Learning @MFG
Discover Engineering Day at Deakin
I had the pleasure of attending a ‘Discover Engineering Day’ recently with 10 of our Year 9 students at CADET – the Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training at Deakin University. The purpose of the day – part of Design and Technology week and in partnership with Engineers Australia – was to raise awareness of engineering, give students a ‘taste’ of different strands of engineering and inspire students to maintain their studies in STEM in the senior years of schooling.
Our students had a great day and participated in a Building Challenge where they had to work in teams of 3-4 and use the materials supplied (marshmallow connectors, spaghetti and blutack) to construct a building that could withstand the forces of an earthquake simulator. The students were challenged with some design constraints including a base that fitted within a 20cm square, a height only of 60cm and the structure had to be fixed to the table with blutack. Eza’s group’s building passed the earthquake test!
The students also participated in a workshop about mechatronics and learned about Arduinos and toured the amazing CADET facility. Did you know that, as part of an Engineering degree at Deakin, that one can study Virtual and Augmented Reality?
http://www.deakin.edu.au/engineering/cadet
MFG an eSmart School
eSmart Schools is a behaviour-change initiative in over 2, 200 schools across Australia. The eSmart Schools Framework is designed to help schools improve cyber safety and reduce cyber bullying and bullying. eSmart Schools provides a framework that guides the introduction of policies, practices and whole-school change processes to support the creation of a cyber safe or eSmart environment.
eSmart Schools was developed by RMIT University in consultation with cyber safety, bullying, education and industry experts from across Australia. In 2010, eSmart was piloted in 159 schools across Australia with funding from the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. In 2013 our school began its journey towards having eSmart status. As of January 2014, over 2,200 Australian schools were participating in eSmart.
An eSmart school is a school where the smart, safe and responsible use of information and communications technology is a cultural norm. Students, teachers and the wider school community are equipped to embrace the best these technologies can offer, while being savvy about the pitfalls.
We have recently achieved eSmart Status as an eSmart School. This involved creating a range of resources, policies and processes related to the safe and responsible use of technology at our school.
Maker Faire 2016
On October 6th we had 80 enthusiastic Grade 4-5 students from Geelong South, Geelong East, Leopold and Clifton Springs Primary schools attend our second annual ‘Maker Faire’ (not an official Maker Faire event). Each of the students participated in 3 x 45 minute workshops and many of these were designed and led by our students including our students from our Digital Technologies classes and our VCAL students. These workshops included coding using the Spheros and drones, Lego Mindstorm robotics, an environmental technology activity in our Living Garden and two engineering themed workshops run by Julia and Ines, two Deakin Ambassadors.
The primary school students had a fun, challenging and enjoyable day and our students did us proud. This is now an important promotional event for our school and gives some prospective students an opportunity to experience a day at MFG and some aspects of our Digital Technologies curriculum. Many thanks to Simon Collier for his design and coordination of the day, Jo Toone for her work with our VCAL students who ran a science experiment workshop called ‘The Thirsty Candle’ and Robyn Myers who organised morning tea and a showbag for each of the primary school students.
Lia Hills – writer in residence
About 20 selected budding authors and writers from Years 7-12 recently participated in a ‘writer in residence’ workshop with author and poet, Lia Hills. Lia has been working with our students and teachers for a number of years now as part a grant we received through the Invergowrie Foundation.
Our students had an opportunity to learn about some poetry / creative writing strategies relating to generating ideas, developing character and incorporating an abstract/conceptual focus into their writing. They also had an opportunity work 1:1 with Lia and do some cross-year-level sharing, which is often rare in a secondary school. The sharing of student writing and ideas at the end of the residency was memorable and moving. We have some real talent at our school.
The students involved have planned to develop a publication of their writing and poetry.
http://www.invergowrie.org.au/
Victorian Virtual Learning Network (VVLN) 2017
Our involvement with the Victorian Virtual Learning Network continues into 2017 with a number of our students studying VCE Units through the VVLN.
- Unit 1-2 Physics = 5 students
- Unit 3-4 Physics = 6 students
- Unit 1-2 Spec Maths = 2 students
- Unit 3-4 Spec = 1 students
Emma, one of our VVLN students, is also part of their promotional material!
Introduction of Year 10 exams in Semester 2
We are introducing formal Year 10 exams this year for the first time. These will run alongside the Unit 2 exams between November 9 and November 11, followed by an opportunity for our Year 10 students to reflect on their exam experience in class.
One of the main focuses of the Year 10 exam experience is to build their capacity as ‘assessors’ – that is, use the exam reflection time in class to encourage our Year 10 students to assess their exam responses, analyse their performance (for example errors they made) and reflect on areas for improvement. It’s also an opportunity for them to understand the structure and demands of an exam that is designed with the Unit 3-4 exam in mind. It will be interesting to collect some feedback from our Year 10 students and their teachers about their exam experiences.
Deakin STEM Conference
A group of our teachers presented at the STEM education conference at Deakin University during the 5-7 October. Sharon Hogan, Paul Dangerfield and Kim Morris presented some of the work and thinking they have been leading with our Year 7 and 8 students including sharing some of our students’ learnings as part of the Year 7 and 8 STEM investigations. As part of the conference, 20 visitors also came to our school to speak with Sharon, Kim and Paul about the projects, the teacher and student learning and the use of the Living Garden as a context for STEM learning. Sharon, Paul and Kim have promoted some rich thinking and been wonderful ambassadors for our school.
Literacy Support
Our Literacy Coach, Ms Kellie Walker, continues her work with a range of students to support them with their reading, writing and literacy learning and confidence. Ms Walker is now also working with a small group of students in Year 8 to provide further support in literacy. These sessions focus on the 44 sounds in the English language. They are a starting point for the embedding of the THRASS practices into the school with the aim of improving our students’ foundational phonetic skills.
The THRASS Institute (Australasia & Canada) is an Australian based company that has developed a Specific Pedagogical Practise (SPP) for the teaching of literacy, marketed as THRASS – an acronym for ‘Teaching Handwriting, Reading And Spelling Skills’.
THRASS is a phonetics teaching-tool that has made a paradigm shift in the teaching of phonetics. It has a phonographic, multisensory focus, complemented by an analogous learning model that makes reading and spelling acquisition much simpler, faster and more sustainable than conventional ‘phonic’ approaches. http://www.thrass.com.au/about-thrass/
Damien Toussaint, Assistant Principal, Learning and Teaching