Open the doors to a real DeLorean…an Open Day experience. There’s a classic scene in the Back to the Future 1 movie and the re-creation of it on Open Day was almost complete – short of a deserted floodlit car park and a crazy scientist. There were, however, quite a few young impressionable teenagers and numerous Dad’s reliving one of their all-time favourite movies.
The sleek iconic car – the DeLorean, was a huge hit on Open Day and provided a great conversation starter for why it was a feature in showcasing our DeLorean Project program currently in its fourth year at GCC. The DeLorean Project was named as such when it was launched in 2016, the year that Marty McFly travelled into the future and back again in the movie Back To The Future.
The DeLorean Project is future focused in its intent – geared toward developing skills and attributes in our Year 10 students, preparing them for a future that will continue to exhibit rapid change, more than we can imagine. Just like Doc Brown and Marty from Back to the Future the students in our program are encouraged to find resources to solve problems, engage in project management, reflective leadership and develop a sense of responsibility to their wider community. All these experiences are designed to help our young people thrive no matter what future of work emerges.
Student-centred learning and teaching requires continual re-evaluation of what is needed to ensure that what students are learning and experiencing is relevant and is genuinely preparing them to be the most highly sought after employees amongst their peers. By focusing on skills and attributes, we believe we are preparing our GCC students for a changing employment market. Research and reports from industry align with our goal for our students to develop attributes such as self-awareness, social awareness, creative mindset and use of technology in a context that is genuinely creative and collaborative.
The reality of what our students are experiencing in ‘The DeLorean Project 2019’ is definitely hard work and is understandably being embraced with mixed levels of enthusiasm. If you know one of the current Year 10 students, or you have a child who will be coming through the program in the coming years, encourage them to dig deep, find their grit, build their resilience and embrace the opportunity to learn and grow in a relevant and meaningful way for an even brighter future. We would like to say a very special thank you to Lance for kindly bringing his beautiful car and sharing it with the GCC community. A further thank you to all the people who visited the DeLorean car at Open Day! Enjoy your Marty McFly moments, we think some of them will make it straight to ‘the pool room’!
Tanya Cullen and Beryl Morris