STEM Sessions: Term 2, 2017.

Stage 1 (Grades 1 and 2)

Our unit this term is all about the "places and spaces" in our local environment.

What "spaces" does a home need? How is your own home designed? How could it be improved?

What is a classroom for? What does it need to do? Let's think about designing one for STEM!

We will learn about church architecture. Why is St Mary's Church built the way it is? What is the purpose of the different spaces inside?

We will take short trips outside the STEM area to look carefully at some built environments near us. Our thoughts will be expressed in words, drawings and in models using, for example, LEGO.

Stage 2 (Grades 3 and 4)

Information comes to us from many different sources. This term, we will examine some different sources and consider how effective they might be in meeting a need or solving a problem.

​For example, when we might want to learn how to tie different kinds of knots, might we prefer to have someone show us, watch a video demonstration or read step-by-step instructions in print?

As users of information provided by others, we will learn how to acknowledge ownership and understand why it might be important to do that. We will also have the opportunity to effectively provide information to help others carry out a task or solve a problem.

During this unit, we will be able to make good use of the new STEM Ipads.

Stage 3 (Grades 5 and 6)

The products we buy today to meet our needs are often mass-produced in factories using highly automated production lines. Materials arriving at these factories and products leaving for their markets must usually be transported over considerable distances. 

Students will have the opportunity to consider how, over the last hundred years, products we use have changed along with their method of manufacture. As an example, we will compare the quill with the ballpoint. We will also see how cordage, once hand made from plant fibres, is now often made by machines using synthetic materials. We may also consider how a method of producing a common food stuff (e.g. cream or cheese) has changed over the same period. 

As in other STEM classes, there will be hands-on activities to reinforce the learning.