After many years of planning and fundraising, Lane Cove West Public School officially opened its new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) classrooms on Tuesday 26 May.

Funded through parent contributions and a donation from local business AirTrunk, the new STEM classrooms will have a strong focus on High Performance and Gifted Education.

Relieving Principal Roslyn Gee said that the decision to build the new facility was the result of many discussions with the P&C on how to best support the community.

“A number of parents work in the STEM field and made significant contributions and suggestions over the years.

“With this new facility, we are not just providing a space for learning, we are creating an environment where creativity thrives, curiosity is nurtured, and dreams take flight,” she said. 

The two classrooms provide the space for students to explore and problem solve. They contain a wide variety of equipment, such as codable robots, LEGO SPIKE Prime kits, 3D printers, and virtual reality technology.

Vinyl flooring in one classroom allows for more traditional science experiments, where mess is encouraged and robots can run smoothly.

Kelly Ashford, president of the P&C, said that the new classrooms were a culmination of 10 years’ of “passion, perseverance and unwavering Lane Cove West Public School community spirit”.

“Importantly, they’ve been designed to empower generations of students to explore, innovate and thrive in a future shaped by science and technology,” she said.

The community spirit has already seen students using the rooms in workshops with Accenture, where they applied generative AI to storytelling, learnt about the responsible use of AI through a ‘reality quest’, and got hands on with virtual reality.

Two plaques were unveiled at a special opening event, acknowledging the significant contribution of the P&C (both past and present) and the donation from AirTrunk.