LEETON'S Alayna Croucamp will be among a select group of bright minds attending an aspiring young inventors event early in the new year.
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The 14-year-old student from St Francis College has been selected as one of 24 young Australians from across the country to participate in the National Questacon Invention Convention.
To be held at Questacon in Canberra from January 13 to 17, Alayna will work with facilitators and innovators and inventors with practical insight into design and entrepreneurship.
The program will allow the students to make stronger connections between STEM skills, career opportunities and commercial enterprise.
Alayna said she was surprised to find out she had been selected.
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"I thought it would be fun to do, so I applied for it after our teacher told us about it," she said.
"I was really excited when I found out I had been chosen.
"When we go, there's a bunch of challenges we all take part in, working with each other, solving problems in all kinds of areas. It should be really good."
Alayna will also attend workshops throughout the five days to help further develop her creative design and innovation skills.
The theme for this year's convention is "thrive" and students will be developing a prototype to address problems and opportunities around this one word.
Questacon senior manager national programs Jared Wilkins, said the event would give students the opportunity to see the wide range of career pathways available in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"The National Questacon Invention Convention delegates will be able to talk and work with leaders in innovation to develop their own prototypes and ideas," he said.
Alayna's family will also be invited to attend a final event to showcase the prototypes at the end of the five days.
According to Alayna, science is a subject she has enjoyed from a young age at school.
"I like so much about it ... there's so much involved," she said.
"When I'm there I'm hoping to learn new techniques in how to think about problems, how to approach them and to have fun too."
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