Some of our Year 5 and 6 learners have been going STEM MAD during Term 3!
STEM MAD is an initiative for learners in Catholic schools that is designed to acknowledge and promote STEM learning experiences which address and pose solutions to real-life problems. Our learners have been working collaboratively in teams to brainstorm a problem in the environment and were invited to attempt to design a product, service or innovation to Make A Difference (MAD!) in our world!
Ailani, Summer and Yohanna have collaborated to design a project that forecasts what the world would look like in the year 2040, in order to raise awareness on the issue of climate change. They have offered some helpful suggestions for some small changes that can make a big difference in our world such as more sustainable transport and the use of renewable energy in order to “shrink your carbon profile”.
Ninad and Barghav have worked on innovating a tool to support farmers in growing their crops. They said that the problem they have identified was “the efficiency and effectiveness of watering crops. It needs to be solved as farmers need easier ways to water crops, as it takes forever to water crops in huge areas.” Ninad and Barghav are still finalising the fine details of their product that they have named ‘The Sprinkler Drone’. We can only imagine how helpful this innovation could be for more effective growth of crops!
Some other fantastic ideas being developed by our learners involve water filtration innovations and rubbish catchments to reduce the amount of litter entering our waterways and damaging the natural habitats of many living things.
These learners should all be very proud of themselves for striving to collaborate and create some valuable solutions to some very real problems in our environment. Go team!