A teacher from Logan has been awarded this year's Queensland-Cooper Hewitt Fellowship to travel to New York to spend time at the one of the world's most prestigious design museums announced Member for Waterford Shannon Fentiman.
Ms Fentiman said Marsden State High School teacher Jasmine Kassulke will be travelling to New York today to work at the world-famous Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
"This award is so well deserved and Logan is lucky to have the talented Ms Kassulke teaching at Marsden State High School," Ms Fentiman said.
"She is a passionate young teacher who will spend 12 weeks in New York, working with the museum's design education experts."
"Jasmine will be able to bring back her experience and knowledge from this trip and to prepare our young students for the future."
Design education is about guiding students to define problems, generate ideas, prototype and evaluate their work with a diverse range of learning materials and targeted techniques.
Minister for Science Leeanne Enoch said she was thrilled to hear a teacher from Marsden State High School was awarded the fellowship.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for Ms Kassulke, the Logan community and Marsden State High School."
"For nearly two decades the Queensland Government has been working with the renowned Smithsonian Institution on two special fellowships that offer Queensland scientists, researchers and educators the opportunity to spend time in the United States (US) working at the Smithsonian Institution's museums and research centres.
"The fellows bring back the knowledge they've gained to Queensland, sharing what they know, and the contacts they've made while in the US," Ms Enoch said.
"Queensland is the place where world class science is being done, and partnerships like the one we have with the Smithsonian allow our state to continue to be leaders in the fields of science, research and innovation."
United States Consul General to Australia Sharon Hudson-Dean said the relationship between Queensland and the Smithsonian Institution was one that brought benefits to both America and Australia.
"Exchanges like the Queensland-Cooper Hewitt fellowship offer us the chance to learn from talented professionals like Jasmine, and we look forward to seeing her bringing home some new perspectives on how we do things in America," Ms Hudson-Dean said.
Ms Kassulke said she was excited to have received this year's fellowship, given the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum's reputation for design education, with educators at the museum often working closely with schools across the United States.
She said she hoped that her time at the museum would strengthen her existing skills as a design educator by providing her with experiences in delivering and coordinating in-school programs as well as best practice methods for teaching design thinking.
"We need to prepare our students for the workplaces of the future, equipped with the necessary 21st century skills for success. The reality is that young people today are likely to change employers and industries many times throughout their working lives.
"To add to this, automation, globalisation and flexible working arrangements are rapidly changing roles and workplaces. Jobs will exist in the future that we cannot even comprehend today."
"How schools respond to this challenge will have huge implications for Australian society," Ms Kassulke said.
"I hope to use what I learn to deliver and refine Marsden State High School's new project-based learning classes as well as my elective subjects. The project-based learning classes aim to empower students to creatively address real world problems," Ms Kassulke said.
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