SASC_STEAM

STEAM & Innovation in the Junior School A new way of learning

Junior School STEAM What is STEAM and why is it important?

STEAM and Innovation is all about inspiring lifelong learners and equipping them with a range of future focussed skills.

In our state of the art Innovation Centre, we aim to provide engaging, hands-on experiences that students need to explore core STEM concepts and link them to real-life situations.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics are fused together to provide students with essential cutting edge knowledge and skills needed to live and work in the 21st century.

Whilst more and more jobs of the future will have a STEAM focus, learning in STEAM, aims to develop student’s natural curiosity and imagination, helping them develop essential communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills in a fun and exciting way.

How do we do it?

All K-6 classes engage in a range of real-life projects each term and staff utilize a range of teaching models including: •

Inquiry Based Learning

•

Design Thinking

•

Sustainability Action Process

Every student attends a weekly specialist STEAM lesson.

All learning in STEAM is integrated into regular classwork to make learning meaningful and seeks to develop ICT capability and understanding of digital technologies.

Key components of the program include: •

Kinder Investigators

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Digital Technologies

•

Lego Education

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She Maps- Drone and Geospatial Education

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JAI (Junior Agricultural Initiative)

•

STEAM Incursions

What do our programs look like?

Kindergarten Students are introduced to the world of STEAM through our Investigators program. Investigators allows students the opportunity to develop their natural curiosity and explore their world through a range of activities with a focus on sensory items, construction, collage, tinkering tables and dramatic play. The program also seeks to develop oral language, problem solving skills, decision making, social skills and fine and gross motor skills.

Kindergarten begin coding with Beebots and commence our Lego Education program where they design and build their very own amusement park.

Kindergarten also learn about digital systems and visit the school farm as part of our Junior Agricultural Initiative.

Year 1 Year 1 students continue our Lego Education program where they design and build a range of mechanical items with our Early Simple Machine kits. They begin their first design thinking project by designing and creating an environment for a living thing. Students visit the Huntley Berry Farm as part of our Junior Agricultural Initiative and begin a program to develop their early typing skills.

Year 2 Year 2 are introduced to Sphero robots and use an iPad to learn about time and distance as they program the bots to move along a surface. Students develop their coding skills with our Makey Makey kits as they create their own musical instruments and build a game controller. Year 2 continue our Lego Education program where they design and build a range of increasingly challenging mechanical items with our Simple Machine kits. In Term 3, students investigate some of the plants and animals that are grown and used for food production and explore the tools, equipment and techniques used to prepare food safely.

Co-curricular STEAM Our STEAM and Innovation program also features a range of opt-in programs including the Lego Spike Challenge, Kreative Koalas and K-nex Club.

Incursions Each year we invite a range of national STEM based organisations to explore a range of STEM related concepts with students.

Organisations involved in the program so far include: Lumination- Virtual Reality, Bricks 4 kids- Lego Amusement Park and Rocket Science Adventures.

Year 3 and 4 Year 3 students create a range of mechanical and engineering based designs using our K-nex kits to develop their modelling and design skills. They undertake a range of STEAM based projects that develop problem solving, collaboration and communication skills including a model of a local landform where they identify strategies to minimize erosion.

Year 4 use our Lego kits to design and create a vehicle to explore the moon. The sustainability project sees students explore a range of ways to manage waste and resources across the school. Finally, students explore a range of technologies used in food and fibre production in Australian agriculture and design a model for an automated vehicle to assist in the local agricultural industry.

Year 5 and 6 Year 5 learn about drone safety, manual and programmed flight before testing their skills in a simulated environment.

Students use our Lego kits to design and create a prototype for a space rover that could be used in space exploration.

Later in the year, students undertake an inquiry based unit where they explore how a significant event affected the expansion of the early colony and complete an independent research project on the local cherry industry. Students also develop their coding skills with the Sphero robots and are introduced to the Lego Spike kits.

Year 6 begin the year designing an 18 hole golf course for their Sphero robots. They then explore how sudden geological changes affect the Earth’s surface before investigating and designing a device using our Lego kits to detect and warn people against a natural disaster.

In Term 2, students develop their manual and programmed flight skills as they fly drones over simulated managed environments like timber plantations and cattle farms that produce food and fibre.

Junior School Campus 70 Eglinton Road, Llanarth NSW Phone: 02 6331 3911

scotsallsaints.nsw.edu.au