Article: Big Ideas for a Cleaner Planet

One of my students was so excited to be interviewed about her STEAM project by Total Girl, a magazine for 'tweens.' It's so fun when classroom projects cross over into the real world!

STEM+X Futurists' Fair

This week our Year 5/6 students had the opportunity to present some of their big ideas to a panel of judges for the STEM+X Futurists' Fair. It was so wonderful for them to have an authentic audience; what a positive message for them that their voices matter and that there are people willing to listen to and believe in their ideas. I hope that it will be an experience that stays with them throughout life. 

Each group has been working on different STEM solutions for how they would help to improve Australia's future. This is one of the group's ideas:

"We love STEM because we get to do hands-on learning and solve real problems. We get to do the thinking for ourselves and learn about things we are interested in and passionate about."

"We learn about things that might help us in the future. We learn skills that will help us no matter what type of job we want, like working together and thinking critically."

"Thank you ABCN and NBN Co. This program has helped us to realise that we can use STEM to help our world to be a better place. We have learnt that we CAN make a difference in our own lives and the lives of others. We have learnt how to work together and how to compromise when we all had different ideas. We have learnt to be curious and to ask the big questions."

"We have become better problem-solvers and it has helped us to have more resilience when things don’t go the way we originally planned. We have learnt that mistakes are all part of the design process. We have learnt that our ideas are awesome!"

Futurists' Fair - Week 2

Prior to beginning our second week of the Futurists' Fair project, I wanted to link this work to the professional development I participated in at STEM X Academy with CSIRO future scenarios. As a whole class group, the Year 5/6s looked at a few short videos produced by CSIRO and then unpacked some information from CSIRO's report, Australia 2030: Navigating our uncertain future. This report details a scenarios-based outlook for Australia's future.

I then used the future scenarios as prompts for small group discussions, and this helped to tune students into the “bigger picture” of problems we face now and in the future at a local and more global level. The main scenario students looked at was about 'Planetary Pushback' and the impact that humans are having on the environment.  Some students had expressed interest in invasive species, so they looked at environmental impacts. Students had some very deep and interesting discussions, I loved being a fly on the wall! The future scenario work was a really effective way to tap into the problems that concern my students, the big questions and worries that they have about their future world and how they would solve those issues.

For the second stage of our Futurists' Fair work, I made a quick "flipped classroom" video using the student app Seesaw to set the stage. I wanted students to choose just one idea that they felt passionate about and come up with a quick persuasive presentation to convince others to vote for their idea. To save time, I borrowed some animation clips from CSIRO's Australian National Outlook video for my background:

Students were able to decide whether they would prefer to work alone or in a small group for this component of the project. We used post-it notes to list what they were most passionate about and would like to work on. This process helped students to form groups with people that had the same 'big ideas'. We noticed that most ideas fit into four main categories: Poverty/homelessness, Endangered Species, Human impact on pollution and climate change and Invasive species. 

All of my students ended up finding someone that had a similar idea and got to work researching their problem. Things didn't quite go to plan! My students were so invested in their research and persuasive presentations that I allowed them to keep going for two whole lessons (rather than the initial 30 minutes I had planned for!). When students are intrinsically motivated and engaged in their learning, I think it's really important to allow them that extra time for them to go deeper with the learning... so week 2 turned into week 3! 

Students presented their ideas for the problem they would like to solve for the Futurists' Fair. We had two teachers and the rest of the class acting as a "shark tank panel" to provide feedback on their presentation skills. Students then voted for two ideas (their own and one other!). They tallied up the results and found that pollution scraped in as the winner by 3 points! A small group of students then worked on creating a video for our class to present at the Futurists' Fair.

Futurists' Fair: Week 1

Following on from ABCN's STEM+X Workshop, our Year 5/6 students will participate in a class project over a 4-6 week period. This class project will then be presented to a panel of judges via video conference: The Futurists' Fair.

For the Futurists' Fair, students need to come up with an idea that will brighten Australia's future.  It can be a new product, improvement to an existing product, experiment or invention. They need to use their STEM skills and abilities to develop this idea and show the judges how it will have a positive impact and improve the future of Australia in some way.

So in our first session, my amazing students brainstormed and then shared the problems that matter to them. Most of these students are 10 years old; I love how passionate they are about their world and their futures, but it hurts my heart that these are the issues that 10 year old children are concerned about:

In our next session students will finish adding their ideas to the padlet above, and then pitch their ideas to the whole group. Students will vote on one larger issue that they will all tackle, and then they will work together in small groups to create their solutions.

I can't wait to see what they come up with.  These are our change makers; watch this space!

Guided Inquiry: School Garden

This is a guided inquiry that I'm currently planning for some of my students who require some extra scaffolding and more support with inquiry-based learning. It would depend on the needs of the cohort and individual students as to how I provided that extra guidance. I would also provide students who require extension with an open-ended inquiry or a deeper or more complex question. For example, if the curriculum required that we covered the topic of food security, I might ask "how can we create a sustainable, resilient and healthy food supply system?" or allow them them to come up with a question themselves that addresses the topic.

