Remade: Sustainable Wearable Art Show

Our students were recently involved in a sustainable art show organised by Interweave Arts director Kim Schneiders. 'Remade' showcases wearable art and objects by local designers and artists, and it is such a fantastic program for our students to be involved in. The show emphasises the need for environmental sustainability and students worked hard with two teachers over several weeks designing and creating their own costumes for the show out of recycled materials.

Part of this years theme included Waterways and Threatened Species, which was a fantastic way for students to get involved in making a statement about plastic in our oceans. They had a blast creating their costumes and rehearsing the dance choreography for the show.

This is such a powerful experience for our children; not only are they collaborating and engaging with the community and 'showing off' their skills and creativity, but they are also empowered by the opportunity to be activists through art. They feel like they play an important role in eductating others and raising awareness of the need to take care of the world they live in.

These amazing photos of our students on the catwalk and performing their dance were taken by Anne O'Connor, and are too stunning not to share!

Here is a local newspaper article on the event: Sustainable art, Remade

National Science Week 2018: Part 2

As part of National Science Week celebrations, 20 of our Year 5/6 students were lucky enough to attend an interdisciplinary STEAM day at  Launceston College.

Students had the opportunity to participate in workshops in the Launceston College STEAM NGN as well seeing science demonstrations, stalls and other STEAM/Science work that has been completed by the college students and local high school students. As you can see below, they had a ball!

Some short videos recorded by students:

Here's a link for more about our Science Week celebrations: National Science Week - Part 1

National Science Week: Game Changers & Change Makers

Wow, what a massive week Science Week turned out to be! This year was the first time our school has hosted a community after school STEAM Fair and it was sensational to have so many people come along to learn and play.  This event celebrated "Game Changers and Change Makers" and showcased some of the wonderful STEM/STEAM projects our students have been working on. 

We were lucky enough to receive generous funding through the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) school grants for Science week; without this support we would not have been able to have as many interactive activities for our families to get involved in.

The day started early with some student representatitives invited to talk on live radio about what Science Week means to them. The students handled the pressure of live interviewing well and I was so proud of them. For part of the interview they were asked what they liked the most about Science:

"I like the hands-on part of learning, getting to put things together to make something, building, creating ... We started making a game for younger kids. We've animated a fridge and it's got to run around and collect the good food and not collect the bad food." - William

"I love Science because you get to do things that you normally wouldn't get to do if you were just at home, and you get to do things that are different and really fun. You get to do hands-on learning and it's not just sitting back to watch, you get to play with it as well." - Edie

"I love STEM and STEAM because you get to do hands on stuff instead of just normal school, you get to make stuff." - Georginia

"I really love Science because you get to step out of your comfort zone and you get to help the world with the real life issues, and as everyone has said the hands-on learning is really the best part." - Bella

It's not every day a Makey-Makey appears on live radio!

After school we had our STEAM Fair, which was open to the wider school community with the aim of promoting the value of hands-on learning activities and inquiry-based learning. It was amazing to have so many families (and people from the broader community) come along to get a first-hand glimpse at the technology and activities that our students are engaging with in their classrooms.

This term we have had the opportunity to borrow Spheros from CSER Digital Technologies Lending Library, and they were certainly a hit at the fair! Here are a few snaps of some Sphero soccer fun:

We also had plenty of buzzing around the Bee Bots we had borrowed from Launceston NGN STEAM Room, and our Ozobot towns and tracks. Some students had created straw mazes and simple arcade games out of recyled materials, which people enjoyed testing:

 

Year 3s used their visual art skills to share "Inventions that were Game Changers and Change Makers":

There were Makey-Makey arcade games to play, and we also had a few interesting game controllers to test out! Rain clouds in a jar was one of the simple science experiments we had set up to explore:

Here's a slide with other simple STEAM activities we had set up for people to enjoy:


By the end of the day I'd clocked up a fair few steps on my fitbit ... I wonder if I can beat it next year!

For more Science Week fun see National Science Week - Part 2

Kindergarten Family STEAM Afternoon

Last term we had a wonderful open afternoon of STEAM for our Kindergarten families. Some of our Year 4, 5 and 6 mentors came along to help with some simple science, technology and engineering activities. It was great to see so many of our families having fun and learning together. Here are some highlights:

Test out the cars going down the pipe into the sandpit. How can you make the cars go faster? How can you make the cars go slower?

How tall can you make a balloon tower that can stand up without anyone holding it? The only things you can use are a piece of paper for the bottom, balloons and masking tape.

Can you design a lego marble maze?

Can you make a shape bubble wand using the materials provided? Which ones work best? A square, a circle, a triangle, or a star? I wonder why ...

Design challenges are fun for everyone!

Ozobots: Can you make a track for your robot to follow?
Can you make Ozobot do any special tricks?

GO Program Challenge: Design a Trap

A small group of Year 3 students have been working on a design challenge they were set as part of a gifted online program. 

The Scenario:

Imagine that an oil company has discovered a valuable oil deposit under where your animal lives. You have just two weeks to remove and save as many of your animal as possible. You don’t have many people though so it has been decided that trapping the animals and then going round and collecting them up for transport to a new area is the best way to go.

Your job is to design the trap using only materials from the list below (these materials are substituting for the timber, plastic etc. that you would have in real life). You need to make a trap that will operate without a person controlling it to capture but not injure your creature. The trap needs to be humane, it should contain the animal for up to 24 hours without damaging it in any way.

Your design must have at least two of the simple machines listed below as part of the structure:

¨ Pulley

¨ Lever

¨ Inclined plane

¨ Wheel

¨ Axel

They labelled their final design using Seesaw: 

First, I had the students research the animal they were going to design a trap for. Here is their information report:

Once the students had found out some background information on the animal they were going to design their trap for, I had them follow the engineering design process to complete their projects: