Another college year is upon us and I couldn’t quite decide what to blog about because so much has happened over the summer break.
However, I have made my mind up to direct your attention to the first college week of 2017. In particular, the first boot camp project which students undertook.
The purpose of boot camp projects was to allow a smooth transition into the new stage areas. Allowing the Year 9 students to ‘gel’ with the Year 10’s. Moreover, it was presented as an opportunity for teachers to begin to develop relationships with the students. Assessments were made after the first week based on work ethic, communication and work quality.
The first boot camp project was developed by Cameron and followed on from the Stage 2 ‘Garden Project’. With all of the work which the Year 3 and 4 students did in term 4 to redevelop some of the land by the old swimming pool there was a suggestion of CCSC producing their own supply of fresh eggs for the cafe to use. This provided the stimulus for Cameron to combine this with Stage 5.
The project was titled ‘Poultry Palace’. The final episode focused on designing a suitable chicken coop with the aim that the one deemed most suitable by the judging panel would be built.
The project incorporated a variety of skills and methods which the students had to engage with, beginning with research focusing on the need for chickens at CCSC and breeds of chickens based on the environment and laying ability. They moved from applying their understanding of this towards learning the sketchup app to design the coop which involved mathematical aspects of area, measurement and design. They had the opportunity to create a 3D scale model of their design before moving on to defining materials and costings. The final aspect of this project was to create a presentation of their project.
There were some good designs and thoroughly researched work which demonstrated critical thinking and application of some challenging skills.
I have put the ‘Poultry Palace’ Stage 5 project up for contention for ‘Project of the Term’ and it will feature in our project room.
Keep a lookout for the opportunity to cast your vote to make one group of our Stage 5 students the cluckiest of clucky students.
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