german incursion

Stage 4 German STEM Incursion

How can farmers in Australia breed plants that are more drought resistant?
What is a pH indicator and what is it used for?
How can we build an energy efficient home?
How can we be inventors to solve everyday problems?

The Stage 4 students stepped into the shoes of STEM professionals to find out.

The Year 5 students were fortunate enough to have a Jitsi (like Skype) conversation with inventors Kate and Amelia Fox. Amelia Fox won the Little Big Ideas competition in 2017 when she invented a contraption that can lift her brother out of his wheelchair without hurting their parents’ backs. Kate Fox is a Melbourne scientist who makes implants out of diamonds due to the carbon content matching what exists in the human body. They then had some invention time of their own to come up with their own inventions. Have a look at some of their creations on Seesaw!

The Year 6 students took part in three STEM workshops run by some prominent German-speaking scientists and architects- Jessica Schmidt from the University of Adelaide, Dr Ingo Koeper from Flinders University and Geraldine from SUHO (Sustainability House). We also welcomed Susann Loeffelbein from St Mark's Lutheran Mount Barker along with her year 6 students. The topics included Breeding Heat and Drought Resistant Plants, Design a 10-star Energy Efficient Home and The Colours and Chemistry of Acids and Bases.

Here is what the students thought:

We did an interview with Amelia Fox (who won the Little Big Ideas contest in 2017) and Kate Fox. We got to ask them lots of questions and they gave us lots of answers. Then we got to make our own inventions which were really fun. Ethan and Alby

In workshop 2 we did an experiment on getting strawberry DNA. It was a really fun and interesting experiment and we never knew that a strawberry and other fruits can have DNA. Emma

In Mr Poole’s room Dr Koeper was doing an experiment on how to change the colour in water. For the experiment we used sugar, bleach, vinegar, bicarb soda, lemon and Sprite. We started with purple water the purple colour came from a purple cabbage and then we had to add the ingredients in a specific way. The way was to put the less stringent substance before the stronger ones, like putting lemon in before the bleach. Georgie

One of the STEM & German Day workshops was on building a 10 star energy efficient, eco-friendly home. Geraldine Petit, an expert in sustainable housing from SUHO (Sustainability House) came to lead us through how to build and design a house that would make the most of the winter sun, while keeping out the heat of the summer. After we had built our models we tested them in a dark room to see how much sun entered the house at different times. This workshop went over two sessions because it was so detailed. Jack

Thank you to the Goethe-Institut, the Stage 4 teachers, Mrs Leske from the canteen for the morning tea, Mrs Holliday, Mr Wilksch and Mrs Schoff for logistics, Mr Silva for IT help and for making the incursion possible.

Tanya Siebert

German Teacher