STEM Year 7-8

Connect   

Use the activities in the Teaching Guide (below) to spark students’ curiosity before their zoo visit. 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 the problem using STEM to solve a conservation challenge around the work of the Gorilla Doctors.

Your zoo visit will include: Introduction (for arrivals between 9:45am – 10:00am), Zoo Teacher workshop (30 minutes), Safari Bus Tour (40 minutes) and keeper talks. Check out your Teaching Guide for other ideas of what to do at the zoo.

Understand  

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

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 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 (VCSSU090)

• Students will explore a real-world example of how the Gorilla Doctors use science to help Gorillas in the wild 

There are differences within and between groups of organisms; classification helps organise this diversity (VCSSU091)

• Students will learn about the adaptations and classification of humans and gorillas

Generate, develop and test design ideas, plans and processes using appropriate technical terms and technologies, including graphical representation techniques (VCDSD050) 

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

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 seek out problems and synthesise their thinking to develop their own creative solutions