STEM Week

STEM Week is one of the big events at school that allows the students to present their creative ideas related to the theme of the year. This year's STEM Week's theme is Sustainable City of the Future. When we had the unit on relationships of living things, we explored the different ecosystems. As we get to know marine ecosystem, the Grade 1s were surprised to find out that only 3% of the water in the world is fresh water. Out of that, 2.5% of the world's water is ice (glaciers, etc.) and only 0.5 % is accessible. This fact opened their interest on problems of water. Thus, we decided to take on water consumption as Grade 1's topic for the STEM Week. At the beginning, we explored water problems that the world is experiencing. These problems include: - water shortage - limited access to fresh water - water pollution .It was very timely, when the school invited the Sailing Rewild team - Stevens Family. The Stevens are sailing around the world and has been on sea for two years. They opened up idea of sustainability because when they are on water, they have limited access to a lot of resources, including fresh water. In their talk about their travel experiences, they mentioned how they keep a steady supply of potable water while at the sea. We took this chance to take advance steps on our STEM Week topic (area). We invited them to our classroom to talk about the process of turning salt water to fresh water. Their explanation was a big help. They explained the series of filtration that the water has to undergo before it turns into potable water, as well as the strict rules they have to implement to ensure wise water consumption.

Aside from looking at filtration and desalination processes, we also conducted simple experiments to see how these concepts work.

The Grade 1s worked in groups and came up with plans and models that will help them in their presentation. STEM Week presentation Day came. Our Grade 1s, despite being shy, showcased their work and shared tehir creative ideas. Good job, Grade 1s!