STEM News
STEM Teachers: Sasha & Tom
Footscray West Primary School
Term 4 in STEM
From Materials and Matter to Building: Design Term is here!
In our STEM lab, Term 3 was all about exploring the science of materials and matter: bending, stretching and twisting everyday materials, mixing and dissolving substances, and investigating how matter melts, freezes and evaporates. This term, students are putting that knowledge to work.
We’ve launched into the full Design and Technologies process:
research → design → build → test → improve → communicate
Most grades are well into the designing phase, and some are already testing their first ideas and finding ways to make them better. Along the way, students are practising fair testing, measuring, recording evidence and explaining their thinking. Here’s what each year level is creating:
Prep: Materials
Prep students are boat builders! They’ve been testing paper, card, plastic and fabric to find out which are strong and waterproof, and which go soggy. They’ll use what they discover to design and build a boat that can float and hold 300 grams.
Years 1 & 2: Mixtures
Our students in Years 1 and 2 are building the tallest and strongest sandcastle they can, one that stands at least 20cm tall and can hold 1kg without crumbling. Students are testing the variables that make a strong castle, such as how much water to add to sand and which shapes and bases hold up best, then using their results to design and build.
Years 3 & 4: Recycling Materials
Students are tackling a real waste problem: a huge pile of old and broken crayons. Each student is designing their own new creation, then investigating which heat-resistant materials could make a mould, before they create it. Our teachers will do all the melting, and students will design, build and test the moulds and evaluate their finished product.
Years 5 & 6: Creating Solutions
Students are applying what they know about evaporation and saturated solutions to design, test and grow their own crystals. They’re investigating how impurities, evaporation rate, moulds, colour and size change the crystals that form.
Donations Needed!
We are collecting old, used or broken crayons for our Year 3 and 4 STEM projects. If you have any at home that you no longer need, we would greatly appreciate your donation. Please drop them off at the front office or in the box labelled ‘STEM donations’ outside the STEM lab.
Hope all our students enjoy this term of design and building!
Sasha & Tom
STEM Specialist Teachers