Text and photos by:
Paul Austin of "The Guinea Pigs"
Hi I’m Paul and I have been in STEM club since it started in term 3 of 2017. I was asked to join because I am one of Luka’s friends. I am 12 years old and I really like STEM because of the cool things we learn and make. In this session we were all doing separate activities which we had chosen from a website called DIY.org. On this website there are heaps of different skills to choose from such as, woodworks, animation and many others.
I chose to do book binding. For this skill I started to make a book out of a recycled Dilmah tea box.
For this I made a cover out of the tea package making sure it was measured properly, I then cut out pieces of paper for the pages. After I had cut enough, I put them in two clamps and put a layer of glue onto the bit that would be the spine.
This is all I got up to for this week but I will finish it off next week.
Luka was studying physics and for that he was making a Rube Goldberg machine, this is a set of chain reactions which all happen one after another usually started by a ball. He was building this in the workshop.
He managed to make one panel which was looking pretty cool!
For Otto’s project he was making a prototype of a dog house for his dog Laika, from the category woodworks. He made this out of cardboard and gaffa tape. This included lots of measuring and ruling to get the perfect size!
Next week he will make the real thing out of wood.
Ritesh decided that he was interested in making a model boat. After lots of different ideas he decided to laser cut different layers that slowly get bigger and bigger forming the main hull of the boat.
He was making this out of cardboard but the finished product will be in wood.
Viraaj thought it would be fun to make a marshmallow air gun.
This is a type of gun you blow into and it shoots out a marshmallow which you had placed inside. He made this crazy contraption out of bits of plastic pipe. He then spray painted it with a mix of green and blue.
Viraaj was the only one to finish this week!
Over all, I think that this session was jam packed full of fun and creative things happening. I really enjoy STEM club and I’m sure everyone else does as well. STEM is a really cool and great way to learn new and exciting things.