The Department of Education has announced that around 650 NSW students have made educational history by completing the Higher School Certificate (HSC) science extension exam, the first ever online in NSW.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Sarah Mitchell said students sat the online exam after completing a scientific research project into an area of science that fascinated them.
“Science extension is a new course that has been applauded by the scientific community,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It aims to help students develop real-world research skills for the future and hopefully inspires them to pursue further study or a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” she said.
“The exam was a technological achievement for all the staff and students involved in this new course.”
Ms Mitchell said NSW Education Standards Authority had been well prepared to deal with students logging on to the network at the same time, in multiple locations.
She said she was pleased to see that high-achieving students across metro, rural and remote NSW had access to the course and were even able to choose areas of study that were relevant to their local or broader community.
“It provides a fantastic outlet for students with a specific scientific passion to research it and have that research count in their HSC no matter where they live,” Ms Mitchell said.
