Year 5 Learning Collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the International Grammar School (IGS)

The boys in Year 5 have been participating in a collaboration with the International Grammar School on an authentic and rich design thinking task. This task has seen our boys continue to focus on the concept of respectful relationships and will culminate in the creation of a short film later this term to promote the White Ribbon movement. For this task, the groups will need to reflect on what is needed for respectful relationships and how these components could be taught to robots, through the use of film.

The boys have been assigned groups (across both schools) and have met their group members through a whole group video conference and then individual group meetings online via Google Docs. The boys found this experience very rewarding and somewhat challenging as they could not communicate face to face but the groundwork has now been laid for a face to face online collaboration next week with the final session being an in person session at IGS.

In addition to this, the groups will visit the University of Technology, Sydney to participate in robotics activities and continue to build the respectful relationships focus as they learn about and explore the technology at UTS in their groups.

Additionally, both of these visits will also allow our boys the opportunity to consider the design of buildings at UTS and IGS (which is a high-rise K-12 school) which is a part of our current unit of inquiry looking into how we express ourselves and how an understanding of design principles creates opportunities for individual and cultural expression.

This unit of inquiry has also seen our boys explore the Cromehurst Public School (as a part of our Service Learning Program) and consider how this facility has been designed to best meet the needs of the special needs students who are at the school and provide them with opportunities to express themselves.

Pascal Czerwenka and Sam Watson – Year 5 Class Teachers