STEM

Foundation

In STEM the Foundation students are having a wonderful time making towers out of a range of different materials. Last week, they learnt about Watts Towers in Los Angeles and constructed ‘Watts inspired’ towers using pipe-cleaners, straws, paper plates and recycled beads and can tabs. They have also made towers out of wooden planks, measuring them to see if they are as tall as a ruler, or in some cases two or three rulers, and experimented with other mixed materials such as playdough, buttons and toothpicks (which some students used for framing).

It is an absolute joy to teach this gorgeous group of students and help foster their love for STEM. What a great start to the year. Go Foundies! 

Grade 1/2

This term, the Grade 1/2 students are participating in a series of experiments that explore different forces. Last week, they attached a range of materials to ‘bottle top ice hockey pucks’ to see which material created the least amount of friction. They hit their pucks around trays of ice and discovered that, whilst there were some differences in the friction created by the different materials, the bottle top slid best when it was on the side with the ridged edge as the friction was greatly reduced due to less surface area touching the ice. 

The students explored elastic force constructing  ‘pom pom poppers’ out of paper cups and balloons.  They also learned about the potential of magnetic force by placing magnets on matchbox cars and using magnetic repulsion to push the cars around homemade tracks and up ramps of varying slopes. 

Thank you Noel and Jenni (BSPS grandparents) for helping us again this term. The 1/2 students really do appreciate your support and their learning is greatly enhanced by the wealth of knowledge you bring to the space.