Teaching and Learning 

Stem Congress 2022  

By Jacob, Justyce, Shatayaha and Tyrone

Hi my name is Justyce. My favourite workshop was the dancing “our story’s work shop”. I was mostly inspired by the guest speakers. There was a lady named Bianca; she was telling all the students where she grew up and her journey of finding her culture and those who helped her to get where she is now. Bianca is a marine biologist and has been able to use technology to make digital characters to tell stories relating to her culture.  She travels all over the world with her job.  She told all of the students and teachers that you need to firstly find your interest and if you don’t ask you don’t get. 

Jacob: "We went to the Stem congress for two days and it was at the Convention centre.

Day 1 we arrived at 8:30 when we got there we had photos and we walked in there and saw hundreds of people. We went into a room with so many chairs and the big stage where we met famous people. They told their story and it was great. We had photos of us next to the Aboriginal dancers and they were wearing the old Aboriginal clothing. 

We got told to go to different workshops and learn about our elder’s past. We also went into a big room where we learnt about Dance. Then we were learning about Math for the rest of the day and we went home. The next day we learnt about famous people growing up. Then we got set to our roles for half of the day and learnt about Aboriginal Science. We were some mainly science. What we learnt was how to throw an egg off the 2-storey balcony in a carrier and try to make sure the egg did not smash on the floor. We lost, but it was fun making the carrier. We used two cups, some bubble wrap and lots of sticky tape and four cotton balls. We tried fresh water and then made tea then we put on hand sanitizer and that was the last job. We then went to school then home.

Shatayaha:  We got to meet these amazing Aboriginal people and took a photo with them. Soon after they did an Aboriginal dance and they were acting like kangaroos and there was a boy who played the didgeridoo. After there were Aboriginal speakers who explained where they come from and how their lives were back then to now. We first went to our first activity and it was a dance lesson. We learned how to trust our partners, and learned how to turn some poses and turn them into a dance. There was another Aboriginal person that was speaking about their life and she was saying how hard life was and how she didn’t fit in and how she was the only Aboriginal person there, and now they have STEM and a company now.   Now they have more Aboriginal people to work with. 

Tyrone: We saw more Aboriginal speakers. They spoke about where they come from and what parts of the world their family comes from and which university they went to. Then this girl named Tamika told us what activity we had to go to and where to grab some food for recess.  Then we went downstairs and went to room seven. We had to do an activity where we were grinding, smelling and tasting lemon myrtle and eucalyptus and we also got to eat cookies. After that was done we went into a place and we had to design like a little invention to try and keep our egg safe when dropped from a height, but it broke .

PAT TESTING - WEEKS 7 - 10

As part of DfE policy, all year 3-10 students are required to complete diagnostic assessments called Progressive Achievement Tests. These assessments give valuable information to teaching staff about your child’s current learning needs and enables them to better plan learning programs as they progress through the levels of schooling. The diagnostic assessments are conducted to measure student’s growth throughout the year.

Students will complete Reading and Numeracy assessments during weeks 7 to 10 of term 3. Teachers will schedule the tests through the week as part of their regular lesson planning. The test is done online.

During your child’s normal lesson time, teachers will support students to understand, prepare for and start the assessment.

Year 3 to 10

All students in years 3 to 10 are required to complete PAT Maths (PAT-M) and PAT Reading Comprehension (PAT-R). Tests are administered in weeks 7 to 10, term 3.

Once the PAT testing window is open, teachers will be able to schedule a time between week 7 and week 10 to complete the tests.