Curiosity abounds in Stage 1 STEAM lessons Curiosity is the desire to learn or know about anything, and science is systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. As a result of their natural curiosity, all children come into the and fall to the field below. The students wondered if there was a way world as little scientists. Without realising, they are observing, in which they could solve all three problems at once. predicting, testing and drawing conclusions about everything new they come across. To support the boys to solve those problems, explicit teaching was provided on recycling and upcycling of materials, bees and flowers STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) is part and how they are interdependent, and the ways in which we can of our units of inquiry at Lindfield. My role is all about nurturing that help bees. They discovered that bees play an important role in curiosity by teaching a systematic way of learning about the world. the pollination of flowers and that bees need flowers for food, the In many of our STEAM lessons, the students will need to make a creation of their homes and to assist in the raising of baby bees. prediction justified with reasons, test the prediction, and try to explain These lessons led the students to realise a world without bees would the results. The demonstration of real curiosity comes when students negatively impact all living things. try to improve their investigation and come up with ideas on what they would like to investigate and explore further, based on what they The students collected items that were going to be thrown away as found out in the lesson. waste and designed a way to upcycle them into plant pots. They then chose a bee friendly flower they wanted to grow – ensuring there was An example of a topic that highlights how lessons can spark the a variety of flowers and that there would be flowers all year round. students’ curiosity was a Stage 1 inquiry into ‘Who We Are’ exploring the central idea of how our relationships are shaped by our actions. The students were very proud of their plants. They were excited that they had solved the problem of removing rubbish from the school At the commencement of the topic the students used maps to go and ensuring the bees had a variety of food all year round. on a tour of the school. On the map they noted any area of the school where they found a problem. The students then returned to When the boys realised they could use their plant pots to block the the classroom and grouped the problems into ‘environment’, ‘living gaps in the fencing to solve all three problems at one, the jubilation things’ or ‘people’. They then chose one of the problems and had a each student experienced was testament to their creativity and the go at planning and designing a solution. power of STEAM. The three problems the students felt most passionate about solving Mrs Susanne Williams were: rubbish in the school, the lack of diversity of flowers for the STEAM teacher bees in the beehive and the fact that when playing with balls at lunch, the ball would often roll under a small gap under the fence Images clockwise from left: Year 2 boys with their upcycled pots sprouting bee-friendly flowers; Upcycled pots growing bee-friendly flowers on and under a fence. The pots under the fence prevent balls from escaping; Year 1 boys with their upcycled pots sprouting bee-friendly flowers; Michael Kwan and John Shu from Year 2 working on their design; Year 2’s Henry Carroll and Finn Bradshaw with their upcycled pots; Vyas Potukuchi and Max Thompson from Year 2 working on their design.