Learning and Teaching

Prep Community - Designing and Building

STEM education covers the specific knowledge and skills found in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. It also covers the interrelationship between these areas, allowing learning to be delivered in an integrated way, helping a deeper engagement in the four disciplines. STEM is an important part of our curriculum as it prepares learners for an increasingly globalised world in which technology is dramatically altering the nature of work and daily life.

For Foundation to Level 10 (F–10) school students, STEM knowledge and skills are embedded within the Victorian Curriculum, in Mathematics, Science, Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies. STEM education also develops critical and creative thinking, collaboration and ethical decision-making.

The Prep Community has been focusing on the Design and Technologies Learning Area of our Curriculum in Term 4 which incorporates aspects of STEM. This means they have been learning by drawing, modelling and explaining design ideas, following directions to complete their own or group design ideas or projects, and managing their own role within team projects.

Over the term, the classes have been reading fairy tales such as Cinderella, Thumbelina, Goldilocks and The Three Little Pigs.

After reading, the students have to solve problems for the characters in the stories. They have built a tower/castle for Cinderella using blocks, made a home for Thumbelina using materials from the school grounds and built Goldilocks a new bed. The children work independently or in pairs to think about what they would like to make, they then draw a plan of their idea and identify the materials needed to create it. Then they work together to make the planned design. The images below show some of the Prep Community’s creations. 

Cinderella towers

Home for Thumbelina

Bed for Goldilocks

Deborah Courtney

Director of Learning and Teaching