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The Australian Space Design Competition (ASDC) is an innovative and simple way of introducing Australian school students to the science and engineering disciplines. Furthermore, it is designed to enrich individual's time management skills, and provide a fundamental basis on group management and leadership.

The competition is based around teams of high-school aged students forming a company that simulates a real-world design team. The students then respond to a tender document, the Request For Proposal (RFP), through a business document. It is this document that is submitted as the entry into the ASDC Preliminary Round. The Finalist teams are then invited to the ASDC Finals, held annually in Brisbane. The winner of the ASDC Finals are then automatically guaranteed a finalist berth in the prestigious International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC), our parent competition.

It is essential for any competing team that they have at least one mentor or advisor. The company (as each team is termed within the Competition) officially adopts the mentor as CEO, who has a variety of roles, sometimes including but not limited to:

Assisting the team in organising locations for meetings;
Overseeing the initial development of the team, to ensure there is adequate leadership;
Providing a 'voice of reason' - an experienced opinion that can stop them wasting time exploring dead-ends;
Being their first source of feedback for their drafting and editing; &
Acting as their representative in their dealings with the Competition, their school(s) and/or their parents.

Obviously, that seems quite an extensive list! It is, however, not as daunting a task as it first seems. Each team soon learns how to operate as a group, at which point the mentor becomes more of a 'guiding figure'. And there are significant benefits in becoming an ASDC mentor, including:

The satisfaction of seeing your team develop as individuals, and as a team, during the course of the Competition;
Exploring the problems and tasks the students face; a significant number of mentors seem to find the Competition as challenging and interesting as the students themselves!
Networking between other mentors at the Finals round in Brisbane;
Meeting a wide variety of professional engineers and industry figures, who take part in the Competition as advisors, Finals-round mentors, and judges;
[For teachers] Providing a science-maths-engineering enrichment subject for students at your school;
[For parents] Take an interest in your son or daughters interests and education!

Do not be worried about taking on the role of an ASDC mentor. It is not an extensive committment (significantly less than as a sporting coach for example), and does not require any technical skill or industry experience. You do not need to be a rocket scientist! In fact the only things you need to become a successful ASDC mentor are:

A free hour or two each week to read over drafts or sit through a team meeting;
Enjoy working with and helping the students in the team;
Be ready to try new things and experience the ASDC!

To assist new mentors, the Competition provides a Teacher Information Pack, which includes:

The role of a mentor;
How to brainstorm and research with your team;
How to help your team compose a practical working timeline for their submission;
An introduction into the ASDC and the ISSDC;
Overview of the Request For Proposal (RFP), as well as a deconstructed section of a previous submission, to provide a clear example of what is required in a submission; &
A hints and tips page to get you started!

Click here to download the ASDC Teacher Information Pack:

MAJOR SPONSORS

Acknowledgement: This material has been developed as part of the Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Project funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training as a part of the Boosting Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Teaching (BISTMT) Programme

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE ASDC

--/02/2008	RFP Distributed
February - April 2008	Technical Training Days for CEO's, advisors, mentors, and students
29/08/2008	Submission deadline
14/11/2008	ASDC Finalists announced
21/01 - 23/01 2009	ASDC Regional Finals
July 2009	ISSDC Finals

HOT NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CRUX ENGINEERING COMPANY, WHO HAVE WON THE 2007/2008 AUSTRALIAN SPACE DESIGN DESIGN COMPETITION FINAL!

HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND'S ST LUCIA CAMPUS IN LATE JANUARY 2008, CRUX WON IN A CLOSE RACE AGAINST 3 OTHER COMPANIES.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ST LAURENCE'S COLLEGE TEAM WHO WILL BE TRAVELLING TO THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTRE IN JULY 2008 TO COMPETE AS ASDC CHAMPIONS IN THE ISSDC FINALS.