Heatley's STEM Club started in 2018 with a small group of students who created projects for entry into the Premier's Coding Challenge and the Young ICT Explorers competition.
Due to student and staff knowledge and available resources, students have created projects using Scratch - a visual programming language. The school is building their STEM resources and are introducing students to resources such as Makey-Makeys and Micro:bits in order to extend their STEM knowledge and thinking.
Students are introduced to Scratch in year 3 during their Digital Technologies subject and our STEM Club aims to build on this knowledge and student interests.
In 2022 for the first time, our students used Minecraft: Education Edition as it is available through the Department of Education's Microsoft suite of products. Two teams of students participated in the inaugural Townsville E-sports Challenge, hosted by North Shore State School.
In 2023 we will be focussing on a different activity each term:
Term 1 - Minecraft: Education Edition
Term 2 - Lego BricQ STEM kits
Term 3 - Micro:bits
Term 4 - Spheros