YEARS K–6 IDEAS
ARTICLES
FOR THE CLASSROOM
The Hivve – St Christophers Primary, Holsworthy (continued)
Hivve but in a nearby standard demountable classroom. The
children have learnt about baseline data and standard usage,
concepts important to any scientifically rigorous study. They
have been able to draw data-informed conclusions about the
effectiveness of air flow, insulation and energy generation. The
Hivve has become an effective real life laboratory, assisting
children to learn about investigations in a scientific manner.
and analyse the Hivve as a sustainable resource, and use this
to design their own Hivve using sustainable resources as part
of their assessment for this unit. Mrs Jillian Ripepi, who teaches
Year 5, said, “We looked at properties of materials for suitable
and sustainable structures, and visited the Hivve.” Mr Christopher
Yallouris, who also teaches Year 5, said, “Year 5 used their
knowledge from their Hivve investigations to construct bridges
using their learning about how design impacts the strength and
longevity of a structure. Year 5 planned and built several bridges
to test their ideas, and achieved some impressive results.”
The iPad located within the classroom to monitor air quality and
energy usage in real-time
Tne STEM teacher inside the classroom giving a coding lesson
to the Year 6 students
Some neighbouring schools are also making use of the Hivve
as part of their learning. St Christophers, Holsworthy has begun
a STEM program in 2018 for all students across K-6 which
combines the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics. Students from All Saints College and its
feeder schools, All Saints Catholic Primary and St Christophers
were invited to take part in an enrichment opportunity this year
for STEM. Twenty-five students from Years 5-9 participated in
a thirteen-week program focusing on “Sustainability and its
Benefits to the Environment”. Mrs Renee Makram and Ms Renee
Anderson, both from All Saints Catholic College, Liverpool,
explained, “As a major component of the STEM program students
were required to design, build and test a model of a sustainable
home. In correlation with this, the students accessed the Hivve at
St Christophers, Holsworthy to witness first hand an example of a
sustainable classroom, and to view the technologies which allow
the quantity of energy the building is producing to be monitored
and tracked.”
Overall,