The program is delivered through STEM Centres to facilitate collaboration between local and offshore students. It equips students with the tools to apply practical STEM solutions to real-world problems in areas such as sustainable housing using speculative design, and clean energy choices. The program is supported by industry partners internationally.
Benefits for schools
The program helps schools to:
- develop and enhance students’ STEM literacy and capabilities
- provide students with a chance to collaborate internationally and create awareness of connections between people, societies and environments
- promote student leadership by building partnerships that connect learning within and beyond the school.
Program structure
The 2026 activities are aligned with the Framework of Improving Student Outcomes (FISO) 2.0 and the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0.
Key curriculum connections of the program include:
- Design and Technologies
- Intercultural Capability
- Personal and Social Capability
- Sustainability (cross-curriculum priority)
- Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia (cross-curriculum).
This year's Global Design Challenge will be offered by Knox Innovation Opportunity and Sustainability Centre (KIOSC) and STEM Centre of Excellence.
KIOSC, hosted by Swinburne University, is delivering two programs:
- Sustainable Future: Clean Energy Solutions for a Brighter Tomorrow – This innovative program empowers students to explore the future of sustainable living and clean energy choices. Through interactive, hands-on workshops, participants investigate the fundamental principles of clean energy and sustainable alternatives.
- The Masterpiece Mystery: An international Forensic Investigation – In a simulated crime-solving scenario, students investigate the theft of a COVID-19 vaccine from the Knox International Laboratories for Lifesaving Epidemiological Research (K.I.L.L.E.R.). Participants learn forensic techniques including soil analysis, chromatography, and biometric analysis. Using tools such as Miro, they conduct interviews, collate evidence, build case timelines, and analyse fingerprints, DNA, and other data to identify suspects and solve the case.
The STEM Centre of Excellence, hosted by the University of Melbourne, is delivering the following program:
- The Living Room Project challenge is open to Level 9 and 10 students and will give students the chance to use speculative design thinking in collaboration with peers in China and South Korea. Over three sessions, including a hybrid exhibition tour that includes Asian artists, students will design their own sustainable housing solution that could suit both countries considering their local contexts, climates, and societies.
| Name of school | Program title | Themes | Partner country | Year level | Places |
|---|
| KIOSC | Sustainable Future: Clean Energy Solutions for a Brighter Tomorrow | Sustainable living and clean energy choices |
India and Sri Lanka
|
Years 8 to 9 |
Available |
| KIOSC | The Masterpiece Mystery: An international Forensic Investigation | Information technology and medical technology |
Vietnam and Cambodia |
Years 8 to 9 | Available |
| STEM Centre of Excellence | Living Room Project | Sustainable housing and speculative design | China and South Korea |
Year 9
| Available |
Key contacts
For more information or to express interest in the program, please contact STEM Centres directly at:
2025 program highlights
In Terms 2, 3 and 4, Knox Innovation Opportunity and Sustainability Centre (KIOSC), Ecolinc Science and Technology Innovations Centre, Banyule Nillumbik Tech School and the STEM Centre of Excellence delivered the department’s Global Design Challenge program, with support from community leaders, and international industry partners.
The program facilitated collaboration between local and offshore students by applying practical STEM solutions to a real-world problem. In 2025, 336 students from schools in China, India Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, along with 412 Victorian students participated in the program.
Together, the participants worked in teams to address themes such as sustainability and plastic pollution, sustainable housing, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and clean energy choices.
The program not only helped students develop STEM capabilities using contemporary technologies and practices but also provided opportunities for international collaboration, empowering their voices and agency through inquiry-based projects.
