STEM

Welcome to our last term of STEM for 2024!

Firstly,  a special thank you to Jan, one of our amazing Holy Spirit CRT's who kindly stepped in to teach STEM in my absence, whilst I traveled overseas to attend my son's wedding. During my time on leave the students focused on completing projects exploring the key idea of Innovation, which incidentally was the key theme of Science Week for 2023.

The Prep and Grade 1/2 students were introduced to binary numbers and their key role in processing different types of data. They explored the alphabet as bits and bytes, creating a bracelet using coloured beads to represent the first letter of their name as binary code. 

Additionally, the objects the Prep students created for the Nature Garden in Term 3 are included in the photo gallery below. The design brief was to construct a creature that could be found on the land, in the sea, or in the air. There are some excellent examples of materials being selected to ensure their constructed object could withstand the elements.

Students in Grades 3 & 4 designed an insect trap to capture insects for identification. Working as engineers, the students needed to understand the requirements of the trap and the features of the insect, for instance, did it fly, or was it attracted to a particular scent or colour. They utilised this information to inform the design of their trap.

The Grade 5/6’s created a mega spinner powered by electricity and learned that a wind turbine can generate electricity. Electricity from batteries goes to the motor to spin the blades of the spinner. This is in contrast to a wind turbine, where wind spins blades attached to a generator to make electricity.  The activity required teamwork and careful following of the instructions in order for their mega spinner to work effectively. 

Please enjoy the photos of our STEM sessions below.

Danielle