LAURISTON LIFE EDITION 2 December 2019 ON THE COVER: Jasmin Goldberg PHOTOGRAPHER: Ben Weinstein DESIGN: Actual Size PRINTING: New Artworx Lauriston Life Lauriston Girls’ School t: +61 3 9864 7555 CRICOS number 00152F The magazine of 38 Huntingtower Road e: [email protected] Lauriston Girls’ School Armadale VIC 3143 Australia lauriston.vic.edu.au 2 LAURISTON LIFE EDITION 2 2019 CONTENTS 4 10 STEM: Future- Innovation focused beyond the design-based classroom learning in Years 7 and 8 7 12 Building a future Engineering for science without boundaries Jasmin Goldberg 18 20 Music Junior School bringing Encouraging our School curiosity and community creativity together through STEM 22 26 28 Howqua STEM in early Sport highlights childhoood Using 2019 technology to track fi tness 30 Arts and the FabLearn Lab LAURISTON LIFE EDITION 2 2019 3 PRINCIPAL’S INSIGHT STEM: Innovation beyond the classroom SUSAN JUST PRINCIPAL ‘Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.’ Roger Lewin What knowledge, skills, values and We understand that the world in experiences will young people need to which we live is rapidly changing and thrive in a rapidly changing world? Skills our 21st century the skills required of those entering students need the workforce both now and in the This is a question that educators are – High levels of functional literacy coming years make it a priority for considering around the world, and and numeracy. young people to understand the at Lauriston we lean towards the building blocks of computation and view that to best prepare students – A deep understanding of the to engage with technology and for the changes brought about by core concepts in the subject its implications. Young people will AI and other global trends, schools disciplines, including higher need to have the skills to evaluate will need to set students up for levels of digital literacy. information, and to understand how lifetime education, to be empathetic, machines make decisions, the choices comfortable with change, and to have – The opportunity to apply embedded in computer code, and the the capacity to critically engage with knowledge in meaningful ways privacy implications arising with every new technologies. (Education Future and develop mastery in both technological development. Frontiers: Opportunities and Challenges content and capabilities. for Education Discussion Paper 2.) Connected to the need for explicit – The mindsets and strategies attention to digital literacy is the need to to be adaptable and resilient consider the level of attention we should learners, to reach their goals be giving to ethics and philosophy. and continue to learn. The more research that I read, the – To be well-rounded, informed more I understand that teaching STEM and culturally aware citizens (science, technology, engineering and who are able to positively mathematics) subject disciplines goes engage in an increasingly hand in hand in with teaching those 21st interconnected world. century skills or capabilities which are spoken about broadly in education and business, but have not all been clearly defi ned and are problematic to measure and assess in a school-based setting. 4 LAURISTON LIFE EDITION 2 2019 There is a growing breadth of research Our digital fabrication laboratory We off er a broad range of co-curricular around the 21st century skills/ (FabLearn Lab) has been in place at activities to our students, which include capabilities and a number of reports Lauriston since 2013. Our intention Robocup, Coders and Makers Club, from our Australian universities and through digital fabrication and making Lauriston Start-up Entrepreneurs Group, business corporations. The 21st century was, fi rstly, to determine ways in the RACV Solar Challenge, AI for Good skills/capabilities generally fall under which we could further develop the Challenge and Spaghetti Machine the following categories: critical and experiential or ‘hands-on’ learning Challenge. We are always looking for innovative thinking, interpersonal skills, activities for our students, and secondly, new opportunities for our students intrapersonal skills, global citizenship, consider how we might address the and in 2020 we will continue our and media and information literacy. concern that girls are less likely to development of an entrepreneurial think choose tertiary studies and careers tank for our students and continue our I would contend that a number of these related to STEM. current initiatives. skills/capabilities can be fostered by integrating digital technologies and The FabLearn Lab has become an We are confi dent that when girls are digital fabrication learning activities into important cross-disciplinary learning provided with opportunities from the our curriculum. space for students from Prep to Year early years of Junior School to develop 12 and has helped them to engage their understanding and skills in STEM- For example, over the last four years eff ectively with STEM. The use of digital related subject disciplines, they will our Years 7 and 8 students have been