STEM News

Prep students have been practising their science inquiry skills. Graphing data is a skill that students will require all throughout their schooling, and through life. Information in media is often displayed as a graph. At prep level students learn to read and draw a pictograph.

Grade 1 students have been working very hard on finishing their diorama of a farm. They were required to include things that animals or plants need to survive – water, food, sunlight, shelter and fertilizer if they chose to make a cotton plantation. Students worked with their group to create some marvellous representations!

Grade 2 students have been learning how to code using Scratch Jr. This app will teach the students the basics of coding allowing them to create simple animations. 

Grade 3 students have been using key scientific words from this term to create games and quizzes. Words used include melt, liquid, solid, solidification, heat, gas, freeze and boil. Students also used Scratch Jnr to represent the melting or solidification process. Scratch Jnr uses block coding as the algorithm to create animations and moving characters. 

Grade 4 students are studying the Food and Fibre component of Design and Technology. Each Australian state has a different food or fibre industry and students have learnt about all the major industries in each state. Australian industries include beef, dairy, cotton, wool, rice, sugar cane, grapes and bananas. Students discovered that NSW is the largest producer of wool, with 90 % of Australian wool being exported!

Grade 5 students took a step back to the 90s and used encyclopedias! Students compared the efficiency of using Google compared to a book to find information. Students had varying thoughts about the comparisons – some thought that even though the encyclopedia was slower, the information was more detailed; others were used to the speed of internet use and found the books more difficult to use. 

Grade 6 students used their knowledge of healthy foods and healthy eating to create an interactive game in Scratch Jnr. Students shared their games with the class.

*** Do you have a budding scientist/explorer/investigator/creator in your family? 

Please send action shots of your child to add to our newsletter - tarneit.rise.ps@education.vic.gov.au attention STEM team. ***