Although most of our year levels are yet to commence their STEAM units, one year level has been working on theirs for much of this first semester and it has been satisfying to be alongside them as it has given us an insight into support needs at particular stages and has also allowed us to see the vision we have for our STEAM work come to fruition.
One important learning activity has been the ‘mud-mapping’ activity – an activity that is designed to enable students to make connections between the different areas of learning whilst in the first half of the design and inquiry process.
The students had learnt about many different concepts within their Geography units including climate zones and features of places. They had also conducted a survey with their community to find out about what they wanted to see in the Yr 3 Garden. So, to bring all of these understandings together, the students made representations of each of them (tiny models) and then together articulated connections they could see that might provide inspiration for ideas what to include in our garden and why.
A range of materials were given to them:
They made representations:
And then started making connections, articulating their understandings:
And finally shared their ideas based on the connections they had made:
The more refined ‘How might we…..?’ question was then shared with the class: