Information for Parents
As a parent, you are a critical component to your son or daughter’s success in the various space settlement design competitions.
Like any extra-curricular activity, your role is to encourage and support your child’s involvement. This may include giving up your time to drive your child to and from meetings, events and competitions. Or being asked for your ideas, to review material they have prepared or assist with fund raising. Best of all you will be asked to watch their presentation after they have spent all weekend designing a city on the moon to house 500 people, or something similar.
Your involvement helps your son or daughter develop a wide range of practical ‘life skills’ including:
- Research
- Team work
- Project Management
- Communications
- Resilience
- Working with strangers
- ADD SOME MORE
While there are many excellent activities for school students to develop and maintain an interest in STEMS, Space Design Competitions Australia events provide the experience in an industry simulation setting. As a parent, this is one aspect that you can help your son and daughter understand. Discuss with them how industry and government works; how decision making is not always perfect; why the best idea does not always succeed; how leadership and teamwork can make all the difference; and most importantly, how winning is not always everything.
The Space Design Competition events could not exist without parents supporting their children and their children’s enthusiasm.
And what do you get out of your son and daughter’s involvement?
The satisfaction of watching how your support is helping them become the best person they can possibly be.
M Shaw (parent)
© 2020 Space Settlement Design Competitions® are brought to you by The National Space Society and Aerospace Education Competitions