17 Nov 2017
Students from Niangla Public School joined with our students this week in an exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Camp this week at Thalgarrah Environmental Field Studies Centre, near Armidale.
Students from Years 3 - 6 attending for two days whilst those students in Kinder to Year 2 attended for Day 1. Across the two days students were involved in making wind turbines, using Spheros, BeeBots and Scratch Junior, to code, Astronomy and designing and building billy carts.
On Day 2 the students had to design a billycart, make a model and then assist the boys from STROUD homes make the billy cart. The students quickly discovered that you need to be clear about what it is you want your builder to do and how models may need to be modified to work with the materials you have.
During the day eight teams of students from Years 3 – 6 worked in teams with the builders to produce the billy carts. One team discovered that although the builder followed their instructions the billy cart's front wheels were not able to move as the cart its self was dragging on the ground. Lots of discussions were held around what the group may need to do to correct their cart.
The billycarts will be used in a Billy cart derby to be held at Ben Lomond Public School on Thursday 14 December 2107.
I would like to extend a big thank you to Peter from STROUD Homes for donating the services of Micheal, Ethan and Reece for the day, and to Peter Fletcher, Mitch Parkes and Jo Bird from the University New of England, Matt McKenzie from Thalgarrah and the staff from the Snow Gums Learning Alliance for making the camp so successful.