By Mikayla van Loon
Imagining what the future may look like is exactly what students at Monbulk Primary School have been exploring in their STEM classes.
From drone delivery to solar panels on every rooftop, Grade 5 and 6 students have been designing and building to-scale models of the Main Street’s businesses.
The project, which began last year, has seen groups of students draw on their knowledge of sustainability, technology, engineering, art and design to create structures that are sturdy and each with an element of electricity.
Once complete the model will go on display as part of the Repower Festival heading to Monbulk on 23 March.
Principal Estelle Alder said the real world application of their skills and learnings has been a wonderful way for the students to understand their town.
“This is such a great opportunity for them to apply what they learn in STEM to a real world situation, which is what we want to do, and ties in our schools commitment to sustainability as well,” she said.
“It also helps them understand the community, because they will be designing our towns of the future, and we want them to be able to think sustainably in design.”
Using mostly recycled materials, every aspect of the project was designed to encourage students to think about the environment and the best practices to keep it safe.
For students Mackenzie, Eliza, Myla and Alannah, who chose to recreate Friends on The Hill cafe it was all about sustainability, greenery and colour.
“We thought it would be fun to do it because it’s one of my favourite cafes and we thought it would be nice to add more plants and add a lot of creativity to it and stuff to do with the environment,” Mackenzie said.
“We did a mural on the roof, and added solar panels, lots of plants. And then we’ve added coat hangers, and we’ve done lots of bushes. We’ve added the piano that moves around occasionally, and then the bookshelf, the little library thing.
“We’ve learned to put in these lights, how to work them, the circuits and how to build them.”
Jack and his group decided to design COG Bike Shop and employed the use of the 3D printer to cut out the logo to put atop the shopfront.
It took about two sessions to get it right because of the intricacies of the cog used in the logo.
The group also had to bring in some extra structural supports to ensure the building would remain upright but they were able to overcome each of these hurdles by thinking critically about what would work.
Designing Chemist Warehouse, Angus and his group decided that in the future, the use of drones would be instrumental to getting goods to people.
“Our STEM teacher told us a heap of different things we could do to make it more sustainable, and drones were one of them, for a drone delivery service, so me and my group decided to put that on there,” Angus said.
Working with his group to design the building and electrical circuit, Angus said they also faced some trial and error in the construction.
“I spent two sessions doing a circuit design, and then I noticed it had a fault, so I had to restart a different design,” Angus said.
The students are excited to see the final product on display at Repower Festival in a few weeks time.
