Year 1/2 Excursion to Scienceworks

On Monday and Tuesday students from Year 1/2 went on an exciting trip to Scienceworks in Spotswood. It was selected to inform students about our Inquiry topic of 'How the Design Process Works'.

Exploring the Think Ahead area of the museum students were really enthusiastic about the 'Race the Robot' exhibition. They competed against a robot hand to thread a ring through a series of loops. It was difficult at first but many students celebrated enthusiastically when they beat the robot hand and made it through the loops first! 

The STEM Challenge to build a rollercoaster was many students’ highlight of the day. Given only a rubber track, two balls and some tube parts, the instructor told students their job was to make a working roller coaster. They learnt that designers use different strategies to change the speed of the roller coaster such as smaller or larger loops, greater traction or a shortened track. When working on the rollercoasters, Sovaramarn stated “I like making the roller coaster as I like working with my friends and I like the way the science teacher made us to think.”

When students returned to school they continued their learning asking some thought provoking questions such as: “Why did pushing the buttons make the snow machine move?” and “What can the 3D printed hand do?” 

Teachers were very proud of the students for how they listened to instructions throughout the day and were so positive, enthusiastic and curious about each and every experience they had. What a successful day we had exploring design solutions at Scienceworks!!