Melville Announced as 2019 Governor’s School STEM Award Winner

The prestigious State final STEM award for schools was announced in week 7
… AND THE WINNER IS… Melville!

On Tuesday 26 November, Mr White accompanied by Mrs Sherwood and the 2020 Head Boy and Head Girl attended Government House where Melville Senior High School was announced the winner of the Governor’s School STEM Awards for 2019. Comments at the awards ceremony included “Melville Senior High School has various achievements include engaging industry and the local community to develop innovative programs that increase student achievement in and enthusiasm for STEM”. The school won $2000 and the opportunity for up to 90 students to visit Scitech as winner against other three finalist schools which were Hale School, Cecil Andrews College and Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC).

As the winners of the award, Melville has won $2,000 and an invitation for up to 90 students to spend the day immersing themselves at the home of STEM – Scitech!

In the last Melville Matters there was a summary of the nomination for the Governor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) School of the Year competition. The different activities proved that our school is providing these initiatives for all students in all areas of the school life – not just the top students in Science. The judges witnessed the initiatives in action during their visit to Melville. Here are some of the activities they witnessed in and around the school, courtesy of our dedicated and talented staff and students:

– Drones in action with Aviation Teacher in Charge, Mr Randall Brink and Year 10 Aviation students who are studying for their drone licence.
– HOLA of Science, Mr Kim Rosenthal, taught Aboriginal Science and used the Swivl to video the activity as the students completed an indigenous art painting activity.
– Ms Sara Wood’s students from Year 8 showed their robotics prowess with Creative Kids coding programs.
– Ms Dee Lewis guided the judges through the Resource Centre and the demonstrations of ICT and STEM that occurs in the LRC library space.
– GDM teacher in Charge, Mr Sam Cavallaro and Year 8 GDM specialist students used the 3D printer.
– Judges then saw the editing suite for Film students.
– Mr Dave Anderson introduced the editing suite and the display of laser cut 3D architecture models and electronic light and sound models.
– Music teacher, Mr Lachlin Brooks-Crew showed STEM thinking with music students who used their own devices to record and mix music.
– At the school’s new 300 seat auditorium, Mr Guy Stapleton presented his Hip Hop song about the Periodic table that is on YouTube.
– Maths teacher, Mr Steve Miller, introduced the judges to his Year 8 class to outline the use of class ipads and STEM thinking with digital projectors.
– The winning EV electric car was on show surrounded by the dedicated students who raced the cars. Teachers, Mr Matt Lord and Mr Dion Manby set up a projector showing the EV racing wins over the years.
– At the Aviation Centre, Head Boy Dean Morris gave a demonstration on one of our flight simulators.
– Mr Josh Barker ran a Dewie and YouTube class.
– Ms Kristy Ramage demonstrated a Year 7 microbits activity, where a banana was programmed to play music.
– HASS teacher, Mr Jamie Lockyer was at the big screen with students on their ipads and they built an Eduminecraft world.
– Ms Tini Hassan and Ms Bev Wild showed judges the STEM and design-thinking activities they run across a range of classes in Digital Technology and D&T. Some of these activities are also part of the Melville Makers club.

We look forward to continuing our STEM education focus in 2020.