STEM

Welcome to STEM

- Science Technology Engineering Mathematics -

Hello from Dr Steph Spincer, Malvern Primary’s STEM Specialist! Our brand-new STEM program has hit the ground running with every year level from Prep to Year 6 participating in weekly STEM classes.

To find out what MPS students think of STEM, I asked every class to tell me words they associate with each part of ‘S-T-E-M’ and then I made word clouds to visually represent what STEM means to them. The results give me a better understanding of how our students perceive STEM and help me to deconstruct some common stereotypes about what STEM is (or isn’t!). I hope you enjoy comparing the differences and surprising similarities in the word clouds as students progress from Prep to Year 6!

This term, our students will engage in the following exciting and enriching STEM topics:

•Prep – What is Science? – what do scientists do and what kind of people are scientists?

•Year 1 – Chemicals Changes – where do we find chemicals and how do they change and react?

•Year 2 – Water & Sustainability – understand the water cycle and how to sustainably use our water resources

•Year 3 – Living & Non-living things – identify differences between living and non-living things

•Year 4 – Material Science – explore properties and uses of materials under the microscope

•Year 5 – Matter – understand solids, liquids, gases and everything in between

•Year 6 – Adaptation – evolution of life and survival of the ‘fittest’

Here are some pictures of the activities that students have undertaken during the first few weeks of Term 1.

STEM Word Clouds