Rockets will be launched by chemical reactions, music and art will be used as counselling tools and robots will help solve simulated real-life problems at a USC Experience Day to give students hands-on insights into future careers.

About 350 Year 10 students from high schools across the Fraser Coast will take part in the university immersion day on Tuesday 5 June at USC’s campus in Hervey Bay.

USC Pro-Vice Chancellor of Engagement Professor Joanne Scott said the event aimed to show the students the wide range of career and study options open to them as they entered a key decision-making time in their schooling.

“Year 10 is when students are starting to decide what senior subjects to choose and are trying to define their career plans for life after high school,” she said.

As part of Experience Day, the students will select from a series of interactive career workshops to attend.

Some will gain a taste of life as a paramedic and will respond to simulated accident cases, others will design healthy food menus as future dietitians and nutritionists.

Students interested in careers in counselling will learn how to use music and drawing as practical, non-verbal tools to help clients share their stories, while future scientists will launch rockets and calculate orbits and velocity with special software.

Other workshops will focus on animal ecology, robotics, nursing, accounting, science, social work, tourism and events, education and environmental science.

— Clare McKay