STEAM News


iFly excursion

Late in term one, a group of intrepid MGC students attended an excursion to iFly in Essendon. iFly is an indoor skydiving centre which uses a high-speed wind tunnel to simulate flight. We enjoyed a physics lesson first which taught students the basics of flight. Students then donned a flight suit for their turn. A few lucky students also got to experience the “high flight” to the top of the wind tunnel.

 

It takes a SPARK Conference

On Wednesday 4th of May, 25 students attended a STEAM-focussed conference at Thomas Carr College in Tarneit. The day was designed for students in Years 7-10 as well as teachers. There was a big range of workshops on offer and lots of great activities. The conference was attended by over 500 students.  There were sessions about coding, problem solving, engineering designs, design thinking and much more.

Well done to Vivien Dang and Nandini Vyas who presented about “Setting up your STEAM Club” to a large groups of students and teachers. 

We also had the pleasure of listening to two “Superstars of STEM” DR Madeline Mitchell from RMIT who spoke about food security and environmentally sustainable agriculture, and Dr Kylie Soanes, who is a conservation biologist. DR Soanes has been working on strategies to save endangered species in urban environments.

This event was made free for students through a grant from the Federal Government “Sponsorship Grants for Student Science Engagement and International Competitions” funding.

Busy in the STEAM Room

The STEAM Club has lots going on at lunchtimes. We have a number of comeptitions underway. Currently students are competing in:

  • Biomedical Research Innovation Challenge (BRInC) through the University of Canberra, We have been paired with an amazing mentor from the Victorian Institute of Sport, DR Victoria Brackley, who is an Applied Sports Scientist and Biomechanist.
  • TechGirls competition. We have three teams competing this year and we have been matched with some amazing mentors who are working in the IT industry.
  • FIRST Lego League (training) – the theme for Lego League this year is “Superpowered” and we don’t know much more than that. We have a few teams practising different types of strategies in preparation.
  • Mathematics and Statistics Research Challenge through The University of Melbourne.

All students are welcome to visit the STEAM Room and join the fun.

Inspiring STEM+ 2022

Our partnership with engineering and construction company Laing O’Rourke has started up again for 2022. The COVID pandemic caused the adjournment of our first cohort’s graduation from the programme, but the outlook is much more positive for the commencement of our second cohort. On Wednesday 6th of April, we met for the first time and heard from some of the guests from Laing O’Rourke about their jobs in the construction and engineering fields. 

 

Students were then given a construction challenge – to build the tallest tower using a packet of spaghetti, some tape and marshmallows. The winner would be the team who built the tallest tower that could support a marshmallow. It was lots of fun with some wildly different design options.

Our next session is on the 26th of May at 3.30