If you visit Hervey Bay State High School, you might be surprised to see an array of STEM projects come to life, thanks to TEACHX Innovation in Teaching Award recipient Simon Roper.

In addition to his classroom teaching, Simon has worked on several remarkable projects with students including Wind Farms, Binbots, and The Farmbot.

HBSHS is home to eight miniature working wind turbines of various shapes and sizes through team collaboration and Simon’s coding and engineering expertise. The windfarm aims to promote sustainable energy and reduce the use of non-renewable resources within the school community and is the first of its kind in Queensland.

Simon’s contribution to robotics in the HBSHS community sees the two robotic programs in their midst. The first, BinBots, involves designing and building a robot to travel around the school, stopping for students to drop their rubbish in, using line tracker technology. While still in its early days, the project aims to make recycling more efficient for students.

Simon’s colleagues have praised his remarkable ability to develop highly innovative STEM programs that foster students' curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm for the subjects.

His work on the General Engineering syllabus sees students introduced to the fundamentals of engineering and provides them with the foundations and skills to pursue a STEM based career, encouraging them to connect with the world around them.