First I would introduce the learning intentions and then tune in to what students already know about the topic of food security/provide some background information that will help inform their project choices.

Sometimes individual students need a little extra prompting to help them start imagining the possibilities. If this was the case, I may offer some possible suggestions to get them started.

Background information:

Most of my students have already worked on some projects connected to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals:

Future Challenge – Food Security

Food is fundamental to our health and wellbeing. By 2050 the world’s population is expected to reach over 9 billion people; to meet this demand food production must increase by 60%. Over 800 million people currently experience food insecurity worldwide, and it is thought that approximately 5% of the Australian population is affected. Innovation is required to meet the challenge of ensuring food security in both Australia and the rest of the world.

Some groups are at a higher risk than others of food insecurity, such as Indigenous Australians, the unemployed, single parent households, low income earners, and young people. With future predicted changes in climate, the scale and picture of food production in Australia is likely to change.

In Australia, there is typically less than a month of non-perishable food in the supply chain at any given time, and less than a week for perishable food. Holding low reserve supplies makes food security in Australia vulnerable to extreme weather events.

The problem can occur at any level from how we access food, to the availability of the products, or to the way we use and/or waste the food.

*Information taken from CSIRO Research; STEM X Academy

STEM X Academy

What a privilege it was to attend STEM X Academy 2018, a five-day residential program held in Canberra for primary and secondary teachers.  This inspiring program connects teachers with expert researchers, scientists, innovators and educators, and was developed by ASTA (Australian Science Teachers Association), Questacon and CSIRO. I was incredibly lucky to receive a generous scholarship from Stile Education; one of many highlights was the opportunity to meet Stile’s founder, Dr Alan Finkel, Australia’s Chief Scientist.

STEM X Academy will be a game changer for me as a teacher. In 2017 I started my own passion project to create a sustainable STEM program in our school and my STEM X Academy experience is going to help to take it to the next level. It has given me the tools, the access to expertise advice, a network of passionate teachers and the confidence to step up as a leader.

When your professional development is kicked off with liquid nitrogen, exploding teddies and marshmallow bazookas, you can be fairly certain that you’re in for a ride. Dr Graham Walker’s demonstration was highly entertaining and educational; I’m still trying to figure out what the risk management would look like to do this with my students!

At CSIRO, we looked at sustainable futures and teachers worked in small groups along with scientists and STEM education experts to create an inquiry based project on a real-world future scenario. In my group we all had different perspectives and ways of looking at the problem. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone and it was a valuable reminder that this is something we often ask of our students. Our group worked with Dr Jacqui Watt, a business innovation facilitator with an impressive list of qualifications. I was really inspired by her career narrative and I can’t wait to have my students connect with her. We also worked with Raghvendra Sharma, a PhD student working in CSIRO Agriculture and Food on breeding for wheat rust resistance in Australia. Five of us were lucky enough to be shown around the laboratory to have a closer look at his amazing work. Our school will be participating in the Futurist’s Fair this year, and I am looking forward to connecting my work from CSIRO with this event.

I was in my element during the two days of hands-on makerspace sessions at Questacon’s Ian Potter Foundation. We were guided through a process to plan STEM projects to take back to our schools, and also had the opportunity to be creative and to problem-solve. We warmed up with an engaging protostorming activity and worked in teams to complete challenges with a ‘fun factor’, including building trigger tracks using LED lights and a donation box that would encourage people to put more money in. A highlight for me was using Makey Makeys to redesign a controller for arcade games, and judging by the noise level and laughter in the room, others felt the same. I am excited to take back these ideas and opportunities for my students and colleagues. 

 

We also had a fabulous evening after hours at Questacon, exploring and playing with the interactive exhibits before being treated to the coolest dessert, using liquid nitrogen to freeze gin and tonics.  

Just when I thought the STEM X Academy experience couldn’t possibly get any better, we spent an evening at Mt Stromlo Observatory handling tiny satellites worth about $2 million dollars. Dr Ben Greene’s work using lasers to deal with space junk was fascinating and I’m still finding it difficult to sleep after Dr Brad Tucker’s thought-provoking presentation on “everything”. 

Weeks after my STEM X Academy experience I am still buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm. The Alumni group provides a constant hum of ideas and inspiration; I have found my tribe and it has quickly become my most constantly checked Facebook group! Being able to connect with passionate teachers and experts who are leaders in their STEM fields and STEM education is an amazing opportunity. I would recommend to any teacher wanting to be challenged and enlightened that they attend the STEM X Academy next year.

Our kids deserve the very best that we can give; STEM X has given me a guide map and helped me to clarify the bigger picture. I have a vision of where I aspire our school to be and I am excited about the learning journey my students are about to embark on this school year. I can’t wait to see where this inspiration and experience takes us all; the best is yet to come.