STEM
Prep Exploring Our Garden and Learning to Care
Our Prep students have had a wonderful start to STEM, learning about our school’s High Expectations and how we show respect in both the STEM room and the garden.
Students enjoyed exploring the community garden, meeting our 6 resident hens and helping to water the vegetables. They also began learning how to safely and respectfully interact with our wellbeing dogs, Freddie and Felix, focusing on calm behaviour and recognising how dogs communicate. We talked about the 3 expectations
Expectation 1: Say hello to the person, not the dog - Dogs can feel worried if lots of people talk to them.
Expectation 2: Give lots of space - We give dogs space - Space helps dogs feel safe and relaxed.
Expectation 3: Keep moving - Standing and staring can make dogs nervous.
A highlight of the term was planting pea seeds, with students carefully nurturing their plants and watching them grow. These will be ready for planting into the garden in Term 2.
Students also celebrated St Patrick’s Day, creating beautiful four-leaf clovers pasting squares on an outline of a clover while learning about the meaning behind the day. They explored the garden with a scavenger hunt learning to observe and identify different natural objects and living things in our environment.
🌿 Year 1/2 Exploring Change in Our Garden and Weather
After revisiting our High Expectations, Year 1/2 students explored the garden to observe how it had changed over the summer holidays.
They were excited to discover tall, blooming sunflowers and a thriving vegetable garden with tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, capsicum, herbs and spring onions and a watermelon.
Students began learning about weather and seasons, completing a daily weather watch and identifying patterns. They noticed how autumn weather can vary, ranging from warm sunny days to cooler temperatures and thunder storms.
As part of our seasonal inquiry, students drew our plum tree in summer and will revisit it each season. We can’t wait to see the autumn leaves change colour. They also created detailed drawings of the sunflower patch and recorded a week of weather observations.
A favourite activity was the scavenger hunt, where students explored the garden closely, discovering bugs, flowers, spider webs and different textures such as smooth and rough bark. This helped students better understand our garden environment.
🌻 Year 3/4 Science and Design
Year 3/4 students began the term by revisiting our High Expectations before heading into the garden as scientists and engineers.
Focusing on the sunflower patch, students investigated why some plants were tall and flowering, while others were smaller, struggling or had not survived.
Using their scientific thinking, students identified key factors for plant growing success including sunlight, soil quality and water. They discovered that thriving plants had the right balance of these elements, while others were lacking one or more.
Students then took on an engineering challenge, designing and building support structures for their pea plants. As their plants grew, students measured growth, recorded observations and reflected on how their structures supported plant development. They had to think about what they would do differently if they had the opportunity to build a new structure for a pea plant.
They also participated in a scavenger hunt, further developing their observation skills and understanding of the garden ecosystem.
🌏 Year 5/6 Sustainability In Action
Year 5/6 students have begun an exciting two-term unit on sustainability, starting with an exploration of our STEM room pop-up kitchen and community garden.
Students investigated how each space supports sustainable practices, including water usage and irrigation systems, electricity use in the kitchen, food waste and composting systems, and managing waste from our wellbeing dogs.
They also explored the sunflower patch, investigating why some sunflowers were thriving while others were struggling. Students discovered that plants need the right balance of sun, soil and water to grow successfully, and that when one of these elements is missing, growth is impacted.
This inquiry is building the foundation for a Term 2 design and build project, where students will apply their knowledge to design and create innovative sustainability houses and gardens or school kitchen classrooms and gardens.
Students also completed detailed drawings of the sunflower patch, showcasing both their scientific observation skills and their artistic talents.
