St. Mary’s School celebrated the recent Catholic Education Week by having a festival for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for their students.
Agnes Garrioch, who is the Grade 8 teacher and technology integration coach at St. Mary’s, said the festival highlighted STEM programming at the school.
“Every class had a different learning pathway that revolved around STEM,” said Garrioch. “Attached to that storybook, students asked some sort of problem, or had some sort of challenge. Through that challenge or question that was asked, they had a maker or innovative experience, and they went through the engineering design process.”
From there they had a coding or robotics extension.
“Every class did that, so there was a variety of different themes. Some were focused on bio-making or bio-mimicry.”
Students completed the following projects:
- Pre-kindergarten: Used code-a-pillars to travel through a city, while learning about structures of the world.
- Kindergarten: Experimented by building houses out of straw, Lego and wood, and saw which house could withstand the huffs and puffs of a wolf. They also used 3-D doodler pens to design a building.
- Grade 1: Had a STEM scavenger hunt while remote learning. They also created an obstacle course for their families to go through, and built and tested a Mars helicopter.
- Grade 1/2: Learned about volcanoes, and actually created their own. They explored code-n-go mice to discuss how sometimes emotions can feel like a volcano. Inspiration came from the book My Mouth is like a Volcano by Julia Cook.
- Grade 2: Designed their own toy, and used code-n-go mice with different platforms.
- Grade 3: Learned how to use color codes to create a parade route for their Ozobots, and then held the parade.
- Grades 3/4: Learned about constellations, color coded a path for their constellation, and then modelled a constellation with toothpicks and marshmallows.
- Grade 4: Learned about bio-mimicry and architectural design. They were inspired by animals and plants and designed a structure.
- Grade 5: Built a bird's nest to catch an egg. They also used Scratch to make a character fly.
- Grade 6: Used Edison robots, along with the Edcreate packs to design any of the following: the EdPrinter, EdCrane, EdRoboCla, EdDigger or the EdTank.
- Grade 7: Designed a railway crossing signal using Arduinos.
- Grades 7/8: Used the micro bit to start creating a smart garden. They designed a soil moisture sensor with the micro bit, nails, and alligator clips. Students created code using Make Code. The micro bit provides a number code reading, or a sad or happy face to identify whether or not the plant needs to be watered or not.
- Grade 8: Designed their own contactless delivery Sphero robot. They also used bio-making to tie-dye towels using cabbage.
In a typical science fair, Garrioch said the students only show the product at the end to the school community. But for the STEM festival, they posted thinking, experience and pathways on SeeSaw, which is the learning journal used by every classroom.
“Families were able to have a peak inside the students’ learning for throughout this whole week,” said Garrioch.
Students are developing their six Cs of deep learning: critical thinking, communication skills, character, citizenship, collaboration and creativity through the activities in the festival.
“They loved it, and it was great to highlight our STEM education that we do throughout the year at St. Mary’s,” said Garrioch. The students had so much fun, and they’re definitely developing strong capacity in coding or robotics, the more STEM education we have at St. Mary’s.”
This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week was Nurturing Learning. St. Mary’s also had a Colours of Hope Day, in which students wrote messages of hope with sidewalk chalk all over their playground. They also had prayers every day, a livestreamed liturgy and they created a story walk in their school yard. Students made rosaries, and they continued with their virtual pal program that connects students with residents of Creighton Lodge.
