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Children enter the early years of schooling, (years p-3), with a tendency to question everything around them. Our science program builds upon those interests and addresses topics growing out of the personal experience of the learners.
Through the middle phase(years 4-7), science education continues to foster students’ curiosity, imagination and wonder while increasingly focussing the curriculum on those categories of questions that are acknowledged as ‘scientific’ and introducing learners to the currently acknowledged answers (at a suitable level of sophistications).
At Coolum State School the children are engaging in ideas about life and living, earth and beyond, natural and processed materials and energy and change. Students are working scientifically to develop an understanding of evidence and the nature and practice of science.
Primary Connections is a Scientific Literacy program that is taught throughout the school. This program is an inquiry based approach that promotes the development of scientifically literate individuals. If affords learners the opportunity to observe, to question, to wonder, to investigate and to explain their surroundings.
Science, Engineering and Technology Expo
Sixteen Year Five students participated in the Sunshine Coast Science, Engineering and Technology Expo.
The expo gave students interested in these fields the opportunity to engage in the latest laboratory practices and stimulate their interest in possible career paths. Practical sessions were run by CSIRO’s “Lab on Legs” facilitators and allowed students to work in the University’of the Sunshine Coast’s laboratories.
Year Seven Students investigating energy in food.
Students working in teams used the scientific method to conduct experiments to investigate, measure and compare the energy in certain foods. Through these hands on experiences, the students understood the value of a balanced diet and were able to question their future food choices. This investigation then allowed the children to use the data that they collected to work mathematically. Students built their mathematical understanding by interacting with the world around them through these real life learning experiences.
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