kew high school stem centre · kew high school was established in 1963 as one of 30 high schools...

STEMCENTREPROSPECTUS

Kew High School

ContentsOverviewSTEM PedagogyDesignThe STEM AdvantageConnection with other schools

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“An estimated 75% of the fastest growing occupations require STEM skills and knowledge.”

2 Kew High School STEM Centre Prospectus

Kew High School was established in 1963 as one of 30 high schools built during the 60s and 70s to accommodate Victoria’s massive, post-war population growth.

Overview - STEM at Kew High School

Students apply STEM subjects in contexts that make connections between school, community, work and the global enterprise. This enables the development of STEM literacy and with it the ability to compete in the new economy.

Kew High School runs annual STEM events and delivers a range of extra-curricular opportunities to students at all year levels.

An estimated 75% of the fastest growing occupations require STEM skills and knowledge.

The construction of a new STEM Centre will support Kew High School in providing a high quality education for its students and facilitate greater connections to local primary schools and rural or regional schools across Victoria.

The school has a long tradition of reflecting changes in Australian society and has always adapted and responded to the needs of its community. Curriculum innovation and new ideas about the purpose of schooling are frequently discussed and embraced.

Kew High School prides itself on providing high quality learning experiences to assist all students in achieving their full potential.

Through STEM education Kew High School aims to link the four cohesive disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by implementing a common pedagogical approach, which promotes twenty-first century skills.

STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons.

“Curriculum innovation and new ideas about the purpose of schooling are frequently discussed and embraced.”

Kew High School, 1969

3Kew High School STEM Centre Prospectus

Kew High School’s STEM Pedagogy

Science and Maths Learning Areas implement inquiry based learning and recognise the value of students understanding concepts in addition to gaining the essential knowledge of each discipline. An interdisciplinary approach to STEM education ensures that the individual strengths of each discipline are prized and supported by common practices.

Students in Year 7 create and evaluate water filtration systems and mousetrap race cars. They perform analysis on data sets they collect and critically analyse various viewpoints, with respect to the data collected. At later years, students deploy and test rockets, create model houses and consider logistic optimisation.

In 2017, Kew High School created a position for a Student Leader of STEM and opened a STEM creation space, known as the STEM Cell. These initiatives have helped to promote many of the great STEM teaching and learning experiences already in place and have helped to inform the vision for STEM at Kew High School for the years to come.

Kew High School has high rates of participation in VCE Science and Maths classes and enrolments at the junior years are growing year on year, with nine forms starting Year 7 in 2017 and 2018, up from six forms in 2011.

Kew High School runs annual STEM events and

delivers a range of extra-curricular opportunities. Students participate in Tournament of the Minds, a Cross-Tasman design challenge, Australian Maths and Algorithmic Thinking Competitions, Programming Club, Flight Club, Women in STEM Day and a Digital Technologies Expo. The School has ties with local universities and their academics support the development of our students and staff.

The Student Leaders for STEM and the Environment collaborate through a project, known as the Apocalypse Prevention Society, which implements small, achievable tasks to reduce the School’s impact on the Environment.

Kew High School has developed its Context as an extension of the Victorian Department of Education’s Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO). STEM features a component of developing excellence in teaching and learning.

Year 12 Subjects Demand 2018Science

Chemistry 56

Physics 34

Biology 56

Psychology 38

Maths

Mathematical Methods 92

Further Mathematics 129

Specialist Mathematics 38


This proposal would see two dated, portable classrooms replaced with a modern and agile building, supporting the continued delivery of high quality education.

STEM is an evolving concept and, as such, Kew High School wants to build an agile space that meets our needs today and into the future. The current Science portables are sub-optimal in terms of space, configurability and safety.

Design


Architectural Designs: Taylor Oppenheim

With the school grounds constrained between two major roads, opportunities to build substantial new buildings are limited without reclaiming existing floor space. This proposal would see two dated portable classrooms replaced with a modern and agile building, supporting the continued delivery of high quality education.

