S.T.E.A.M.

It has been a fun filled fortnight in S.T.E.A.M.!

In week 5 students in Prep to Grade 6 that were not participating in the Shrek rehearsal got their own taste of Shrek in S.T.E.A.M. with a Shrek themed escape room challenge. Five activities were on offer to challenge the students’ creativity, thinking and teamwork skills. They had to work against the clock to earn keys to set Princess Fiona free. There was the Float or Sink in the Swap Challenge where students had to predict and test the buoyancy of objects in Shrek’s swamp, Pinocchio’s Nose Challenge where students had to help Pinocchio shrink his nose by accurately giving responses to true or false science questions, there was the Shrek Scale Playdough Challenge where students had to create Shrek characters in order of their size, there was the Three Little Pigs House of Sticks Engineering Challenge where students had to create a stable house model out of sticks and there was the Princess Fiona Coded Message and Puzzle Challenge where students had to translate and send a message to Fiona in Morse Code to let her know they were on the way to rescue her and piece together puzzles of Shrek and Fiona. This event definitely proved that we have some great problem solvers at A.C.P.S. and that our students are terrific at using their teamwork and cooperation skills!

In week 6 the Preps, Grade Ones and Grade Twos revisited our playworlds story Astro Girl and looked at the complimentary text Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton. We looked at how astronauts prepare for space missions and how space shuttles are prepared for launch. The Preps drew picture checklists for their upcoming space mission. The Grade Ones were very excited to receive phases of the moon puzzles that had been made by their buddies and eagerly went about putting these together. The Grade Twos looked at how astronauts need to be very fit to go on space missions and participated in an astronaut training camp fitness session. The Grade Twos also conducted an experiment that looked at how satellites orbit Earth and learned that satellites can burn up upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere or sometimes parts of them crash back down to Earth.

In week 5 the Grade Threes, Grade Fours and Grade Five B took a look at Newton’s Law of Gravitation in simple terms and learned that gravity causes all objects to fall to Earth at the same speed…if gravity is the only force acting on those objects. The students tested this in an experiment where they dropped a book and a piece of paper separately and saw that air resistance caused the paper to drop more slowly but when the book and the paper were stacked, air resistance was no longer a factor and they both dropped together. They then looked at Physicist Brian Cox conducting Galileo’s Feather Hammer Drop experiment at NASA’s Space Power Facility inside the world’s biggest vacuum and saw how a feather and a bowling ball will fall to Earth at the same speed when there is no air. Take a look here.

 In week 6 the Grade Threes and Grade Fours took a video tour of the N.A.S.A. Johnson Space Centre and looked at life on the International Space Station including how astronauts sleep, shower, exercise, eat and go on spacewalks. They conducted an experiment that looked at how astronauts need to be resourceful and creative to solve problems in space. The experiment required students to test materials that could be used to fix an astronaut’s glove to stop an oxygen and pressure leak. They also used illustration guides to create images of space shuttles and astronauts.

In week 6 the Grade Fives  learned about the International Space Station, how astronauts train for missions and what life is like in space. They looked at an interview with astronaut Mike Fossum who has spent 194 days in space during three separate space missions. He helped build part of the International Space Station and lived there for half a year on his third space mission. The Grade Fives also conducted an experiment that required them to be problem solving astronauts, testing materials to fix an emergency space suit malfunction where a glove had sustained a tear.

Lego Club

Our Lego Masters Challenge that took place as part of Education Week celebrations in week 5 was a huge success. Here are some pictures of the action:

Lego Club has now moved to lunchtime on Mondays to allow our master builders more time to practise their creative engineering skills. Everyone is welcome!

Kate Misra

kate.misra@education.vic.edu.au