Hands On Learning (HOL)

Another day of ordinary weather presented itself for HOL yesterday (but a cup of soup at recess warmed us nicely). With a lot of landscaping to do, we put our major projects on hold for a little while to avoid a massive mud-pit, and provided our students with a challenge project. 

Their task was as follows:

• Using the skills that you have developed so far, create a chair/seat for each member of your team.
• You can only use recycled materials that we have available on site (pallets and some old timber from Kingsley)
• You must plan/design your product before building 
• You must use at least 5 different tools

Team Aileer and Oscar decided to make a double seat with a raised table between the seat. Their planning took quite a while as their design is a little complex, but they got their ideas sorted and made some great progress. They’ve built the frame for the seat and the base for the table, so next week will be about assembling everything, adding legs, arm rests and back support. Aileer showed great leadership this week, keeping her team moving and Oscar continues to grow in confidence, both in his tool use and his interactions with his peers. 

Team Cy and Indi chose a less complex design, choosing a single dining chair design, but they will need to make two. Cy was the leader of this group and he showed maturity to express his lack of confidence to lead the project, passing leadership onto Indi. Indi took to this like a duck to water. She is developing into a really strong leader and her work ethic is amazing. If I was a tradie, I’d have no hesitation in hiring her. They have constructed the frame of their first chair, so next week will be spend adding the seat and backrest, before starting their second chair. 

Next week, students will have the opportunity to finish off their projects. We’re planning on running a challenge project each term and have plans to hopefully join with other schools in Term 4 for an Inter-school HOL Challenge. 

We’re again looking to increase our numbers before the end of term, with plans to provide a trial opportunity for two more students in the last week of term. We’ve currently got 13 on our waiting list, so we’re working through those names to see who we think will benefit most from the program.