Year 9 biomes and body systems

Recently the Year 9 Martyn students were provided with the opportunity to create a 3D representation of their favourite biome and present research about that biome to their peers. The students embraced the task and created amazing 3D representations of mountains, forests, deserts, and other biomes they had learnt about during our ‘Future World’ unit.

The students showcased their biomes to each other and we were fortunate to have Mrs Giblin and Mr Melaisis come and visit our classroom to see the amazing work that our students had created. The students studied up to four different biomes others students had created; reflected on the great work that others had done; and then made a list of questions and wonderings they still had about this topic that they could investigate further.

The students enjoyed the practical application of what they had been learning in class, and the Martyn program aims to explore ways to engage all students in creative, thoughtful and open-ended ways.

Mrs Leah Cordedda

“In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Martyn Program students have been looking at Body Systems. As part of our Digestive System work we were asked to make an interactive model of the digestive system. We gathered materials between our groups of three from home and had a double lesson (90 mins) to make our model. The models ranged from marble tracks to T-shirt art to clay and pipe statues and were a great way to express the visual aspect of our learning, express our creative side and sum up our topic. We labelled our models to show our complete understanding and it went with a theory piece to show our understanding of the System (some people did movies, essays or songs). Through group study sharing we completed discussions, focusing on a specific part of the system and then sharing our knowledge with others to help gain an understanding for our other pieces. It was a great way to complete our work by being taught the curriculum in a fun and interactive way that could focus on our personal interests or hobbies, which is what the Martyn Program is all about!”

April Rayson MY4