Digital Program | STEM for Sustainability

Connect   

Use the activities in the Teaching Guide (below) to spark students’ curiosity before their online workshop. Read through the Design Brief with students to introduce them to the big challenge.

Connect and Understand 

Students will conduct research and use their scientific observation skills to deepen their understanding of sustainability and electricity at Melbourne Zoo.

Understand  

Use activities in the Teaching Guide to deepen students’ learning. 

Act

Use the Teaching Guide to bring design ideas to life and enable students to master their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts.

Science knowledge helps people understand the effects of their actions (VCSSU056) 

• Students will apply science skills to design environmental solutions 

Forces can be exerted by one object on other through direct contact or from a distance (VCSSU064)

• Students will look at how forces can be applied to moveable objects to generate electricity

Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (VCDSCD029) 

• Students will use Design Thinking to generate, grow and test their ideas and prototypes 

Investigate a range of problem-solving strategies, including brainstorming, identifying, comparing and selecting options, and developing and testing hypotheses (VCCCTM020)

• Students will learn how to use each stage of Design Thinking to develop their own creative solutions

Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to inform personal and community decisions and to solve problems that directly affect people’s lives (VCSSU073) 

• Students will apply science skills to design environmental solutions 

Energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity; electric circuits enable this energy to be transferred to another place and then to be transformed into another form of energy (VCSSU081) 

• Students will discover and utilise different ways to generate electricity 

Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (VCDSCD039) 

• Students will use Design Thinking to generate, grow and test their ideas and prototypes 

Investigate how ideas and problems can be disaggregated into smaller elements or ideas, how criteria can be used to identify gaps in existing knowledge, and assess and test ideas and proposals (VCCCTM031) 

• Students will learn how to use each stage of Design Thinking to develop their own creative solutions

Science and technology contribute to finding solutions to a range of contemporary issues; these solutions may impact on other areas of society and involve ethical considerations (VCSSU089) 

• Students will apply science skills to design environmental solutions 

Energy appears in different forms including movement (kinetic energy), heat, light, chemical energy and potential energy; devices can change one energy from one form to another (VCSSU105)

• Students will explore opportunities where kinetic energy could be captured and transformed into electricity

Generate, develop and test design ideas, plans and processes using appropriate technical terms and technologies including graphical representation techniques (VCDSCD050) 

• Students will use Design Thinking to generate, grow and test their ideas and prototypes 

Consider how problems can be segmented into discrete stages, new knowledge synthesised during problem-solving and criteria used to assess emerging ideas and proposals (VCCCTM042) 

• Students will learn how to use each stage of Design Thinking to develop their own creative solutions

Advances in scientific understanding often rely on developments in technology and technological advances are often linked to scientific discoveries (VCSSU115) 

• Students will use existing science knowledge and understanding to find solutions and create novel inventions that help Melbourne Zoo generate electricity 

The description and explanation of the motion of objects involves the interaction of forces and the exchange of energy can be described and predicted using the laws of physics (VCSSU133)

• Students will identify and use the motion of objects to exchange energy from kinetic to electric

Apply design thinking, creativity, innovation and enterprise skills to develop, modify and communicate design ideas of increasing sophistication (VCDSCD061) 

• Students will use Design Thinking to generate, grow and test their ideas for zero emission electricity generation 

Investigate the kind of criteria that can be used to rationally evaluate the quality of ideas and proposals, including the qualities of viability and workability (VCCCTM053) 

• Students will use a Design Brief and Assessment Criteria to guide their thinking and develop their own creative solutions