

Ms Enoch said the Queensland-Cooper Hewitt Fellowship, along with the Queensland Smithsonian Fellowship for Queensland researchers, had been running since 2000 to great success with Queensland scientists, researchers and educators getting the opportunity of a lifetime to spend time in the United States working at the Smithsonian Institution’s museums and research centres.

The Queensland Government signed a three-year $360,000 agreement with the Smithsonian Institution last year to continue the fellowship programs to 2018.

“This is an investment in Queensland’s future and very much aligns with the Palaszczuk Government’s $180 million Advance Queensland initiative of creating an innovative culture in Queensland as the lynchpin of a strong and resilient knowledge-based economy, providing good, high-paying jobs for young Queenslanders,” Ms Enoch said.

Media contact: Daniel Lato 0438 830 201