fabrication has been embedded in a continue with the study of these areas involved in a number of learning broader Digital Intent strategy, which as they move through the School. Our activities which we have called ‘We we have documented. girls need to develop positive mindsets have an opportunity’. We have invited and hands-on skills from their early students and their teachers from a In 2019 our Junior School students have years, which in turn will help their self- number of local and Australian girls’ been involved in a number of STEM- confi dence and desire to ‘take risks’ in schools to join us for these projects. integrated activities that focused on their learning, particularly in science We have had students working with design process and production skills. and mathematics. people who have disabilities to design These included coding a story about a and prototype products which will number (Prep), designing and prototyping We believe that an integrated approach make their daily lives a little easier; in a fairy house (Year 1), designing an to STEM-related activities enables our 2018, the student groups worked on the algorithm for Dash robot to push and pull girls to participate in ‘real-life’ activities design and prototyping of products that a toy (Year 4), designing and creating a and practise the transfer of skills to would help individuals or groups in their website for a small business (Year 5) and diff erent subject disciplines. We want schools. designing a warning signal for a natural our girls to believe in themselves and disaster (Year 6). See more about these their ability to undertake science and The ‘We have an opportunity’ projects activities on page 20. mathematics subjects in their senior bring girls together for a social years of school. The ‘bottom-up’ purpose as they work through the In Years 7 and 8 our students each approach we have chosen by working to design thinking process. Working in a participate in four-week-long intensive engage our students in STEM from the group over an extended time period programs across the year; two with a early primary years is aimed to continue provides an opportunity for the girls focus on digital fabrication and two to build the interest and confi dence of to collaborate with each other and with a focus on digital technology. girls in approaching all STEM-related develop an appreciation for the personal Our Year 9 students continue with a subject disciplines. strengths each brings to the group. digital technology program, which has These types of activities enable girls to a current focus on coding. Our Year 10 better understand that STEM-focused students have access to semester-based careers are accessible for them. electives which have a digital fabrication or a digital technology focus. LAURISTON LIFE EDITION 2 2019 5 TEACHER INSIGHT Maths, the unsung hero ZARA DENNIS DIGITAL FABRICATION LEAD TEACHER, SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER The acronym STEM originated in the 1990s. Its popularity has increased signifi cantly in recent years in response to both employer demand and projections that around 75% of the fastest-growing occupations will require STEM skills. There are now a huge range of adding suspended weights, and then inspirational STEM programs run by both recording the extension. This real data educational institutions and industry, with produced a linear trend, which was the aim of increasing student interest in then graphed, and associated questions these technical disciplines. were asked based on what had been previously covered in class. The second Many of these programs, however, task then used the graphing website while inspiring, educational and fun, ‘Desmos’ to recreate the outline of a often overlook the core mathematical supplied photograph by working out the foundations that these technical functions of each required line. Linear subjects share. As a result, students equations were essential, but students choose to pursue a higher-level were also encouraged to explore other STEM subject, but quickly become functions beyond what had been overwhelmed by the mathematical specifi cally taught. aspects and, in the worst-case scenario, opt out of this career pathway. Both tasks presented an appropriately challenging level of mathematical skill. Although the level of mathematical The real-life data in the Jelly Snakes task ability does vary across disciplines, was not perfect, and trial and error was student success in STEM is highly encouraged in developing the Desmos dependent upon their knowledge image. The tasks were also specifi cally of, and interest in, analytical skills. chosen to integrate non-maths STEM Children and young adults are naturally subjects, specifi cally science with curious, so our aim at Lauriston is to the Jelly Snakes task and technology instil an interest in the versatility of with the Desmos task. In doing so, we mathematical literacy at an early age hoped to emphasis to the students how and show how it can be applied to real- critically intertwined their mathematical life scenarios.