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Illustrations of practice

 

 

Vertical garden design – Year 9

Simmonds Catholic College is a 7-12 systemic boys Catholic school located in Melbourne, Victoria on the Traditional Lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. 

  • School sector: Catholic systemic 
  • School type: Boys 
  • Year range: 7–12 
  • Total enrolments: 484 
  • Location: Metropolitan 

In the STEM Connections project, Simonds Catholic College focused on improvement of the school environment. Students were asked to design and build a vertical garden. The design brief ensured that Science, Technologies and Mathematics were all well-represented in the project.

 

The school chose an interdisciplinary approach but with domain-specific teaching. Careful staff planning led to some adjustment of existing programs to ensure that relevant content was addressed simultaneously across learning areas. Teachers then made connections between learning areas explicit in their classrooms. Relevant activities were embedded throughout the project to develop transfer of knowledge and competencies across domains.

 

The project involved the 25 per cent of Year 9 students who study all STEM disciplines. It ran over 10 weeks (approximately 20 hours). The school worked with 2 industry partners: a horticultural engineer and an environmental scientist.

Focus learning areas/subjects: Technologies, Science and Mathematics

 

Focus general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities: Sustainability

 

Learn more about planning for STEM using the  STEM Connections resource