St Raphael's School

STEM Education

Bread Tags for Wheelchairs!

Bread tags come in many shapes, sizes and colours. Made of High Impact Polystyrene they have good recycling value. In STEM, we are taking action to recycle and help vulnerable people in South Africa. Mary Honeybun founded the organisation ‘Bread Tags for Wheelchairs’ in 2006 in Cape Town. The organisation provides 2 to 3 wheelchairs to adults and children around South Africa every month!!

500kg of Bread tags can help to fund 2-3 wheelchairs. Having a wheelchair gives the recipients independence and mobility and this makes a big difference to their families as well. This initiative will also be helping the environment by reducing landfill. 

 

Please support your children in this STEM initiative and save your bread tags at home. When students have a small collection, they can bring all bread tags to the STEM Room collection point at St Raphael’s.

For more information please visit: https://www.breadtagsforwheelchairs.co.za

Foundation 

Last week in Foundation, students celebrated their learning in the Weather Unit by drawing their own special animal and adding physical features that would help protect their animal when the weather turns cold. We also explored behaviours such as migration, hibernation and huddling.

It has been wonderful facilitating the learning of such curious minds in Foundation this term. 

Year 1/2 Design, Engineering and Care of Our Common Home

“If the simple fact of being human moves people to care for the environment of which they are a part, Christians in their turn realize that their responsibility within creation, and their duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of their faith.”

-Pope Francis

 Laudato sì, Papal Encyclical 2015

 

Over the last 3 weeks, all Year 1/2 students have had the opportunity to work with Mrs Catherine in the Sustainability Garden in STEM. Students have been involved in:

  • Feeding and caring for the chickens
  • Planting seedlings
  • Watering plants
  • Setting up the Year 1/2 Fairy Garden
  • Creating a Fairy and Wizard Community
  • Reporting on and photographing the experience

We have been very fortunate to experience great spring weather and students have really enjoyed taking their learning outside and working in a sustainable community. At the end of each lesson, students had the opportunity to taste some of the fresh green produce from the garden and they gave it a big thumbs up!

Year 4 Girls: 'It Takes a Spark' STEM Conference

"Women make up only 16% of the STEM skilled workforce."

  -Women in STEM Decadal Plan, Australian Academy of Science 2019.

 

On Thursday September 12, all Year 4 girls attended the STEM conference ‘It Takes A Spark’ at Thomas Carr College in Tarneit. The intent of the “It Takes a Spark” conference was to bring together girls and their teachers to connect with inspiring female STEM role models, share their current school based activities and projects, create networks of teachers and student teams, and solve social justice design challenges. It also served to launch the new GiST (Girls in STEM toolkit). GiST is a new site providing female students, schools and families with activities, resources, case studies, lessons, study pathways and careers all related to STEM. To access this site, please visit: www.thegist.edu.au

The students were very excited on the day and they had the opportunity to design car bumper bars, create protection for turtles, program robots, use 3D pens, build and race cars and participate in many more design challenges. They also had the privilege to hear from inspiring women keynote speakers. It was a wonderful day of learning, problem-solving and new experiences. It may have also inspired Mrs Squarci to consider a career in STEM! 

 

"I found the excursion fun but at the same time, I found it very interesting and educational. My favourite part was the green hat workshop where Victoria and I built a wooden plank structure around Stella and then she broke out of it."

- Jemma

 

"It was a great experience, as I got to meet new people. I loved listening to the speakers and learning about their lives in STEM and now I know how important STEM is in our lives."

-Giordana

Year 5/6 Darebin Frog Discovery Incursion

On Wednesday the 11th of September in STEM the year 5 / 6 students had an incursion by the  Darebin Creek Management Committee to tie into the making of our frog bog. Peter, from the Darebin Creek Management Committee, gave a presentation about frogs! He told us about some frogs that live in our local area that we hope to attract. Some frogs include:

The Common Froglet 

Peron's Tree Frog

Growling Grass Frog

We learned a bit about each of the 8 frogs and heard their calls. So now, if we attract frogs we will be able to identify them without needing to disturb them. After each sound, we all said what it sounded like so we would be able to remember the unique calls. We were shocked that some sounded like kookaburras and others like motorbikes. Peter would then tell us some cool facts about the frog. For example, any of the frogs will eat anything that fits inside its mouth, including it's own eggs! Gross!

 

Overall 5 / 6 was shocked by the sounds, grossed out at some of the facts and amazed by what amazing creatures frogs are. After the incursion, all of the Year 5/6s were more knowledgeable and even more excited about the frogs we hope to attract.

 

By Lilyana Talarico Year 6