Students in Senior Primary at Matthew Flinders Anglican College were fortunate to experience the 2021 Design for Impact Summit over two days in Term 2.
Students in Years 5 and 6 embraced the challenge to design a new world-class city from the ground up! Their mission was to imagine, design and prototype a smart, healthy, happy and sustainable Maroochydore City Centre for 2050.
The immersion experience was presented for the second year running as a partnership with
Queensland University of Technology Design Lab and experts in design.
The Summit immersion is gaining serious traction in the wider academic community and Flinders is thrilled to be a part of this practical ongoing research.
A short video of the 2021 Summit highlights is available for viewing here: https://vimeo.com/551276775
The city planning challenge was based on real demographic data that notes:
- The Sunshine Coast is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia
- For the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population lives in cities
- By 2050 it is estimated that three quarters of the world’s population will live in cities.
Head of Primary Trudi Edwards said Flinders was committed to being a leading school
in design thinking.
“This is the second year in a row that Flinders has hosted the Design for Impact Summit
and challenged our students to look at the world differently,” Trudi said.
“Working in collaborative teams, our students were asked to be ‘future thinkers’,” she said.
“Their task was to imagine, design and prototype a better Maroochydore City Centre for
2050.
“This is all part of our College’s aim to give our students from Prep to Year 6 diverse and
rich opportunities to experience first-hand the energy, excitement and possibility of design
thinking.”
The students created prototypes for a Maroochydore City Centre for 2050, and the results
were awe-inspiring!
Each student team was given a large-scale 3-D cardboard base cut-out of a different
precinct as part of the greater city.