STEM SPOT

National Science Week @ CSPS

This week, we have been celebrating National Science Week in our STEM lessons. Students have explored the theme “Decoding the Universe - Exploring the Unknown” through a variety of different activities. Junior students have created snowflakes and Fibonacci flowers as they looked at patterns in nature. Senior students have looked at codes such as Morse Code and Pigpen ciphers, making electric circuits to send their codes as signals. Children have also enjoyed returning to the simple skills of scientific drawings using a magnifying glass to look closely at objects from nature and draw what they see. Everyone has enjoyed the opportunity to explore a new area of science and collaborate with their friends to solve challenges.

Looking closely at nature and drawing what you see.

Did you know that every snowflake is unique?

The Fibonacci sequence is found in many places in nature. 

The sequence starts 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13

Solving a puzzle requires careful observation to match the pieces. 

Our Science Talent Search team certainly stepped it up again this year with some really wonderful projects. I was really impressed with the quality of our entries and how all the students really challenged themselves to try new topics and learn new skills. The projects have now been submitted and we wait for the volunteer judges to make their decisions. Results should be available early in Term 4.

Coding Club - Thank you!

A very big shout out to Maks Lin (father of Sophie, 6A) for running our Friday lunchtime coding club each week. This term, a group of enthusiastic students from Year 4-6 have learnt to make their own simple games using Pico-8 software. The next project will use Microbit computers and students will learn to program these tiny devices using Scratch programming. If any other parents have STEM skills they would like to share with our students, please contact Michaela Patel. It is great to learn from the experts!

Michaela Patel 

STEM Leader and ICT Coordinator