Welcome back to DTE and STEM for 2024. We have many activities planned and some fabulous STEM Leaders to help us! So, watch this space to see how you can get involved this year.

Year 7

Our Year 7 students have, by now, received their new laptops and participated in several boot camp sessions to learn tips and tricks for using and caring for their devices. Students are now learning about animation and creating all kinds of interesting GIFS using motion tweens, shape tweens and frame-by-frame animation. We look forward to seeing some of these creations in the next newsletter!

Year 8

Year 8 students have been refreshing their programming skills. They have been working through various Hour of Code activities to revise the basics (such as commands, events, IF statements, loops and functions) using both block and Python languages.

Throughout the semester, classes will take it in turns to work in the STEM Room to build and code their Virtual Pets.  

VCE Applied Computing

Term 1 is all about data analytics in both Unit 1, Applied Computing and Unit 3, Data Analytics. Firstly, we brushed up on our Microsoft Excel skills (and learnt new and exciting functions such as =countif and Pivot tables)! Next, we worked on building a database with Microsoft Access and used several database functions such as forms, macros, queries and reports. The final stage was to incorporate the interesting findings in a succinct and eye-catching infographic. So far, we have studied Titanic and Spotify data in Unit 1 and ARIA charts and traffic incidents data in Unit 3.

Attached are some of the best infographics on these topics. More to come next time!

STEM Leaders 2024

At the end of 2023, Ms Chuck, Dr McMullen and I, conducted a series of interviews with an incredible range of STEM Leader applicants. We were very impressed with both the number and quality of the candidates, all of whom interviewed very well. It was so lovely to have conversations about STEM with these passionate candidates.

Congratulations to Kiara Reddy and Helena Parker who are our two head STEM Leaders and to Mali Sullivan, Renae Alesci and Emily Smith who are our deputy STEM Leaders. We can’t wait to see all the fun STEM activities they’ll help facilitate throughout the year.

Adrienne Donaghue
Learning Leader: Digital Technologies

STEM Leader: Kiara Reddy

Hey! I’m Kiara Reddy and I am super stoked to be one of your STEM Leaders for 2024! The STEM subjects I am studying this year include: Data Analytics, Physics and Mathematical Methods.

A great memory of mine that comes to mind is the awesome pracs we do in Physics, such as working out the length of how far out a cup needs to be placed for a marble to land in it from an inclined plane. We did this activity in groups and everyone in our class was certainly super enthusiastic and competitive to get the position of the cup correct.

We worked on equations and my teammates and I had our rulers, calculators and pencils in hand ready to win the challenge. It was a great opportunity to test in a real-life scenario the content we had learnt and honestly it will always be a core memory of mine.

Learning about ‘Innovative Solutions’ in Applied Computing will always be a great memory for me. This whole area of study was so much fun as we had alot of creative freedom in designing a solution to an issue while utilising technology to assist us. We used a drone, created an advertisement, made games and my favourite, we created a 3D fidget toy for our website! My job was designing a fidget toy which could help relieve stress. I designed none other than a fidget spinner.

The best moments in Mathematical Methods for me has always been learning new ways to use our Casio calculators to help us answer questions. It is so cool to enter equations into our calculators and see them as graphs, whether it was looking at parabolas, hyperbolas or square roots graphs. We have great fun using our calculators to find out what these equations look like.

I believe STEM is such an important area of study especially for younger people as it opens many doors for many careers and passions in the future. Advocating STEM, especially for women, also assists in removing the stigma that these types of subjects which relate to Science, Maths and Technology are only good when men do them. Having experience and a love for STEM allows all young people, especially women, to know that they can accomplish anything they put their mind to and provides opportunities in the future. Introducing STEM at an early age also helps to show students that all these subjects are not as hard as everyone thinks.

My goal as a STEM Leader in 2024 is to introduce more students in our community to the amazing opportunities STEM subjects offer. I also want to prove that these subjects are not hard and are something that anyone can succeed in, if they have the love, passion and drive. I am advocating for all Kilbreda students to give any STEM activities a go as they can be super fun! As someone undertaking Maths Methods, I feel particularly passionate about activities that can show students how fun Maths can be! An example is ‘Pi Day’. Pi is an irrational number that assists students in calculating the circumference and area of a circle. Recalling the numbers of Pi can be very tricky so its super awesome when students are able to remember some of the digits. ‘Pi Day’ allows students to show off their recall skills and is a fun activity which all students should consider.

Kiara Reddy
STEM Leader