Whittlesea Tech School
Auto Crops Design Challenge - Exploring Environments
On Tuesday, 23rd and Wednesday, 24th March, the year 9 Exploring Environments class visited the Whittlesea Tech School at the Melbourne Polytechnic campus to participate in the Farm Wall Auto Crops Design Challenge Program. The program included designing a micro-bit, CAD, or app to further improve the tank in which the plants are grown such as the half tray where the plant is located, the under-gravel tray which is under the pebbles in the tank or the pH levels of the tank. There were some challenges along the way such as working through technical difficulties with the CAD 3D printing, or working through the micro-bit coding. Overall, most the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and learnt a lot throughout the program.
Mikayla Mawdsley 9A and Mnar Al-Mashalawi 9B
Student Tech School Ambassador Program
This year 12 students across Years 7 to 10 were appointed as Student Tech School Ambassadors. Welcome back to those who were happy to continue their role as ambassadors (Takshay & Esther) and welcome to those new to the role!
Teacher Tech School Ambassador - Ms. Achmad
| Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paxton Lewis | James Davidson | Takshay Rana | Esther Stark |
| Pele Stevens | Oliver Christou | Yazan AlMadani | Deyoona Sivi |
| Naman Agnihotri | Theo Williams | Arthur Stark | Razan Al-Saraji |
Top row from left: Takshay Rana, Yazan AlMadani, Paxton Lewis, James Davidson
Bottom row from left: Esther Stark, Pele Stevens, Naman Agnihotri, Theo Williams
Not pictured: Razan Al-Madani, Deyoona Sivi, Oliver Christou, Arthur Stark
Welcome Student Ambassadors Session – 22nd March
A major part of being a student tech school ambassador is to work collaboratively in a team with student ambassadors from other schools to create a project that can be presented to primary students at the upcoming Maker Faire, held in November this year.
ESC student ambassadors attended a welcome session at Whittlesea Tech School in which they all had a chance to meet other student tech school ambassadors.
Each student ambassador was given a chance to play around with MicroBits coding, create a phone stand on a computer modelling program to print using a 3D printer and to design their own special name tags to use for the rest of the year.
Skills that the ambassadors learnt in this session will be used throughout the year to create and innovate when putting together their projects.
It will be exciting to see what other skills student ambassadors develop throughout the year and what projects they will create!
“Tech school ambassador was really fun. The first thing we did was create badges about the person we were sitting next to. I sat next to Leonna from Hazleglen Secondary College. Next, we split up into groups. I was in group 2 with Esther. First we did micro bit, which is essentially a microchip which we can code to do anything. Next we did basic coding. We got to create sprites of our own. I did the Pokemon Squirtle. Next we did 3D printing where we got to create phone holders. Finally we did Laser cutting. Overall it was an incredible experience and I can’t wait to go back.”
Theo Williams, Y8 Tech School Ambassador
“The Tech Ambassador Program was heaps of fun. We all had a very enjoyable experience and were able to see and learn new things. We were all put into certain groups with students from other schools allowing us to meet new people and socialise with other kids around the same age. In these groups we did a range of different activities such as coding, 3D print designing and designing our own name tags with the laser cutting program. My favourite was designing our own phone stands with the 3D printing program. It made the item seem a lot more personal and the whole experience more interesting.”
Y10 Student Tech School Ambassador (anonymously submitted)
“Being a tech school ambassador is a great experience. We were able to code many things, 3D model our own phone holders for home and laser cut our own badges with our own designs on adobe illustrator.
I was in group 3 with some of my friends, sadly not my new friend I interviewed when we got there. We were given a free snack and lunch while we were there and even made our own hot chocolates.
Overall, I would recommend this to my peers to be a tech school ambassador for Epping Secondary College.”
Paxton Lewis, Y7 Tech School Ambassador
Hanifa Achmad
Tech School Ambassador Teacher