Digital technologies as a subject

Digital technologies lessons are structured around the design thinking process. Staff ensure that technology is used to support design thinking rather than being the central focus of the lessons. Students use computers, robots, electronics, LEGO® and building materials to engage with a term-long design thinking task incorporating equipment from the stem.T4L learning library to deliver class projects.

3D modelling software is used to fulfil many design objectives, and teachers use 3D printing to rapidly prototype solutions and create tools to incorporate into scientific investigations.

STEM club

In addition to digital technologies, Stage 2 and 3 students are invited to participate in STEM club. STEM club members worked on the department's Game Changer Challenge. Several female student teams participated in the challenge, developing innovative ideas for their submissions. STEM club aims to give students experiences with electronics, engineering, digital art and more involved project-based design thinking in the case of the Game Changer Challenge.

Digital technologies lessons

In digital technologies lessons, they encourage girls to use the design thinking process to address problems. They use the design thinking steps; empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. Students need to empathise and define before they try to jump straight into ideating and prototyping, as they want to make their idea a reality before they identify a need!

This is done in a variety of different contexts. For example, Stage 1 students investigate some of the processes used in agriculture. Students:

• investigate the ways plants are pollinated and crops are reseeded and how farmers use technology to farm, increase crop yield and change the characteristics of vegetables
• use block coding skills to create a 'pollination path' for their Bee-Bots and learn how different paths can lead to enhanced efficiencies.

For Stage 2 they adapted the Technology 4 Learning design thinking portfolio to complete the LEGO^® Spike firefighter robot lesson sequence. This digital technology program was integrated into a joint geography and science project. Students were tasked with designing a fire-safe room using computer-aided design software (CAD) to model and label the classroom.

Stage 3 students investigated the impact of climate change on our world. They:

• investigated the different melting impacts of sea ice compared to land-based ice
• incorporated CAD to create different ice shapes that staff 3D print.

The students' objective was to make two identical ice shapes. A successful design:

• was designed to make a suitable piece of ice
• had a shape that could be easily demoulded
• produced two identical pieces of ice.

Students then designed an experiment to test how much the water level will rise for sea ice compared to land-based ice. Student groups indirectly learn design iteration by exploring the impact of different shapes on their experiments.

Promoting STEM professions

Many female students expressed their wish to be STEM professionals and enjoyed sharing their knowledge with staff. The school held a dress-up day with the theme 'What I want to be when I grow up,' and many female students dressed up as scientists.

The school:

• works to excite female students about STEM careers and inform them about the wide range of STEM opportunities available, such as learning that 3D printing is used in many industries
• builds positive STEM attitudes in female students
• believes it is important to show young students the diverse opportunities available to them in the future.