Now that we are over halfway through Term 1, I’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone in the BHPS community for welcoming me to this wonderful school and for helping me to settle into my new role in the STEAM room. This term, students have been busy exploring, creating and investigating Biological Sciences across all levels.
PREP
In Prep, the focus has been on the needs of living things, with some lessons comparing and contrasting the needs of plants, animals and people for survival. Prep students have been creating ‘crazy grass heads’ which have been growing quickly in the STEAM room hot house.
GRADE 1 and 2
Our Grade 1 and 2 students have been ‘Garden Explorers’ and we have gone on several walks around the school grounds looking at the features of plants and also the minibeasts that co-exist within them. They are experts at using magnifying glasses, conducting dissections of agapanthus flowers, creating models of bees to pollinate chalk flowers and planning designs for bee friendly gardens.
GRADE 3 and 4
It has been wonderful to see our Grade 3 and 4 students explore the difference between living, non-living and once living things. They have shared their research on animal groups and they are currently learning about fossils and how to create their own ‘fossil’ imprints using air dry clay. They are looking forward to exhibiting their creations in our Art Show later in the year.
GRADE 5 and 6
It has been a big term in STEAM for our senior students with lessons looking at the animals, plants and climates of biomes around the world, and how living things evolve adaptations to survive in different environments. Students have been working in groups to create a new creature with adaptations to survive in their chosen habitat, and these unique (and often weird but wonderful!) animals will also be showcased in the Art Show in Term 4.
Students in Grade 5 and 6 will be attending a talk from a visiting expert scientist, Prof Andrew Pask (from the TIGRR lab at The University of Melbourne) as he shares the current research on the de-extinction of the Tassie Tiger. I know our students already have lots of questions to ask when he visits towards the end of term.
Helen Clark – STEAM Specialist