STEM Report

State Finalists... Again!

Breaking news: our team came second in the state competition!

On Wednesday the 4th of November, students from Dandenong High School competed in the Bees with Backpacks STEM challenge, facilitated by the CSIRO and the Tech Schools.

In this competition, students had to address the global issue of the decline in bee populations. Here is the solution that our team developed.

“Through our research, we had found that if wind speeds were approximately at, or higher than, 30 kilometres per hour, then the efficiency of honey bee pollination is reduced by 40 percent. This meant that on a regular basis, bees wouldn't be able to pollinate to their maximum capability. We wanted to build a device that would be able to suit the bees' needs, while foraging for pollen. Through experimenting, we found that there were wind speeds that had actually reached around 30 kilometres per hours for five days in two weeks, which meant every fortnight, there was a possibility that bees wouldn’t be able to reach their maximum pollinating efficiency of 35 percent. This issue seemed the most persistent and ongoing of one, so that is when we decided that we should focus our energy on that.”

Well done, team!

VCAL STEM

Our VCAL students were challenged to make a positive impact in their community. Students followed the design thinking process to develop prototypes of their unique solutions. One such example is a phone app called ‘ISO CONNECT’ developed by student Alysha (D11).

The work of all VCAL STEM students has been outstanding!

Ffion Bowles

Art, Design and Digital Technologies Leader