The program review tool is designed to help secondary teachers identify areas of improvement in integrated STEM programs as they work towards best practice STEM unit planning and delivery.

This unit provides students with an opportunity to explore the emerging technology of low-cost cube satellites through Arduino (or similar) microcontrollers, sensors, and coding. Students will follow an engineering design process to design, make and evaluate a 1U weather CubeSat for ground testing using industry-inspired processes.

In the Braidwood Boulder (5 hours) Fast and Curious STEM challenge, students examine a fictitious but authentic problem and develop a range of skills and understanding in recording and analysing data to assist in designing an algorithm-based solution.

Note – Fast and Curious is a Technology Mandatory unit of work that develops knowledge, skills and understanding of data, digital systems and IoT (Internet of Things) and uses the Anki Overdrive race cars.

Students examine a real-world scenario and attempt an authentic challenge based on the Fast and Curious Technology Mandatory unit. They develop a range of skills and understanding in recording and analysing both qualitative and quantitative data to assist in designing a race strategy. Students learn to calculate values from scale diagrams and collect physical measurements.

Students design an algorithm addressing several criteria to successfully navigate their programmable car to follow a path to complete objectives using the graphical language introduced and taught in the Fast and Curious unit. Students use a range of thinking skills to plan for and design a bridge which addresses several criteria and solves the scenario-based problem.

The resource packs below provide teachers with a range of curriculum-aligned, mini-STEM challenges that can be delivered in a range of formats. In these activities, students are required to:

• construct the tallest tower possible only using limited resources
• construct the strongest possible bridge only using limited resources
• construct the strongest possible tower only using limited resources
• convert a paper bag into a parachute with the slowest rate of fall using only the specified materials
• construct a gyrocopter with the slowest glide rate using one piece of A4 paper
• construct a box using one piece of A4 paper that holds the most volume
• construct a catapult that can throw a small projectile with precision and accuracy
• construct a wheeled vehicle that uses rubber band energy to propel it forward
• construct a greenhouse that can raise the optimal temperature in a short period of time or that has the most transparent surface area
• make the marble run the slowest through the pinball machine from start to finish
• construct a marble maze which has at least five challenging obstacles and allows players to complete the maze in the fastest time
• construct a functioning artificial hand using the suggested resources.