Junior High Wonder of Science

SUSAN LICASTRO

From a new inclusion into the St Peters curriculum to State Winners, the Junior High 'Wonder of Science' program has been so successful it will remain for the foreseeable future.

2020 saw the inclusion of exciting STEM challenges immersed within the Year 7 Science curriculum. This incorporated the introduction of 'Wonder of Science' challenge tasks. These tasks engage students in authentic and collaborative inquiry. Students develop critical and creative thinking skills as they are challenged to develop a group response to a real-world problem or scenario.

Over the course of five weeks students designed, built, tested and evaluated their projects through a collaborative inquiry process. They were supported throughout the project by Wonder of Science Ambassadors. These Ambassadors were selected PhD researchers from leading Queensland universities, who engaged with students via online 'Teams' meetings offering guidance and support for their projects.

Representative teams were chosen to attend a regional student conference where they presented their response and showcased their work to students from other schools within the region. St Peters achieved an outstanding effort and was awarded first, second, and third places within the region.

First place students (Sophie Lambourne, Hamish Scott, Arabella Noble and Ainsley Trotter, pictured above with Mr Tim Kotzur, Head of College, and Wonder of Science Director, Robyn Bull) went on to compete in the State Conference and successfully won overall, receiving the trophy for State Winners.

Robyn Bull, visited St Peters earlier this year to present prizes to the winning team. In her address she made special comment on the high quality of student presentations and their ability to analyse data and justify their results from their investigations.

Such opportunities for students to engage in these projects enhances the development of their team building skills that are essential skills in careers of the future.

The high level of student engagement and quality outcomes has resulted in the decision to implement the program in Year 9 this year with the vision to have all Junior High Year Levels involved by 2022.