Students on the Primary campus have the opportunity to not only participate in STEM lessons, but they also attend weekly Digital Design lessons where they are learning and applying the design process to different engineering challenges. The Preps, Year 3’ s and Year 6’ s have been developing their scientific literacy and scientific knowledge in STEM with Mr McLean. The Prep ’ s have been starting to learn what science and STEM is and learning about what scientists do. They have been doing this through hands on activities where they make predictions on what will occur during their tests (e.g. will things float or sink, or what is heavier and what is lighter) and then observe if their predictions are correct. The Year 3’ s have been actively engaged in our ‘ Is it ALIVE and how do we CLASSIFY? ’ unit where they have been looking at how we define if something is alive or not and how we can use these characteristics to sort between living and non - living things. In particular they have learnt about why MRS GREN provides a range of characteristics (Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition) that helps to define all living things as distinct from something that is not living. Students are now starting to investigate and explore how they can classify animals using a dichotomous key. The Year 6’ s have shown great focus as we work through our ‘ Space … how far away is it? ’ unit. Students started off this unit developing an appreciation for distances and travel times they are familiar with so that they can then compare them to the size of planets and the magnitude of the distances involved when travelling in space. PRIMARY: BUILDING CONNECTIONS
Across Prep to Year 6 in Digital Design this term students have taken on a variety of challenges. In Prep, students have been exploring how different materials function and move. Students in Year 1 to 6 have worked through a variety of different tasks, using their imagination to create solutions both individually and as teams.
Here are some photos from our classes this term:
On Friday the 15th of March, myself amongst my fellow female peers took part in the She Maps drone incursion. We began the incursion with an introduction to the various roles and tasks drones are used for in not only the STEM industry but safety service sector. We learnt about the many different types of drones and how drones can be programmed to cover large landscapes and collect data. We then completed a safety checklist about procedure and protocol when flying drones. Then we got into the exciting stuff, flying the drones. We separated into our groups of three and had a test of our drone with each person allocated either pilot, copilot or safety officer. After we had tested the drones we got on to coding them. We coded our drones to cover specific areas on a map, with a flood plain, gaining practical experience in using drone technology for tasks such as surveying, mapping, monitoring and inspection. Overall I had an amazing experience which opened my eyes and made me learn many ways drones can make data collecting easier and accurate. Thank you She Maps! By Lexi, Year 10
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