Students and teachers at Kew High School value relationships and our experience is that these relationships are best fostered in classes where students feel safe and engaged. Implementing agile spaces that can be configured into small classrooms and individual labs will help to ensure that these relationships continue to flourish.

Increased enrolments have placed pressure on the school’s ability to schedule all science classes in suitable laboratory spaces. This means that lesson sequences are often scheduled on room availability, rather than student learning needs. Increasing the existing two labs to four will improve our ability to deliver a curriculum that best responds to how our students learn.

SafetyThe majority of Kew High School’s classes occur in a common building and students intuitively move through a central corridor and stairway. The stairs are often crowded and students can feel unsafe. Increased enrolments further crowd corridors as students access their lockers between classes and during recess and lunch.

The Science portables have restricted lab bench space and students are regularly working in close proximity to other groups and classroom furniture. Gas taps are located close to windows and blinds. The space within portable labs means that students and teachers are restricted in movement throughout the room and that there are limited opportunities to rearrange the classroom orientation.

The proposed centre would have four substantial lab spaces incorporating the many safety features Kew High School would like to make available in all learning spaces.


The STEM Advantage

A STEM education is based around finding solutions to real-world problems and emphasises project-based learning. This requires the students to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to apply knowledge learned in other curriculum areas to real-world problems.

Students also learn how to plan projects and work in a team in addition to developing initiative and problem-solving skills.

There are many advantages for students provided with a STEM education. These include exposing the students to challenges which may spark a passion for a career in STEM and providing an opportunity for students to follow their own interests, thereby increasing their motivation to excel at school.

We want to stimulate students’ interest in careers in STEM because many new jobs for students will be in STEM related fields. STEM encapsulates engineering, maths, technology,

pharmacy, energy systems, programming and software development to name a few. These fields are both stimulating and often financially rewarding.

Many students will be interested in these fields but will be unaware of the rich diversity of STEM related fields. A STEM education seeks to expose students to the many possible careers in STEM and enables them to develop an interest in this area of work.

Enabling students to work on areas that excite and challenge them at school helps to develop a creative mind and makes the school experience more stimulating. In doing so it will also help to encourage girls to pursue STEM-related fields as they will be able to choose projects they find rewarding.

Our world is rapidly changing and with it the world of work. As some jobs are disappearing and others are being created it is necessary to educate our children to be ready for this new future. We need to equip them with the broad skills and capabilities that make them adaptable and able to engage in different fields with confidence. This is one of the aims of a STEM education.


An integral part of STEM education at Kew High School will be the connections we make with other schools; aimed at inspiring curiosity and creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and collaborative skills to maximise student and teacher participation and learning.

Connection with other schools


STEM programs at Kew High School are stimulating and encourage more female students to participate further in physics, IT and specialist maths subjects.

Using modern collaboration technology, our students and teachers will connect with other students and teachers in classrooms around Victoria. They will draw on a suite of virtual learning tools to learn cooperatively in a stimulating, enjoyable and interactive environment.

Similarly, this connectedness will provide teachers with opportunities to enhance their own learning through trialling new practices.

Kew High School’s STEM curriculum harnesses the natural inquisitiveness of students to explore the breadth of knowledge available to them via access to a vast array of cultural, scientific and literary content. These teaching and learning outcomes will be highly relevant to life in a digitally-enhanced world.

STEM programs at Kew High School are stimulating and encourage our female students to participate further in physics, IT and specialist maths subjects. In this way, STEM creates a pathway for all students to pursue innovative and rewarding twenty first century careers.

Our expanded digital technology capability will also enable STEM education to be broadened further by interacting with leaders in academia, business, government and the community, many of whom are successful women, who can provide real-life lessons to all our students as they consider their own further studies and career paths.

Importantly, these interactive lessons will be documented and reviewed so that the knowledge and insights gained can be shared with all our teachers and with other Victorian schools.


Kew High School

1393 Burke RdKew East Victoria 3102Australia

(03) 9859 8652

kew.vic.edu.au

kew high school stem centre · kew high school was established in 1963 as one of 30 high schools...

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