Over the last week of Term 2 we hosted our first groups of students from partner schools. Students from Ashwood School, Glenallen and Monash Special Development School participated in the MTS Designing Superhumans pilot.
Jumping off the bus students were welcomed to Monash Tech School by the Director passing under the 3D projected MTS block image and into the learning spaces. From here they were introduced to the MTS team and provided with an outline of the program and the activities they would undertake.
Working in small groups students used workbooks to undertake a variety of activities requiring them to think about different materials and their appropriateness to solve problems that the MTS family was experiencing on their holiday through Victoria.
For instance Yellow was planning on visiting the Victorian High Country with students required to test the insulation properties of different types of materials to find the best one to keep Yellow warm. Students utilised potatoes as proxies for Yellow predicting which materials may provide the best insulation and why. They then proceeded to measure the temperature of potatoes using FLIR infrared cameras before wrapping their potato in their chosen material and placing them into a fridge (simulating the temperature in Victoria’s High Country). After a brief discussion where students discussed their expectations they again used the thermal cameras to measure their potatoes temperature.
Another activity had students helping Pink to find a material which would hide them from mosquitos. Through discussion and guidance by staff students learnt that mosquitos hunt prey using chemical, visual and heat sensors. Students then assessed various materials comparing how well each hid the other from human vision and then using a thermal camera from mosquito vision. The results were very interesting in respect of the materials which would hide pink from mosquitos vision and heat sensors. Hiding from the chemical sensors is a project for another day!
Students rated the sessions very highly learning about materials and how they can be used to achieve different results, sometimes individually and sometimes with one another.
Beginning in Week 4 of Term 3 students from our other partner schools will begin their Superhumans experience. We are excited to see what findings and conclusions they come up with over their three days at Monash Tech School.
written by Ashley Van Kireken
