This year, Mr Raschella’s Science class are participating in the University of South Australia’s STEM Innovation Experience (STEMie). The experience is designed to increase Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics engagement in school and boost awareness of STEM in the wider community through STEM based tasks linked to curriculum and being student learning being highlighted.

The focus for the 2021 STEMie is 'Flood! Fire! Famine!', which will encourage students to explore the links between bushfire and the Australian climate conditions, flood mitigation and automated water level alert devices, industrial egg collection methods including welfare improvements, and agricultural afflictions that model livestock and crop yields.

We have begun the initial research to understand the links between these topics, leading students to design and construct prototypes or solutions. Representatives from the class will then present their learning at a regional showcase later in the year, where they are judged with other schools from the region. The winning school from each regional showcase will then progress to the STEMie state final to complete unseen challenges.

The science group exploring how heat is radiantly transferred through various house materials as a bushfire simulation.

The technology group are working on a flood mitigation prototype to alert civilians to an impending flood disaster event. Early designs have included using a buzzer along with LEDs to alert people to the rising water levels. This is all coded using Arduino and its components.

The engineering group are busy working on producing a Lego robot that can move a 3D printed chicken without its head falling off and collect an egg from the chicken’s nest.

The math group are creating a dynamic spreadsheet which can be used to model agricultural afflictions and demonstrate how, if a disease swarmed through a piggery farm, what impact it would have on the healthy population of pigs versus infected pigs.

Michael Raschella

STEM teacher