Avila’s STEM-4-ALL program

This year Avila College launched the innovative new program STEM-4-ALL in partnership with four local primary schools; Holy Family, St Christopher’s, Good Shepherd Parish School and St Leonard’s. Designed to improve STEM competencies, consolidate learning through mentoring and enhance metacognitive, thinking and communication skills, the STEM-4-ALL program teamed Year 8 and Grade 4 students together for an inquiry based seven week program. 

Together students developed a focus question and hypothesis, considered how variables could be controlled and changed, discussed the difference between inferences and observationss and formalised the method and data collection. Together with their Year 8 mentors, the primary school students worked in the Avila College science laboratories to conduct their experiments and finalise their findings.

The project culminated in a presentation evening attended by parents and the school community where the groups displayed their investigations on posters and presented their findings to the audience.