South Coast Baptist College is proud to partner with Edith Cowan University’s School of Engineering through the IGNIS Mission Student Interns Program—an exciting and prestigious STEM initiative that places our students at the forefront of real-world aerospace and environmental research.
This year, five of our high-performing GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) students have been selected to take part in this elite program, showcasing the exceptional opportunities available through our GATE pathway. Their involvement reflects both their academic excellence and our school’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers.
“The IGNIS mission explores the link between lightning events and bushfire ignition, allowing students to contribute to research with genuine environmental impact. Throughout the program, our GATE students engage directly with cutting-edge technologies, work within a university research environment and alongside experts in the field. We are incredibly proud of our students for representing our college in such a forward-thinking and impactful initiative.” Emma Sykes – GATE Teacher.
Below is some feedback on the program from our students:
On Friday 5th of June, I went into the ECU campus expecting to be sitting through a long 5-hour lecture. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. Instead of just sitting quietly and listening to someone talk for hours, it was engaging and it was fun to learn about how dry lightning is a significant contributor to wildfires. The IGNIS mission has the real-world impact; it’s aim is to track lightning and help prevent the risk of bush fires. In one of the workshops, I was introduced to the concept of being media trained. This was a skill that I had never considered I would ever need. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am excited to learn more in upcoming workshops. Eliza – Year 8
When I found out that I had successfully got into the 5 people team for IGNIS – a NASA internship – I was ecstatic. I originally painted a picture in my mind of fun workshops, and knowledge-based conversations, and the program meets all my expectations. Though our first session was an engaging lecture and some media training, there will be many more workshops to come. I learned several new things, and now understand the impact of lightning on bushfires, something that I only briefly understood previously. We have only just begun this adventure, and some concepts are still beyond my knowing, but by the end my knowledge will be much more expanded, and the thought alone makes me very excited. Once we get into data analysis, something I am thrilled to take part in, our results and effort will make an impact. A real one. Cara – Year 8
“The IGNIS program was very well-put together. What surprised me most is that the last phase of the mission is to launch a planetary satellite all the way to Jupiter and its moon. I gained a fair bit of knowledge at ECU, such as the ways the IGNIS mission ran last year during ground testing. Another thing I learnt was that monitoring lightning can help prevent bushfires because they strike a tree which can ignite and heat up over a couple of days then start a fire, but this can be prevented with the use of technology that can detect when lightning hits and what trees are ignited.” Kale – Year 9
“My initial thoughts on the IGNIS mission were that it was going to be a project involving bushfires and lightning. One big thing that surprised me was the people involved ranging from ECU students to NASA engineers. It was interesting to learn how massive lightning detection arrays were used to track the strikes and predict where a bushfire was going to start. I also really enjoyed the media workshop where they taught us how to act in a media interview. Standing up and conducting a mock interview really pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to experience what it was like. I’m really excited for the last 3 sessions where we get to work on the project directly, alongside scientists and professionals from NASA and other Australian universities.” Harrison – Year 9
“What surprised me the most about the IGNIS mission is that we are helping researchers from NASA and universities across Australia find a way to prevent bushfires so that we’re able to save homes and lives. I told myself that I should try to push myself outside of my comfort zone by becoming more involved with the workshops. I ended up putting my hand up when one of the speakers asked a question and I answered correctly. I ended up winning a backpack for it. This experience is influencing my future career ideas. I’m started to become more curious about careers in the space science and engineering careers because it looks very promising for Australia in the space industry in the future.” Isabella – Year 9
