4 Aug 2023
Inventing for good
Prep School STEM Club students have explored ways to use technology to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
The Prep School STEM Club is a cocurricular activity for students in Years 3 to 6 that provides hands-on, inquiry-based projects that foster boys’ interests and skills across the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
This year, STEM Club students completed an ‘Invent for good’ challenge, where they were tasked with inventing a product to make a difference in someone else’s life.
Year 4 students Jack Lange, Caiden Dastoor and Will Parry worked together to invent a product that uses voice activation to cut fruit for people with disabilities.
Jack said, ‘My favourite part of STEM Club is working together with Caiden and Will to build things with Sphero littleBits.’
Caiden also enjoys working with his friends in STEM Club. ‘I love the challenge,’ he said.
Will said, ‘There are so many fascinating things to discover in STEM Club, and I love making things and figuring out how things work.’
Most STEM Club projects embed the design thinking process, which typically includes empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing stages. They encourage collaboration, critical and creative thinking, and iteration. By tackling real-world problems using a human-centred design approach, students can develop their problem-solving skills, empathy and creativity while creating meaningful solutions. STEM Club, operating out of The Hive, provides opportunities for boys to engage in projects such as:
- physical computing that combines computer programming with electronics to create interactive and tangible systems
- IoT (internet of things) that explores networks of physical devices with embedded sensors, software and connectivity and how they are used to collect and exchange data
- prototyping using The Hive’s makerspace prototyping tools including a laser cutter and a bank of 3D printers
- CAD (computer-aided design) and 3D printing that allow design solutions to extend beyond a low-fidelity prototype towards a more realistic end-user product. STEM Club is led by Churchie’s Design and Digital Technologies Coordinator Jade Frewin.
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