STEM

Innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

During Term 1 in ISTEAM, students in Year Prep are doing Biological Science. They are learning about Animals. Students are learning that living things have a variety of external features and live in different habitats where their basic needs are met,

including food, water and shelter. They are learning that Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves. Students are completing activities where they are learning to recognise common features of animals, for example, head, legs and wings, describe the use of animal body parts for particular purposes, for example, moving and feeding, recognise that different living things live in different places, for example, land and water and explore what happens when habitats change and some living things can no longer have their needs met. Students will use their knowledge, understanding and creativity to create a diorama of an animal in their habitat.

During Term 1 in ISTEAM, students in Year One/Two have been given a brief introduction to the Human Endeavour in Science and are investigating Mini-beasts in Biological Science.

Science as a Human Endeavour

Students will learn that through science, humans seek to improve their understanding and explanations of the natural world. Students will understand that science involves the construction of explanations based on evidence (hypotheses) and science knowledge can change as new evidence becomes available. Students have used their knowledge and imagination to create pictures using pasta. Such artistic approach by the students demonstrates the development of human endeavour in everyday life.

Biological Science

This term students will learn about mini-beasts. They will learn that mini-beasts are the largest group of animals in the world and are called invertebrates. Students will explore what a mini-beast is, where they can be found (microhabitats), its needs, their life-cycle, body parts and characteristics, defence mechanisms, as well as the different types of mini-beasts e.g. insects, arachnids, molluscs etc. Students will make a bug box to observe mini-beasts and their habitats including adaptation in more detail.

The Years 3 - 6 students started the year with an incredible challenge.

They were asked to build a structure using only wooden 1cm cubes, plastic cups and icypole sticks. This structure was to be built on a base of just one wooden 1cm cube. Yes! Just one cube! Initially this appeared to most to be an impossible task. After many attempts, controlled frustrations and a “can do” attitude, all students successfully completed this challenge in a variety of ways. Although these structures were created, most survived only fleetingly due to their ridiculously small base. Thank goodness for our digital cameras which were able to capture images of these structures for further examination. If you are feeling like a challenge, you may like to take a deep breath and try this one at home. These students have also being learning about the force of gravity, how forces work in balance and the ‘lazy’ force known as inertia. This learning led us to The Egg Drop Challenge. This challenge involved creating a container that would protect an egg from breaking from a high fall. Various materials were provided and the students worked in pairs or small groups to provide for the the softest landing possible. We had great fun testing these this week and recording our results. Some eggcellent efforts indeed!