STEM Week Activity
This year TAC celebrated STEM Discovery Week during the week of 22-28 April. Grade 12 grade IB students took part along with hundreds of other schools around Europe in combined physics, biology, and technology courses.
The biology topic was movement and the skeletal system, and in physics related to mechanics. TAC students implemented technology with a project aimed at producing a 3D simulation to create a physically balanced and biologically complete skeleton with the help from a computer science teacher.
First of all, students had to know the body proportion of skeletons to produce a skeleton body using different types of pasta, and rope. They then need to demonstrate an understanding of each part of the skeleton. Furthermore, students’ skeleton should stand up for 5 seconds. Students were required to calculate the average size of bonds by using the torque information. With the help of technology, they were working on producing a simulation using the correct calculations, and they needed to consider the effect of muscles on the equilibrium position to the bones.
According to their calculations and simulators, they had produced their skeleton with joints. They had calculated, measured and presented 2 skeletons. However, one of the skeletons did not stand up while the other skeleton stood up for a mere 3 seconds. The group members did not add joints to the skeleton which gave the skeleton more strength, and eventually, the model stood up.
At the end of the STEM activity, students discovered the topics in three different subjects and discussed how the project related to their daily life.