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The creative juices were flowing today (15 June) as students from St John’s School in Roma lapped up new water knowledge at a workshop run by the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA), which is the education arm of the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).

Thanks to support from Senex Energy, around 24 Grade 7 students worked alongside industry experts to simulate water treatment in the resources and energy sector.

QRC Director of Skills, Education and Diversity Ms Katrina-Lee Jones said this workshop, which is aligned with Year 7 geology and science curricula, provided engaging, hands-on activities.

“Like all communal natural resources, water needs to be safely and effectively managed to ensure appropriate and responsible utilisation,” Ms Jones said.

“Students were shown various filtration methods during today’s workshop, and were tasked with identifying the optimum volume of a particular additive required to achieve desired treatment levels.

“This allowed the students to apply their critical thinking, problem solving, and design skills to realistic industrial challenges like treating water to a specific standard whilst considering economic and process engineering factors.”

Senex Energy Community Relations Manager Trevor Robertson said Senex is an active member of the Maranoa community.

“Supporting skills development in schools benefits Maranoa students and, ultimately, supports the entire community by enabling young people to have stable, well-paid jobs and a long-term future in their hometowns,” Mr Robertson said.

“It was fantastic to have Senex Energy engineers Ben Kelly and Julian Murahidy at today’s workshop to encourage the students in their STEM education and share their experiences of rewarding career opportunities in our company and the resources sector.”

St John’s School Principal, Mr Jim Brennan said this workshop is an excellent forum to deliver national curriculum outcomes in a fun, modern, and dynamic way.

“In addition to further developing their professional skills like teamwork, communication and design-thinking, this workshop allows our students to connect their classroom learning with real-world applications,” Mr Brennan said.

As Australia’s largest and most successful industry-led education and schools training initiative, the QMEA seeks to broaden student and teacher knowledge of career opportunities in resources.

The academy encourages a talent pipeline of employees into vocational and professional careers, with a focus on female and Indigenous participation. The QMEA currently engages with over 90 schools and is a partnership between the QRC and the Queensland Government under its Gateway to Industry Schools program.