[VIDEO] Tamborine Mountain State High School: taking STEM to the next level with dye sublimation

Situated in the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland with approximately 950 students, Tamborine Mountain State High School is leading the charge in STEM by integrating dye sublimation and print and cut solutions into its design technology curriculum to inspire student interest and give them the ability to get their ideas out into the world.

Keen to learn more or do the same at your school? You can see GJS' full suite of education print solutions here.

Transcript:

Tamborine Mountain State High school is an independent public school. We have roughly 950 pupils and we're situated in the Gold Coast hinterland. Very, very good cohort of kids that are at the school, and pupils, work very hard. In the design technology field we are taking STEM onboard and to that tune we are really trying to push all the boundaries of what we can do and what we can
achieve and design, engineering, technology, workshop and so on.

We are looking to push the boundaries as much as we can in terms of getting the kids to be able to let their imaginations to run wild. We want them to have no boundaries as to what they can produce therefore the more technology we can implement to make sure that they have the ability to get their ideas out into the real world, in the best way possible, the better.

As a school we've been very fortunate to have a huge amount of investment in the STEM area and in design technology. The technology that we've started using are, we have laser cutters so they are used extensively throughout design engineering and through the workshop. We have dye sublimation printing that we source from GJS, that is starting to be implemented a great deal in the design field. We also have a sticker cutter, a Roland BN-20, again bringing students creations to life in terms of logo design, prints, banners, personalisation of products they make throughout the school. 3D printers, we also have a CNC router in the workshop and we've just acquired a plasma cutter as well.

Dye sublimation is definitely a recommended way to go in getting kids products, kids designs, onto garments or to anything in fact; mugs, mouse mats, anything that you can sublimate onto. Very, very good way of allowing them to see their creations come to life, the personalisation and choice that allows you to achieve means that the kids are always going to come up with something, they're always going to achieve, and it's a excellent solution and a cost effective solution for making sure that the subjects is alive, moving forward and very much at the forefront of pupil's choices and minds.

In acquiring the new technology that we have, as teachers we are quite time poor and when we've got all these different ranges of new technologies were trying to implement, one thing that we find is really effective is that the kids learn with us and what tends to happen is they get really excited about it, they end up learning how to use the machines at the same rate that you do and then they overtake, and they start pulling you further, pushing the boundaries as well and they bring you along with you.

That's one thing that always never fails to surprise when they start using that. With the sublimation printer they find that it's really accessible in terms of they just send it to print, they print to the right medium and then they put it onto the heat press and they can make their product very quickly.

It never ceases to amaze you when you see that first time that the heat press comes open, the kids look at what they've created and it just zings at them. Really vibrant and they are just amazed that they created something that's now on a t-shirt, on a garment that they will wear. And that's just a great thing to see.

• Highlights
• Students can design and create hundreds of customised products in the classroom
• Digital decorating now part of the design technology curriculum to prepare students for future jobs
• Desktop dye sublimation solution
• Roland BN-20 desktop eco-solvent printer/cutter
• Geo Knight DK20S desktop platen heat press