This Woolworths Landcare Grant, including a focus on supporting our Native Bees coincided with the arrival of robotics kits from the STEMshare library. So the talented Mrs Mason put her thinking cap on and developed engaging STEM / STEAM learning tasks for all stages, stimulating research and a deep understanding of bees and their behaviour.
Differentiating the learning for each stage resulted in outstanding presentations; students proudly sharing these interactive presentation with other stages. It was unfortunate we couldn't hold an interactive STEM Day with our school community, as these have been a highlight in past years.
The Stage 3 task challenged student to create a 'Lego' bee, then program it to perform the very complex 'Waggle Dance'.
Stage 2 students were challenged to research then life cycle of bees, then create an interactive display, utilising newly aquired programming skills with Makey Makey and Scratch.
Then Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students coded a pathway for the native bees (Ozobots) around our playground. They included a path from the preschool so they could also share this experience with the new Kindergarten students during an orientation visit.
The Native bees are now a permanent part of the school eco-system and will remain so in the future. We remain hopeful to have the incursion with Courtney the Bee Lady in 2022, further developing our understanding of the bees. We are ready for the 'next' step to ensure they remain healthy and continue to support the pollination of our vegetables and fruit in the school garden. Ideally we can assist the wider Chillingham community to also benefit from the wonderful Native Bees.
