When four teachers from Sturt Public School were given a grant to undertake STEM training, they had no idea how successful it would be.
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STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and maths, and using that as their starting point, the staff and students created the Sturt Cares program, which has led to multiple projects.
Sturt became one of the first public schools to introduce recycling bins, which deputy principal Kate Livio said led to the students assessing the canteen and petitioning to have it use only sustainable materials.
Students, from Years 3 and 4 and the opportunity class, also created characters Rad Reece the Waste Warrior and his enemy Larry Landfill, and went on to publish a book using their literary creations.
They have held weekly collections of five-cent coins which were used to raise $400 to make activity packs to be donated to the paediatric ward at Wagga Rural Referral Hospital.
Students have also been visiting aged care facilities and designing gadgets to make residents’ lives easier.