STEM Sessions
Stage 1 (Grades 1 and 2)We live in a consumer society. We shop to satisfy our wants and needs. There are many products and brands competing for attention. How do we choose between them? What factors influence our decision?
Over the weeks, we will be able to look carefully at some common products such as: canned tomatoes, sheets of paper, ball point pens , motor cars and bottled water. We will think about how they are made and how they are sold to us. We will see that our choices depend not only on the product itself but on price, packaging, our own particular needs, and sometimes even issues of social responsibility and environmental stewardship. |
Stage 2 (Grades 3 and 4)In our unit this term, we consider how various kinds of buildings are designed for purpose. We will also think about choices that may need to be made with regard to materials, cost, aesthetics and sustainability.
One of our starting points will be to draw and model some buildings. We will consider a few existing buildings in our local environment including the school and church as well as different kinds of homes: early houses, townhouses, and high-rise blocks of flats. There will be an engineering component to our work involving the use of paper and Lego to make structures which meet simple criteria and material constraints. As a bonus, we'll visit the Australian Museum's exciting Science Festival in August! |
Stage 3 (Grades 5 and 6)Before the Rennaisance, people believed that the Earth was the centre of the solar system. Scientific work by Copernicus and Galilieo gradually led to the acceptance of the heliocentric model.
This term, we will learn about how our understanding of the solar system has changed. We will see how by careful observation, with instruments like the telescope and clock, as well as more recently by unmanned probes, we have developed a more accurate picture of the planets and other objects in orbit around the sun. The children will have the opportunity to work scientifically and technologically by investigating the movement of the pendulum (something Galileo was also interested in) and by making a simple rocket or spacecraft. |