News
This year in the Junior School, a new Science and Technology curriculum has been developed with new outcomes from the Australian Curriculum. Science and Technology has been busy for Year 2 as they explored the unit, Energy and Sound.
Students designed an instrument that was able to use energy to produce sound. This was an exciting prospect as the students were eager to plan and create. Using the design process, students developed a plan to construct their instrument and decided which materials they required. This plan included a detailed picture with labelled diagrams. The design process gave the students a framework to develop their ideas and involved the following steps:
- Define the problem
- Collect information
- Brainstorm ideas
- Develop solutions or build a model
- Test the effectiveness of the model
- Evaluate and improve the design
Variations on guitars, drums and maracas were built and tested using a sound meter. The sound meter measured in decibels howloud their instruments were. Once they recorded the decibels, the students were then presented with a challenge – Are you able to modify your design to make your instrument louder and softer?
Students went back to the design process to redesign, build, test and evaluate. Students collaborated with help from each other to find solutions to the challenge of successfully modifying their instruments. Students tested different materials, they suggested different materials to each other and shared their resources.
‘One of the highlights of the unit was the introduction of the design process and how well the Year 2 students understood how to use the process to solve a problem,’ said Year 2 Teacher, Lara Dresser.
