Nambour State College recently hosted its annual Pinnacle Innovators Immersion Day for students involved in the three-year program focussing on innovation and technologies. BoP Innovation, experts in helping students harness their ideas for innovation and future planning, delivered a full day experience in the College’s auditorium.

The year 8 and 9 students involved focused on improving issues in the Nambour community as well as learning about urban innovations taking place all over the world.

Students identified local issues with safety, accessibility, youth needs, consumer patterns and healthcare. The group used a variety of online research techniques to conclude that areas requiring improvement included the amount of school basketball courts, wait times at Nambour Hospital, accessibility and safety at the skatepark, and the layout and consumer needs of Nambour Plaza.

Students spent the afternoon preparing pitches delivered alongside multimodal presentations. Standout pitches included Jasper, Declan and Seth’s proposal to improve wait times at Nambour Hospital by supplying patients with tokens linked to timers as they arrived at emergency and utilising artificial intelligence to complete triage and match presenting patients to the right health service.

Sam, Eli, Riley and Jay focussed on the needs of the College and proposed further basketball courts in response to the popularity of the sport at break times and increased murals to continue the mural trail around all sides of the College.

Students had a fantastic time “learning and getting to spend time with our best friends” building on their innovation skills they have been developing all year.

Pinnacle Innovators have a specialist lesson each week where they gain further enrichment for their innovation and digital technology skills. Applications for the 2025 Pinnacle Program are now open and can be found on the Nambour State College website: https://namboursc.eq.edu.au/curriculum/excellence-programs