Primary School STEM Focus Day

On Wednesday 16 November, the Primary School took part in a STEM Focus Day. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, fields that are becoming increasingly more prevalent in society today. In fact, 65% of primary school children will work in jobs that don’t exist yet! (Future of Jobs 2016, World Economic Forum).

During the day, the girls learnt about the engineering design process. Each year group first defined a problem which presented as their main challenge for the day. They then brainstormed resources which would be able to be used to construct their design. After deliberating and planning their solution, it was time to construct their design! Through iteration, they evaluated and improved their prototypes before presenting their designs together.

Kindergarten and Year 2 worked on a solution to design a new chair for Goldilocks and the Three Bears using recycled materials with Makedo Kits. Year 1 helped the Gingerbread Man escape the fox and designed a boat for him to get across the river. Year 3 incorporated their class text of James and the Giant Peach to design a catapult or slingshot to throw hailstones back to the Cloud-Men. Incorporating their Science focus for the term – forces, Year 4, used Robotic Lego to design and code pull-robots and Years 5 and 6 used recycled materials to design a robotic which could be used to pick up objects of a table. All students used the engineering process to ask, imagine, plan, create, test and improve their designs.

“STEM Day was such a fun day. Things that I never thought that I could achieve, I did. Thank you so much teachers for planning this amazing day as it was such a fun learning experience.” Coco Shelmerdine – 6P.

Each year group also participated in a rotational STEM Bins workshop. During this time, the girls moved through a range of activities. These included building the tallest structure to withstand the weight of books using only paper and tape, building some sort of tool or trap with limited materials, and building the tallest structure with three separate levels. The girls were tasked to problem solve, think creatively, and work collaboratively with their peers.

“The STEM bins gave me a good experience of learning how to think on the spot and solve problems. I loved getting to work with friends on problem solving tasks.” Lilly Zadgan – 6T.

All teachers and students across the Primary School engaged with the activities and were beyond impressed with the girls’ persistence, flexibility and collaborative skills when working on a variety of tasks. During the afternoon sharing assembly many of the girls remarked: “It was really challenging at first. However, we kept trying and, in the end, it was worth it.”

Katherine Lock and Ella Stanzel-Witts
Primary Teachers