STEAM News
What’s Been Happening in STEAM?
Hello everyone! We are the STEAM Leaders, and we’d like to share some of the exciting things that have been happening in STEAM this term.
Science Week 🧪
Science Week was a big highlight!
Students in Years 3–6 participated in the Full STEAM Ahead science incursion. We explored gravity, magnetism and engineering, including the challenge of designing and building LEGO cars.
Prep–Year 2 students participated in Box of Bugs, an incursion run by Kids Unlimited. Students used magnifying glasses, sorting grids and petri dishes to examine the features of bugs up close. We learnt how to identify different multi-legged creatures, including insects with six legs, arachnids with eight legs and myriapods such as millipedes.
It was lots of fun and a great way to celebrate Science Week!
How We Express Ourselves 💡
This term, our STEAM learning has connected with our Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves. Across the school, we have been exploring how technology can help us communicate our ideas, identities, values and beliefs in different ways.
Prep students created self-portraits using paper plates. They then used ChatterPix on the iPads to bring their portraits to life by recording their own voices.
Years 1 and 2 have been exploring stop-motion animation. Students created characters and used movement, images and recordings to communicate their values and beliefs through their own stop-motion projects.
Year 3 students have been creating multimodal storybooks inspired by Ella’s Adventures. Using platforms such as Padlet and Google Slides, they have combined written stories, AI-generated images and hyperlinks to relevant videos to create interactive digital stories.
Year 4 students have been exploring the exciting world of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) through the STEM Punks program. They have been designing their own digital worlds and using immersive technology to bring their ideas to life. We are lucky to have access to this technology for a little longer, so this project will continue into the beginning of Term 4.
Year 6 students have been investigating artificial intelligence and music. We have critically analysed AI-generated music and discussed some of the ethical questions surrounding AI. This includes thinking about creativity, ownership and how AI might affect people's jobs in the future. Students then experimented with AI music tools to create songs that express aspects of their own identity.
Coming in Term 4: Coding Club! 💻
We are also excited to announce a new Coding Club, led by Will from Year 4!
Will has taken the initiative to develop his own program of coding activities and instructions for students. Coding Club will run in the STEAM room on Wednesday lunchtimes during Term 4.
Will is even developing certificates that will be awarded, together with Miss Rachael, to students who complete the Coding Club program.
We’ve had a very busy term in STEAM and have learnt lots of new things. We can’t wait to see what Term 4 brings!
Ash, Max, Xander and Liam
STEAM Leaders