Today I rise to celebrate a local Indi science educator. Wangaratta’s Digital Technologies Advisory Committee was recently awarded a National Science Week grant for its Inspired By Tech Regional Festival. One of the leading people behind this grant’s success is Maree Timms. Maree is a dynamic leader in the STEM field, mentoring local students to pursue their love of science. Maree is so good at what she does. She’s received education awards and has led the Galen Catholic College’s VEX Robotics team to international competitions.

In 2018, the robotics program’s success at the national titles gained them entry to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Kentucky, USA. From a field of 600 international high schools, they went on to win a service award. That’s the first time Australia has won an award at the worlds in the secondary school division. They also made history in 2020 as the Australian representative at the first Kibo Robot Programming Challenge. They were one of only three teams from across eight countries to successfully complete the mission of coding NASA’s Astrobee robot on the International Space Station.

I congratulate Maree—what a legend of education!—successive VEX teams and all STEM teachers as they inspire and advance future generations of Australian scientists. Well done, Maree.