Teaching Coordinator Adriaan Louw

　　It’s that time of year again where everyone gets a chance to share what students have been up to during the course of the semester. Students have learned a lot and grown significantly during this semester, and have risen to the challenge of placed upon them. Things are no different in KCFS, and we would like to highlight the year and the projects the students tackled.

　　While each project in the KCFS classroom touches on all the major themes of STEM, for the grade 5 students it is weighted towards the engineering aspect. Their projects are practically oriented, but designed in a way to help them understand the fundamentals of science and engineering.

　　First up was boats, with the goal of helping students understand the interaction of forces around them. Coming to terms with how gravity affects objects, and how buoyancy counteracts it, helped students understand the basics of force counter force in an observable manner. Adding to the fun of getting a chance of designing and building a boat, are the infamous bobby bears, plastic toy bears that come in various weights. The bears used to test the weight capacity of student models by intentionally overloading and sinking them, often to the sound of loud cheering as various teams compete to have the most buoyant model boat.

　　The second project grade 5s tackle in the fall is just about to be wrapped up. Paper is an incredibly versatile and very widely used product, from printing to cardboard, it is used in countless ways in day to day life. Students learn about the environmental impact of paper production, about the process for recycling paper, and ways in which it can be improved or adjusted to be more environmentally friendly.

　　Armed with this, they then make their own version of recycled paper. It is a wet, messy, and sometimes tedious business, but is always well received, especially by students who enjoy the practical aspects of the class.

　　In the coming semester, students will be challenged to come up with a practical bird feeder aimed at attracting specific endemic species of bird to the school, and also to figure out just how much oxygen they’d need for a two day trip to space using a self-made spirometer. Watch this space for more information!