STEAM Week 2021

From ‘4×4’ Maths challenge, sustainability-based drama challenge to presentations from the STEM-X Club, STEAM Week 2021 was successfully held with lots of hands-on STEM-based Science challenges in Year 7 to 9, between the 7th – 11th June 2021.

In Science, the STEAM Week inter-house challenges involved students working in small teams within their houses on various open ended challenges. These were:

• catapult or rocket challenges for Year 7
• spaghetti strength or isotonic conductivity experiments for Year 8 and
• water purification or potato battery investigations for Year 9

The activities required students to decide their own variables and analyse their data, which will be presented in a short video-based report. The best videos from each class will then enter the science video grand final which will be judged by the ISSU.

The STEM-X Club kicked off the week in fine style with their research displays.

“This term the Year 7 and Year 8 students in the STEM-X Club completed scientific research into black holes, potato power, Leukemia treatments, variations in habitats and self-driving cars, culminating in a STEM-X Club Expo held during the Week”, said Ms Harte, lead teacher of the Club.

Vijay Sathappan (8F), a STEM X Club participant, commented that, “The experience was a fun way to understand science in the real world, and I got the opportunity to develop my leadership, collaboration and research skills”. Reagan Chan (8R) and his group think that it was an amazing experience for both individual and as a group. They learned to take responsibility for their projects as well as developed their collaboration skills.

The Year 7 and 8 students were mentored by Year 12 Science students including Sammi Hung (12W) who comments ” I am glad that I was able to lead the STEM-X Club this term – there are many aspiring students who are interested in STEM related subjects. It was fascinating to partake in their insightful discussions and provide guidance. ”

In Maths, there were ‘4×4’ challenges set up for students. Students had to try to make as many numbers as they could between 1 and 100 using only 4 4s. They could use any mathematical operations they liked, but had to use exactly 4 4s and no other numbers. Some (such as 16 = 4+4+4+4) were easier to find, whereas others were much more challenging. Points were awarded for every solution and extra points where no other house found a particular number. The results of the competition for each campus will be announced in the final assemblies.

“There are some fantastic solutions and it is very, very close.”, said Mr Fowler.

And in Drama, students from Years 7-9 have created performances focused on sustainable practices. Year 7 students wrote and devised choral poem performances about the environment, making use of prior learning on Greek chorus techniques. In Year 8, students worked on their storytelling skills to create live performances for young children promoting sustainability. Finally, Year 9 students put into practise their performance skills focusing on mask waste production.

With the help from the ISSU this year, the overall results and the awarding of the Inter-House STEAM Week Cup will be announced before the end of the school year.

“Thank you and congratulations to Prityush Jhaveri (12E) and Eileen Shin 912N) and the rest of the ISSU for creating such a fun and diverse STEAM Week.”, said Mr Hood.

Click here to see photos from the Week.