STEAM News

3D Printing Workshop

As suggested by students, many students wanted more school clubs and workshops during lunchtimes. The STEAM team has listened to the student suggestions and is very excited to announce our first STEAM Workshops - 3D Printing Workshops! With over 30 applications, 13 students were chosen to participate in weekly 3D Printing workshops. The aim of these workshops is to promote the wonderful things we could do in STEAM, specifically in the Technology domain. 

Recently, we had our first workshop. All the students enjoyed the introductory session and learnt how the 3D Printer worked and what the 3D Printer could produce. The objects that could be produced included architectural models, prototypes and designs for engineers, and craft items. Students were introduced to a program that is used for the 3D Printer, Tinkercad. The first workshop went very well and everyone enjoyed it! In our next workshop, we will be starting our design for our personalised keychain.

We encourage students who are interested in STEAM related activities to subscribe to our MGSC STEAM newsletter. These newsletters contain a lot of STEAM information and events. The newsletters are updated every fortnight with the most current information.

Julia Le (Year 10)

Middle School Technology Domain Leader

Women in Technology 

Four Year 9 students were very fortunate to participate in the NAB Women in Technology Program, which was held over three days at the NAB offices in the city. The team of students from MGSC were Vanessa Marcon, Alisa Chechelnitskiy, Rachel Reid and Rhini Geetha Ashok Balaji. The first two days of the program were set in the old NAB building (800 Bourke Street), while we spent the last day at the amazing new NAB building (700 Bourke Street). These were both located in Docklands. 

Every day of the program was different and engaging, as we explored the topics of human centered design, cyber safety and data science. There were many activities that we participated in, which helped us get a better understanding of the subjects, such as designing and developing an app, programming robots and creating graphical evidence to support our pitches about producing and selling a driverless car. We presented our pitches in front of all the students and NAB employees that attended the program.

There were six girls’ schools at the program, and they had each brought four or five students and a teacher with them. Running the program were a variety of NAB employees, who each had a different role at the company. Every day, due to the fact that we were focusing on a different topic, new people and specialists came to talk about their job and what they did at NAB. It was so interesting to see all of the different job opportunities NAB offered, such as data scientists, coders, digital marketers and a lot more.

We were mixed up during the activities to help us get to know the students from other schools. It was really great to talk to everyone and make new friends, as they were all so nice, but also interested in the same things as us, which made it easier to get along.

This program was an eye-opening experience into the field of ICT and it showed and helped us experience some of the paths of ICT which we did not know existed. Examples included what it was like to be a digital marketer by creating a pitch with graphical evidence, which we created and presented to the accompanying group of students, as well as the job of human centered design where we had the opportunity to create and develop an app.

Going into the program I wasn’t really interested in any technology careers, as I found that going down that path wouldn’t have challenged me and could have become a little boring after a while. However, NAB talked a lot about the different pathways and careers that are linked with studying technology. This definitely made us think and even consider studying technology, as everything they talked about seemed so interesting and helpful for the future.

I recommend this program to everyone who comes across the opportunity, even if you don't know much about ICT/technology. It really does let you inside the world of technology, and will open new opportunities for you and the future. It’s also a fun way to have a look at how a popular company functions and what the employees work is. There is no reason why the students shouldn’t do it, as it is an overall amazing experience.

Vanessa Marcon and Alisa Chechelnitskiy

A second team of MGSC students are now attending this program and are very much looking forward to their second and third days. Our thanks to the College staff who have given up time to attend the two programs: Karen Garton (Careers Manager), Diana Gilbert (STEAM Leader), Lauren Caridi (Digital Technology Leader) and myself.

Jonathan Hall

Director of Innovation

Year 7 Mathematics Education Perfect Brain Battle

Many thanks to Ms Petra Witt for coordinating and organising the inaugural Year 7 Mathematics Education Perfect Brain Battle. The Year 7’s certainly embraced this competition, improving their times table and general number skills. We look forward to holding another Brain Battle later in the year.

Congratulations to individual form group winners:

Form Group results:

Suzanne Reinhardt

Mathematics Domain Leader

Polio eradication 

Earlier this month a guest speaker from a local Rotary Club spoke to some Year 9 students about her experience travelling to India to vaccinate children under five years of age against polio in the efforts to eradicate polio from India.

Overall the presentation was good. The speaker made sure that we were very well informed about what she was discussing. I knew what polio and an iron lung was, but the speaker helped to clarify and build our knowledge and understanding of it. I don’t quite feel that the presentation was beneficial to our age group, although she is informing us of a big issue. It is not exactly within our power yet to do something. We are still in high school and until the end of it, we probably wouldn’t be able, on a bigger scale as her, accomplish similar things; like go overseas and directly help people. However, it was really interesting to find out a little bit about her journey and story.

India Fairweather 9G

It was beneficial and I learned something new as originally I thought each country was responsible for their own vaccinations in their medical care, I didn't think Australia could help India in this particular way. She showed us that we can prevent polio by going to other countries and giving young kids the shot. It was definitely linked to what we covered in science as she showed her experience with giving immunisations and we learned about how immunisations work in science. I did enjoy her telling us about her whole experience. 

Mia Johnson 9A

I learnt a lot about polio, so yes I can say it is beneficial. I learnt that many people our parents (or older) when they were our age got polio. Yes, it links back to what we learnt in science, because it body isn’t immune to polio. The most interesting thing for me was, when the woman was explaining about her trip to India.

Kamila Khalilova 9G

STEAM newsletter 

Issue two of STEAM News, a student initiative,  led by STEAM Domain Leader Casey Boswell, is out now.  To subscribe email steamnews@mgsc.vic.edu.au