STEAM Education
STEM NEWS
Digital Infrastructure @ St James
As each term ticks over it’s easy to forget a few ‘game changing’ moments in a school’s life that have massive impacts on student engagement.
Recently, the PA made a major financial contribution to the school’s ICT account to help upgrade and maintain our digital technology infrastructure.
During the summer holidays, our Managed Service Provider (Centorrino Technologies) supported us in rolling out over $100,000 worth of digital devices, peripherals and other infrastructure related services which now sees our school in a healthy digital position.
The upgrade included the purchase and installation of:
-80+ new ipads with bullet proof covers
-12 staff chromebooks
-3 desktop computers
-30 student chromebooks
-New portable P.A system (major purchase)
-9 LCD 4k Televisions
-9 Chromeboxes
-6 telephones
-variety of peripheral devices (wifi keyboards, bluetooth players etc)
On behalf of the school community I would like thank the PA for the work they did to put together their substantial contribution. We now have a school to be digitally proud of!
LOOKING FOR APPLE TVs!
Mr Mac is on the hunt for any families who might have an older generation Apple TV device that they’re no longer using and would be happy to donate to the school.
Apple TV devices are wonderful for ‘casting’ images/videos/apps from an ipad to a television or big screen. We have new ipads in every classroom and would love to have the capacity to cast students’ work directly to the classroom screen to showcase students’ learnings.
We are hoping families might have upgraded to smart tvs and no longer need their Apple TV device anymore.
If you are in a position to donate a device to the school please drop it off to Mr Mac, or have your child give it to him directly. students and teachers alike would be extremely grateful for all donations.
STEM POSTER COMPETITION
Please see the details of the competition further on this page.
Nutshell - invitation to students of all ages to create a promotional poster for a Melbourne-wide school STEM event in Term 4. Interested students to see Mr Mac at lunchtime tomorrow (Fri 3rd of May). Reminder will be given at breaktime.
STEM INITIATIVES Terms 2-4
What’s happening in the world of STEM at St James?
-We are the planning stage of a “Telstra Smart Farms” Project. We have a community partnership with Telstra and they are helping us to create a ‘Smart Farm’ at St James. This involves building a community garden containing digital sensors to monitor what we plant (minerals, water etc). The project will see students, teachers, parents and our partners working together. Stay tuned!
-’Wearable Technology Fashion Show’. We have been invited to participate in an Australian-wide fashion show to be held in September this year. We are finalising what this looks like for our students in terms of working with industry experts in technology and fashion in the designing and creating process. The invitation has come through event organisers Gabriela and Teodora Raducan, an extension of our Telstra Partnership. Nutshell - students will have the opportunity to design and actually make a product that has ‘wearable technology’ on it. Ie. A tee-shirt that has LED lights sewn into the fabric, fully designed and made by our children. More on this in the coming weeks.
Here is a link to the event site to get an idea of what we’re up to.
Mystique 2019 Wearable Technology Fashion Show
-Apple STEM Event at St James. Our Managed IT Service Provider Centorrino Technologies will be hosting an APPLE Digital Technology Event at St James in August. This will be held after school hours and see teachers and principals from other schools attending. We’re hoping the event organisers will leave their products behind overnight so our students can access them the next day!
-iWorld - Chad DeClase. Chad is one of our parents and runs a business called ‘iWorld’. They specialise in educational STEM products. Chad has been working closely with the school for a number of years and has donated a variety of resources to the school as well as impart his passion for STEM on some of our teaching staff. Chad is working with Mr Mac on organising a STEM day at St James which would see the students being able to have a discovery session with all the current state of the art devices iWorld has to offer. This might involve an afterschool element of the day where parents can join in the fun! Stay tuned!
**Chad has also tipped off the St James Community to the ‘Earn And Learn’ Promotion happening at Woolworths at present. IWorld is a major supplier for the program and the promotion will affect over 15,000 schools. St James needs to be a part of this! We’ll be looking for a team to champion this ASAP. Thanks Chad!
CALLING ALL CREATIVE
ST JAMES STUDENTS!
STEM POSTER COMPETITION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In October this year, Catholic Education Melbourne is hosting a ‘STEM MAD Showcase’ in the city. This event is for primary and secondary students in Catholic schools in Melbourne. St James will have a team of students participating in the event.
“Catholic Education Melbourne is holding a STEM Making a Difference (MAD) Student Showcase on 10th October and Teacher Conference on 11 October 2019.
STEM MAD is designed to acknowledge and promote STEM learning initiatives that address real-world problems and demonstrate how students in Catholic schools take action that matters”. (Snapshot from the event website)
All catholic schools have been invited to enter a poster competition to advertise this event.
St James will be entering a team to showcase an aspect of STEM we decide to focus on (more on this later) and it would be amazing to have a student from our school have their poster put up in every catholic school leading up to the event.
Link to official STEM MAD Showcase Website (Click Here)
ST JAMES POSTER COMPETITION ENTRY DETAILS
The official competition guidelines are below but as a snapshot, the following information is the key for all St James students who wish to enter the competition:
-The poster is to be A3 in size.
-It can be made digitally or hand made (need a high definition photo of hand created posters)
-There are details of ‘what’ has to appear in the poster listed below in the official guidelines.
-St James can only put in one entry from our school, so we will we have to select our winning poster from all entries that we receive.
-St James’ closing date for submissions is next Thursday, 9th of May at 3:30pm. Our winner will be announced the following day at school. The winning St James poster will be sent on as our official entry in the main competition.
-Students who wish to partake in the competition will be invited to work on, or start their posters this coming Friday (3rd of May) at lunchtime, upstairs in the main school building. Mr Mac will announce this as a reminder at breaktime on Friday. Students can start their posters before this time if they wish.
OFFICIAL GUIDELINES
Students are invited to create a poster for STEM MAD 2019.
Entries are in two categories: primary and secondary.
The winner of each category will have their poster printed and displayed at the Student Showcase and Teacher Conference at The Catholic Leadership Centre on 10 and 11 October 2019.
The closing date for submissions is 5.00 pm on Friday 10 May 2019.
Poster Competition Rules
The artwork should promote the nature, atmosphere and purpose of the Catholic Education Melbourne STEM MAD event.
The artwork MUST include the following information:
STEM MAD 2019
Making a Difference
INSPIRE, INNOVATE, ANIMATE
School Name
The design MUST be A3 portrait in size (297mmw x 420mmh) using ONLY high resolution (300dpi) images.
The design must be submitted via email as a print ready PDF. Only print ready PDFs at the specified size will be accepted.
Only one entry per school may be entered into the competition.
Designs will be judged on the following criteria by the STEM MAD Advisory Committee:
Theme originality (demonstrates a unique incorporation of STEM MAD theme).
Design principles of balance, contrast and colour
Typography (the style and appearance of printed matter)
*Design winners will be announced in the last week of Term 2, 2019.
*The winning schools are responsible for picking up their poster at the end of STEM MAD event on 11 October 2019.
James McMahon
STEM Leader