For our 2019 year we are taking further steps to support our STEAM agenda.
There will be a considered focus on scientific inquiry and what it means to behave and think like a scientist.
In order to get us off to a great start with this work, our teachers were involved in a session at the Spark Lab at the QLD Museum on one of our Pupil Free Days.
With a theme of ‘Follow your Curiosity’, the SparkLab was a perfect place for us to work together as a team – all teachers and teacher aides – to engage with Science, to have some fun, and to collaborate and create together. We were initially given a introduction to the intent of the SparkLab by Rebekah Collins, the Manager. Our teachers benefitted from hearing about the vision and the intent of SparkLab during this presentation and appreciated the alignments between the work of the SparkLab and the work we were doing as a school to bring inquiry alive through the platform of STEAM.
Our teachers were then given the job of completing a Scavenger Hunt. They would be working in yr level teams to connect content descriptors from the Curriculum to the exhibits. In doing this, they were gaining an understanding of the curriculum intent for their year level. Using their iPads and a Book Creator file created for the purpose, the teachers interacted with exhibits and took photographs of the exhibit that best demonstrated the curriculum intent.
The second part of the activity was to engage at a deeper level with one exhibit only and to create a digital artefact that might serve to introduce their students to the concepts and inquiries connected to the unit of work. They were given different options for apps to use with most groups selecting an iMovie Trailer.
A professional theatre then awaited the showcasing of the digital products:
The whole experience was a brilliant opportunity for us as a school to set the course ahead for the year. The learning involved was engaging, interactive and designed to raise questions and to inspire wonder – exactly the type of learning we want to scaffold for our students this year as we focus on Scientific Inquiry as part of our broader STEAM agenda. It was also wonderful to see that a partnership with an external organisation can bring so much to our work – enlivening, consolidating and extending our current work and what we are planning for the year.