Year 8 STEM
In Year 8, all of our students attend one lesson per week of STEM where they work on two major projects throughout the year.
In Semester One students have the choice to complete either an Engineering project where they need to design and build their own solution to an existing problem, or an Investigation where they design and complete an experiment to answer a scientific question. By completing these project students further develop their science enquiry or engineering skills in a context that is of interest to them. All projects are judged and the top projects are entered into the state STAWA Science Talent Search competition. St Luke's College has had multiple successful projects, including two of our students who designed a regenerative electric fishing reel winning the state competition and were amongst the top projects in the national ASTA i3 competition.
In Semester Two students are tasked with designing and building a bridge with a limited amount of popsicle sticks, string and glue. Their bridges must adhere to a list of strict specifications in relation to their dimensions and functionality. At the end of this project, students have the opportunity to compete against each other to see which bridge can hold the most weight before breaking. From this task students gain a better understanding of the importance of a clear design, careful consideration of given requirements and are given an opportunity to showcase their hands-on ability during construction.
