On 27 and 28 September, Years K-6 students used Design Thinking to develop solutions to problems associated with population increase, urbanisation and the environment. They worked in teams to develop their ideas and collaboratively built a sustainable future city. Each grade was offered a provocation to respond to which connected to an area they had investigated in 2018. Year 1 students reflected on their experience highlighting the learning dispositions such as imagination and their enjoyment of learning new skills and content.

Kindergarten students learnt about how the environment needs protecting and how conservation areas and marine parks protect animals and plants. The students built the conservation area and marine park after experimenting with a variety on materials. They focused on the dispositions “play to learn” and “collaborate”.

Year 1 students also learnt about how the environment needs protecting and how plants and animals may become extinct. The students thought about the creatures that could live in the conservation area and marine park and those that might live in the city. Some students imagined new creatures that might exist in the future. They focused on the dispositions “look closely” and “imagine and wonder”.

Year 2 students had been learning about sound and had created musical instruments. After learning about how a MakeyMakey works, students imagined what devices might be able to make sound in the future. Some students created interactive underwater scenes and explored the conductivity of materials. They focused on the dispositions “play to learn”, “collaborate” and “communicate”.

Earlier in 2018, Year 3 students had been investigating how they could make a garden in our school thrive. Students learnt that as the population continues to rise, farmers will have the challenge of producing more food with the same amount of land. Students learnt about urban farming and aquaponics and needed to develop a solution to produce the most amount of food possible to support the people living in our future city. Some students developed underwater seaweed gardens, vertical greenhouses, rooftop farms and planter boxes on the buildings that Year 4 had created.

Year 4 expertly designed the plans and vision for the city earlier in the Term using urban design principles. Students had been learning about sustainable design and architecture and collaboratively designed and created a sustainable building to improve the lives of the people who live in our future city. Some students designed cultural centres, spaces for innovation and research, high density and medium density housing and education facilities.

Year 5 had been learning about the way natural disasters and extreme weather affect people and communities, and thinking about how we plan for the future. Students developed a product or service that will help people prepare for, survive or recover from a natural disaster or extreme weather event. During their -athon time, students were able to prototype their designs and think about how they might be used in our city.

Year 6 students learnt about the future of medicine and healthcare, systems thinking and sustainability from sessions with our CSIRO mentors Elizabeth Hannah (MSD), Oliver Gordon (UNSW) and Dr Ned Western (UNSW). Students selected an area of interest and developed a healthcare, transport or energy solution for our future city.

Even the teachers were inspired to imagine and create.

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The Innovation-a-thon involved K-6 students developing solutions to challenges associated with population increase, urbanisation and the environment. Each grade was offered a provocation to respond to which connected to a concept they had investigated in 2018. Students worked in teams to develop their ideas and collaboratively built a sustainable future city that was showcased at the Innovation Festival.

Year 2 students reflected on their experiences creating the future of sound stating, collaboration as a key to their success and realising that “things don’t always go as you want them”. They also reflected on the key dispositions they demonstrated during the a-thon and ones they would like to develop further.

I enjoyed bringing out my creativity – G

I enjoyed that we got to create imaginary animals. I learned you don’t have to always use glue or sticky tape to connect things – T

I enjoyed making my creature because the materials gave me ideas of other things I could do – L

Animals are in trouble and we need to save them by making more parks to save them, put them in the right habitats and not taking their homes. I enjoyed the Innovation-a-thon because it didn’t have to be real – N