STEM at The Patch Primary School

Curiosity, creativity, and wonder guide our STEM program at The Patch. Through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, students explore, question, and make meaningful connections to the world around them. Mathematics is embedded throughout the learning, helping students apply number sense, measurement, patterns, and problem-solving in real-world and nature-based contexts. Similarly, students learn to use tools, equipment, and technology safely and responsibly, applying practical skills alongside their scientific thinking. STEM at The Patch is about thinking like a scientist, posing meaningful questions, exploring, and making connections to our environment, to each other, and to other areas of learning like literacy and the arts. Our program aligns with the Victorian Science Curriculum 2.0, ensuring students develop the knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking expected in contemporary science education.

Each week, students spend an hour in our Eco Centre, a bright, busy space at the bottom of the school, nestled into the beautiful garden and right next to the Fern Gully. Here, they play, experiment, and test their ideas, learning through hands-on, nature-based experiences that connect them to the living world around them.

Inquiry is at the heart of STEM at The Patch. Students learn to formulate deep questions, gather and compare data, and think critically and creatively. They are encouraged to justify their thinking, revisit their ideas, and change their theories when they learn new information, developing flexible, scientific thinking.

Outside, students explore our amazing gardens, wetlands, Arboretum, creek garden, and vegetable patch, noticing the little things and investigating the amazing biodiversity that calls The Patch home. They plant gardens, cook with produce they’ve grown, design and create habitats, and care for our friendly pet blue tongue lizard. Students also tackle authentic problems in our school, such as managing the flooding of the Fern Gully and leading revegetation projects after recent construction works, becoming confident problem solvers as they investigate, design, and find real solutions. Through these projects and explorations, students develop an understanding of sustainability, learning how to care for their environment and make responsible, long-term choices.

Students are encouraged to draw on personal experiences and think about how they can use their learning at home and in their everyday lives. They also have many ways to demonstrate their understanding—through drawing, writing, building, presenting, and creating—showing their knowledge and discoveries in ways that suit them.

Our STEM program promotes respect for the environment we live in and integrates Indigenous perspectives, helping students understand and value the knowledge, culture, and connection to Country that has existed for thousands of years.

Through these experiences, students become problem solvers, critical thinkers, and curious, confident learners. STEM at The Patch inspires awe, encourages exploration, and fosters connection, courage, and kindness—our school values—while helping students develop the skills, curiosity, and respect needed to care for their world, past, present, and future.