STEM News

Dear fellow scientists,

Prep students have been predicting which material would be best for making a shelter, such as straw/grass, sticks, or bricks. They connected their learning to the storybook The Three Little Pigs and took part in a pair-share discussion about which picture showed a shelter and explained why. Students also described some of the properties of shelter materials, using words like strong, rigid, and flexible.

Grade 1 students are learning to program robots called Bee-Bots and Blue-Bots to move to a specific spot on the floor. Working in groups, they constructed mazes and then created step-by-step instructions (algorithms) by pressing the correct sequence of buttons for the robots to follow. They also began their design booklet on building a cart, where they are planning and recording their ideas.

Grade 2 students have begun generating and producing their design projects by working collaboratively in groups. They started creating cardboard tiles, decorating them with coloured paper and craft materials such as pipe cleaners, pom-poms, tissue paper, and coloured pencils or textas. These tiles will visually represent the life cycle of their chosen design project. Listen to this book about the life cycle of a snake on EPIC: https://www.getepic.com/app/read/57609 

Grade 3 students are learning to plan and evaluate an investigation by identifying the variables in an experiment with cheese and deciding whether it is a fair test or not.

Grade 4 students are investigating food chains and identifying apex predators. Working in groups, they planned roles for each team member and designed a food chain that included an apex predator, learning how all parts of the chain are connected.

Grade 5 students are investigating waterproof materials such as zip lock bags (plastic), cardboard squares, and paper for their design project. Working in groups, they conducted the investigation safely and recorded their results in a table.

Grade 6 students have been generating and evaluating their design projects by working collaboratively in groups. They created labelled diagrams of their designs and applied what they have learned about natural processes to real-world situations. This project is helping students connect classroom learning to real engineering challenges. Watch this video on weathering and erosion on crash course kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Iak3Wvh9c 

We would like to thank everyone who helped us celebrate STEM Night! We hope you enjoyed the activities, with many hands-on experiences and fun take-home items like playdough. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!

                                                                    STEM team