STEM Club Students Participate In Competition To Redesign The Sydney Metro

Years 8 & 9 students from the Catherine McAuley STEM Club visited the Sydney Metro earlier this month.

STEM Club students in Years 8 and 9 are participating in a competition run by Sydney Metro called the ‘Metro Minds STEAM Challenge’.

This competition provides an opportunity for students who are near Sydney Metro’s City & Southwest, West and Western Sydney airport railway alignments to work together to come up with an innovative solution to an authentic Sydney Metro challenge or opportunity.

Earlier this month the students visited Bella Vista, Kellyville and Castle Hill Metro Stations to gain a deeper understanding of their task. Year 9 STEM Club and Media Team students Shraghvee B. and Evanahka J. have written the following report:

Scenes from the Sydney Metro taken by the students as part of their site visit.

Our visit to the Sydney Metro was quite an insightful experience. For example, it was interesting to learn that the metro has dedicated its stations to a fruit colour for each of the agricultural lands that the metro stations have been built upon. The colour of the Bella Vista Metro Station is orange, symbolising the oranges that used to grow in the area; they even added cement oranges around the station as a place to sit.

The accessibility of the metro itself is very safe, as there’s only a 4mm gap between the platform and the station, with enhanced technology like protective doors so that no-one can be injured on the rails or when the train is moving. Another highlight to learn was that the environment of the metro is extremely eco friendly! There are bins within a short walk from everywhere which contribute to the decrease in littering. They also have free bike lockers that allow bikes to remain safe while their owners go for a ride on the metro.

During our site visit we learnt about the tiny details the metro has looked into and we were shocked to find out the monstrous amount of work they do every day. For example, they have emergency and help points throughout the system, where the staff answer your call within 20 seconds to help you with anything from directions to train timings. Our guide took us into a small room, with roughly six chairs but more than 10 computers!

All the students from the STEM Club who attended this excursion definitely enjoyed the trip. It was an insightful experience to look behind the scenes at Sydney Metro.

Evanshka J .and Shraghvee B. | Year 9 Students