Raising forward-thinking future STEM leaders

Are we educating our children to understand the complex global challenges of our time?

At school, during Science STEM lessons, we encourage the children to think about issues, find solutions and take action. We are educating our children to understand global challenges and their roles in addressing them as future leaders.

Year 4 tackle recurrent flooding

Year 4 continued to look at the Beat the Flood STEM challenge in STEM this week. The students have been set a project where they are in a community living on Watu, a small island in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, over the past 5 years, they’ve seen a massive increase in rainfall due to climate change, causing many of the island’s rivers to flood at least twice a year. Their traditional homes made from earth floors, wooden frames and topped with corrugated iron roofs are regularly damaged or lost as they’re not designed to withstand flooding. As a group of islanders, the students are tasked with beating the floods by making a flood-proof home before the next rainy season. This week we have gone from designing in 2D to 3D by making architectural concept models. The students also explored some natural materials and looked at The United Nations’ 17 Global Goals.

Year 5 think forward

Year 5 continued with their Floating Gardens STEM challenge in STEM this week. The challenge is to design and build a model of a structure that people can grow their crops on, even when their land becomes flooded. Last week, Year 5 explored Bangladesh and the characteristics of its climate. We discussed annual weather patterns, their location, and what causes monsoons. The students wrote fantastic, informative posters and did significant research. This week they started the design process and drew conceptual architectural scrawls, exploring amphibious buildings and looking at different sustainable materials.  

Year 6 do research

In STEM this week, Year 6 continued with their Regreen the Desert project. The students have been challenged to make designing and create an irrigation system that collects water and distributes this to crops in Sudan. The students were tasked with finding and exploring water pressure to help with the main STEM challenge. They drilled different-sized holes in reused plastic containers and tested different heights to see how far the water would go. They measured this in groups and had quite a lot of fun with the water. Their results from this experiment will drive the next part of their design for an effective irrigation system next week.