From Year 7
One of my favourite projects in Year 7, the Hot Air Balloon task in STEAM puts students in a collaborative setting that asks them to develop a working Hot Air Balloon. For many, jaws dropped as I showed them past examples. However, I challenged my groups to look at those examples and go, “I can do even better”. With the opportunity to rise to the challenge, it has been a busy last couple of weeks, as students have been busy working on bringing their Hot Air Balloons to life.
Utilising the design process, students have worked together to build and execute some colourful and creative balloons. Some of our students have drawn from popular brands such as KFC and Costco for their design while others have utilised popular patterns such as love hearts and linework. The classroom has been buzzing as students have worked to the minute and through trial and error, have been working out the kinks.
As we now get to the pointy end of this project, students are now aiming to fine tune their balloon constructions to maximise airtime when they take them out for their first flight.
Jordan Miller
Year 7 Leader
So far in the STEAM Hot Air Balloons unit, we have been going through the design process to make our own hot air balloon. First, we made our designs on regular paper, and then we started to make it with tissue paper. We had to figure out how to make our design work. It couldn’t be too heavy, because it had to float/rise when we used the air purifier or the hair dryer.
Sophie D 7F
I have loved this unit. First, we did a design on paper and created a paper hot air balloon, second we did another paper hot air balloon and choose our design and lastly we did our design on our final hot air balloon that is made out of tissue paper. I think that I did a good job in all of them, but I think I could improve on the details when making the tissue paper hot air balloon, such as like sticking it together.
Isabella L 7F