STEM News

Quarantine Lamp Build

Theo from Year 11 hopes that his next furniture build in Year 11 Product Design is a bit less memorable. Theo built his Unit 1 Sustainable Lamp in a hotel room in Adelaide while quarantining for 14 days.

Facing enormous obstacles this semester, Theo has come through well, although he describes the experience of completing the first unit of his VCE in Brazil as “unusual”.

After a death in the family earlier in the year, Theo travelled to Brazil (with his family) for the funeral during a lull in the Coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the family soon found themselves stuck in Brazil for a number of months.

Theo described the experience of studying remotely, overseas, and in a different timezone as “sometimes tedious because of the lack of interaction with people, not having the actual teacher present to explain things”.

As a highly motivated student, Theo was very organised and kept good contact with his teachers and was able to sustain solid marks. 

At times though, he said “I experienced delays to submit things because of problems with the internet or computer.”

It’s great to have Theo back at East Doncaster and the positive for Theo was “I found the study a nice distraction while in lockdown in San Paulo.”

The final task in Unit 1 Product Design is actually building the product that students have been designing. 

When it became clear that Theo wouldn’t arrive in Melbourne with enough time to build his lamp in class, the decision had to be made to build the lamp in Adelaide (in hotel quarantine). 

A range of materials were used including a lampshade made from prepared meal containers.

Theo explained; “All things considered, I am proud of my finished lamp.”

Well done Theo on your innovative approach!

Tom Martin

Technology Teacher