Science, Technology, and Engineering

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2023, and welcome your input:

Hayley Oliver (Science, Technology, and Engineering)  Hayley.Oliver@education.vic.gov.au

Term Four!!! I cannot believe we are already in Term Four! Where has this year gone? Hopefully we will start to see some more beautiful warm and sunny days, as we head closer to summer. This term in Science we are heading into our last topic of Biology, which I have purposely saved for Term 4 and the nicer weather. 

Level 5/6 Learning:

We started the term finishing off a few presentations from our Natural Disasters unit, so as a final conclusion, I gave the students a STEM challenge. They had to research somewhere in the world that was prone to cyclones and investigate their housing. We discussed that with cyclones, not only is there strong wind, but also heavy rain. Is there a pattern with how the houses a built? Each group was then given 15 paddle pop sticks, 8 straws, sticky tape, playdoh and 2 pieces of paper. They had to design and build a house that could withstand a cyclone. Once they had built their house, we put it to the test, by pouring water over and around the house, to mimic the heavy rain and flooding that often occurs and by blowing a hair dryer over and around the house model. There were some very creative designs and even a few that survived!

Throughout the rest of the term, we will switch our focus to Biology. The students have just been introduced to their first project, which is to investigate extreme environments (such as; Antarctica, a desert, the deep sea, etc) and profile one organism that lives in that environment and how it adapts to the extreme conditions. We will then move on to looking at mould and yeast, towards the end of the term. 

Level 3/4 Learning: 

We have started our Biology unit by listening to a very catchy song and learning about life cycles. Here’s the link, if you’d like to have it stuck in your head too!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqzF4-w7bG8&list=RDPqzF4-w7bG8&start_radio=1

To start the term off, the students have been busy creating some plant life cycle craft in 3D. We discussed the different stages in the life cycle of a plant and how it starts all over again. We also discussed the main things a plant needs to grow and survive. I was very impressed with the knowledge they brought into these lessons. 

The students have also voiced to me that they really enjoyed their group project last term and they’d like to do more project work this term. So I have designed a matrix for them, with lots of different types of projects on it, based on the life cycle of living things. There are several different types of projects that the students can choose from such as; acting, researching, drawing, creating etc. Each mini project might take 2-3 sessions or more, if they finish they can choose another. There are 9 projects to choose from. The aim is for each student to completely finish at least one project to a high standard by the end of week 9. I can’t wait to see what they all choose!