STEAM News
City of Yarra Science Week Lunch
On Wednesday 16th of August, MGC students and staff were lucky enough to attend a Science Week lunch hosted by the City of Yarra. The keynote speaker was Dianne McGrath, one of the Mars 100, and a truly inspirational speaker.
The Mars One program is aiming to send 24 people to Mars in 2031.
Dianne is in the final 100 candidates being considered for the one-way trip – remarkable considering they started with 250,000+ applications. Dianne spoke about what it takes to be considered for this amazing adventure and how she is preparing. She talked about the new skills she is learning and how she has incorporated eating crickets and ants into her diet in preparation!
Meet Our Robot: Ozobot
Students use markers and colour codes to control Bit’s speed, direction and special moves. Print a maze online or open an app and find the right combination of colours to get Bit from start to finish. Draw OzoCode colour codes on paper or a tablet and Bit uses optical sensors to respond—spinning, speeding up and more at your command and more advanced students use Ozobot’s block-based programming language, OzoBlockly
Monash Engineering Year 8 Challenge
Over the term 2 holidays, I participated in the Monash Engineering ‘Year 8 Challenge’. It was a great experience for me and it provided me with examples of the different types of engineering like Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Chemical and Environmental Engineering. This gave me an idea of what to expect and also to pick which topics I’m interested in.
For Civil Engineering, we made bridges out of spaghetti and tested them out with weights. Unfortunately, my group’s bridge didn’t hold as much weight. Ours held about 600 grams while the highest was 2400 grams!
For Mechanical Engineering, we made a light-chasing ‘moth’ robot. We learnt to solder and attach the wires at the right spot. I found this particularly interesting since it was pretty hands on!
For Software Engineering, we got to develop a video game! This was fun too since we could let our imagination run wild! We had to design an Angkor Wat simulation, pretty much starting from scratch. We used unity to do this.
For Chemical Engineering, we did a number of different experiments like blowing up a balloon using a ginger ale bottle, separating water from aspirin and looking at how heat is transferred through convection and conduction!
We also learnt how to change the tyres of a sports car and have a go on a car simulation! I had lots of fun at this 3-day event held at Monash and encourage the year 8s next year to participate in it!!!
Sona Hariharan (8F)
CSIRO Chief Scientist at MGC
Hello, my name is Eleanor and I am Middle School S.T.E.A.M. Captain. On Friday the 18th of August, four enthusiasts from the STEAM Team and I had the awesome privilege of hosting a visit by Dr Anita Hill, CSIRO’s Chief Scientist. Dr Hill’s visit was part of the STEMinSchools@CSIRO program to celebrate Science Week. She was most impressed with our STEAM Room and program, as well as the technological aspects of our Sustainability programs. We then took part in a webinar with over 100 other schools, where students from all over Australia had the opportunity to participate in a conference with five leading scientists in the field of space and robotics, hosted by a TV personality. The conference's main focus was on how any subject can be important for space exploration, including the Arts. This was a great insight to the many different paths available to get involved in space programs. We also interviewed Dr Hill about her role and field of research at CSIRO, and her experiences as a woman in a science related field.
Hello! My name is Claudia and I’m the Middle School S.T.E.A.M. Vice Captain. As Eleanor said, it was a fantastic encounter and a wonderful chance to be able to see what sort of opportunities are offered if you are an engineer and space scientist. Dr Hill showed us a project Prof Paulo de Souza (one of the lead scientists on the webinar) was working on, which involves gluing miniature ‘backpacks’ (microsensors) on bees to track their movement and behaviour, in an effort to save honey bees worldwide (see link below). Another highlight of the day was being presented with CSIRO hats and hoodies as part of the visit! Thanks to Catherine Walkear for organising the visit, and to Wendy and Tony Keen for their support and technical expertise.
Lunchtime STEAM Sessions : EV3 Lego Challeng
Students participated in the EV3 Mars STEAM Lunchtime sessions on 17th August as an engaging and easy introduction to robotics, students worked with a very current and real-world theme – travelling to and living on Mars. Each challenge present problems that led to the mission launch!
Useful MGC Links
Compass: https://mgc.vic.jdlf.com.au
MGC eMail: https://exchange.mgc.vic.edu.au
Moodle:http://moodle.mgc.vic.edu.au
Home Access Plus: https://hap.mgc.vic.edu.au
MGC’s Public Site: http://www.mgc.vic.edu.au
Parents’ Association: https://goo.gl/aeIBn3
Alumni Association: https://goo.gl/fjYAek