Digital Program | STEM for Sustainability
Level up your curriculum by finding solutions to real-world environmental problems at Melbourne Zoo.
Program description
Each program includes a 30-minute online workshop with a Zoo Teacher and a teaching guide filled with activities for your scope and sequence. While not a tour of the zoo, you will have direct access to your own expert Zoo Teacher and unique zoo content.
Melbourne Zoo is continually reducing its impact on the environment. It was the first zoo to become carbon neutral by reducing energy use, changing buildings and investing in forest carbon offset projects. In this program, Year 3-4 students will use their STEM knowledge and skills to help solve a big challenge, "The Sustainability Manager is seeking new and creative ideas for generating electricity at the Zoo".
Your students will conduct research to deepen their understanding. They will work in teams to brainstorm ideas for one animal and choose an idea to prototype and test. This program uses an engineering framework called Design Thinking and you don't need any special materials.
Students will learn:
- Sustainability and electricity at Melbourne Zoo
- How to reduce our environmental impact
- How to use STEM to solve real-world problems
- Creative thinking and problem-solving skills
Want to come face-to-face with our incredible wildlife and extend your students' learning in their environment? Book in an excursion to one of our three amazing zoos.
Program sequence
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.
Program resources
STEM for Sustainability Teaching Guide *coming soon*
Learning outcomes
Victorian Curriculum 3-4
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
Victorian Curriculum 5-6
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
Victorian Curriculum 7-8
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
Victorian Curriculum 9-10
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
Online workshop details
Your Online Workshop will be hosted on Zoom.
All you need is a computer or device with internet access. It’s great if it also has a web cam and mic but that's not necessary.
Students can also communicate with a Zoo Teacher by typing in the Chat box.
We will send out a link to join the program to the teacher that booked.
Join us ten minutes before your start time. Arriving early will enable us to check any tech issues and start your session on time.
Book now
Please call 1300 966 784 to book.