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STEM News
Term 1 Overview
Students have returned to the FPS STEM program with great enthusiasm. Early lessons have focused on how our school values apply in the STEM room, particularly using equipment safely, working respectfully, and supporting one another.
During Term 1, students will revise keyboard skills to support their use of digital technology throughout the year. They will then begin exploring forms of energy, including sound, heat, and light, as part of the Physical Sciences curriculum.
STEM Team
Congratulations to Millie Lubbe, our 2026 STEM Captain. Millie has already planned and led the first Friday STEM Club, which was well attended and supported by student volunteers.
STEM Club
STEM Club runs on Friday lunchtimes, and all year levels are welcome. Students will take part in hands on challenges designed around their interests and the STEM curriculum. Students should listen for Millie’s lunchtime announcement on Fridays and are encouraged to come along and join in.
Classroom Curriculum
Foundation students will attend STEM in Semester 2.
Year 1/2
Students will explore how we use our senses to understand sound. They will create objects that produce sound and investigate vibrations and waves to show how sound is made and travels.
Year 3/4
Students will explore heat as a form of energy, learning how heat is transferred and how we describe and measure ideas such as hot and cold.
Year 5/6
Students will investigate light using lenses, prisms, and mirrors. They will explore reflection, refraction, and absorption, as well as how transparent, translucent, and opaque materials affect light.
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Curriculum Essential Understandings Term 1
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STEM Foundation
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STEM Year 1/2
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N/A
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Physical Science - Sound
- Recognises that senses are used to learn about the world around us.
- Explores different ways to produce sound using familiar objects and actions.
- Investigates how sound energy makes things vibrate
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STEM Year 3/4
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STEM Year 5/6
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physical Science - Sound
- Describes how heat can be generated, for example, through friction or by burning.
- Explores how heat can be transferred from one object to another through conduction.
- Recognises that we can feel heat and measure its effects using a thermometer.
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Physical Science - Light
- Classifies materials as transparent, opaque or translucent based on the extent to which light passes through them or is absorbed.
- Explores the use of mirrors to demonstrate the reflection of light.
- Recognises the refraction of light at the surfaces of different transparent materials, for example, when light travels from air to water or air to glass.
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