Science, Technology, and Engineering

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2023, and welcome your input:

Hayley Oliver (Science, Technology, and Engineering)  Hayley.Oliver@education.vic.gov.au

We are well and truly into the full swing of things now, I can’t believe we’re at the halfway point of TERM 4! 

Here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening in the Science room, over the last few weeks. 

5/6 Learning

The grade 5/6 students have been busy researching extreme environments and organisms that can survive in these conditions. Some of these places are fascinating, we have learnt that one particular organism, the Tardigrade, can survive in a number of different extreme environments for decades, due to its ability to be able to adapt to the conditions of the particular environment! The students have looked at a variety of extreme environments such as the deep sea (like the Mariana Trench), the Dead Sea, Antarctica and a variety of desserts. I’ve learnt a lot from this project and I hope the students have too. 

Here are some of the completed posters. 

Over the next few weeks, we are going to have some fun with yeast, go on a bacteria hunt and grow some mould!

3/4 Learning

The grade 3/4 students are now busy working on their chosen project on the Matrix. I am loving the variety of projects chosen. Quite a number of students have chosen to make a poster about the life cycle of a plant and an animal, others have chosen to write a play and act out the life cycle of a plant, some students are doing a comparative report between animals or plants, a few are building an educational board game and I know I have seen the beginning of some story books. I can’t wait to see the final products as they start to appear. 

In a few weeks, we will have a break from the Matrix and have a go at making our own mini ecosystems, by building mini terrariums. If you have any empty bottles, or jars (like vegemite or jam) that you have finished, instead of putting them in recycling, I’d love for them to be donated to the Science room. It would be amazing if each student was able to make their own terrarium!

ROBOTICS UPDATE

I am so excited to announce that we have purchased brand new LEGO Spike Prime robots, for Robotics next year. We are currently going through the process of unpacking and labelling each box, but in the coming weeks we will get some of the 2023 Robotics team to have a go at building a couple of robots and learn the new coding software, ready to train the 2024 team next year. We are really excited for this, because it means that each RoboCup team can potentially have two or more robots for their item, which will boost their scores in the RoboCup tournament and make it more challenging!