What is STEM?

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

What is the STEM vision for Hampton Park Primary School?

Problem solving!! STEM provides students with a complimentary learning space to develop a variety of thinking skills. Through Inquiry based learning tasks, students’ curiosity and ideas are encouraged to be followed as they make their own individual discoveries. STEM knowledge and skills are critical to facing current and future challenges. STEM is seen as vital for all our young people’s futures, regardless of their intended pathway.

What does STEM look like at Hampton Park Primary School?

At Hampton Park Primary School we have identified the importance of STEM to developing capable citizens of tomorrow, this is why all students from Foundation to Grade 6 have a weekly lesson in class and an additional lesson each week with a specialist teacher.

A continuum for STEM has been developed at Hampton Park Primary School to enhance student engagement and learning. Throughout the school STEM is segmented into focus areas, these are;

• Foundation - Grade 2: Students are engaged in STEM challenges deriving from their daily lives and from fictional texts
• Grade 3-4: Students are focussed on tackling challenges the students experience in their daily lives and school-based issues
• Grade 5-6: Students are tasked with looking beyond themselves and connecting their STEM challenges to the broader community

As an extra-curricula opportunities students in Grade 3-5 are encouraged to apply for STEM-Gineers program. This is a small group of students focussed on tackling advanced STEM problems. This has included students building quadcopters to record images of the school and building machines to make filament for our 3D printers.