Technology

St Joseph's owns Hummingbird robotics kits which we use as part of our integrated curriculum.  The junior school has Beebots to help with learning coding.

In 2019 some staff have worked through the PIkau and many have participated in workshops preparing for the implementation of the digital technology strand of the technology curriculum.

By the end of 2019, staff have experimented with computational thinking and we have used Beebots and Makey Makeys.  We have had a designated STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art and maths) room in place in a central area of the school since the start of 2018.  We are continuing to develop this centre as a lead and support to all of our teaching staff and a central point as a Maker Space.  

"Makerspaces are collaborative workshops where young people gain practical hands-on experience with new technologies and innovative processes to design and build projects. They provide a flexible environment where learning is made physical by applying science, technology, math, and creativity to solve problems and build things." (TKI) (for more).

Some of our students are keen coders and have been organising and running their own Code Club.  We hope to expand this in 2020 and develop ways to build this further into meaningful curriculum integration.

Our next step is to integrate technological outcomes into genuine inquiry or project based learning.  We will need to investigate the design process.

By the end of 2020 we hope to have some curriculum guidelines and exemplars for further guiding our teaching and learning in the whole technology curriculum.