Kids choose projects

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
LITTLE Yarra Steiner School students have chosen the traditional independent research project over sitting an exam to get into university.
The school recently applied to the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre to ask if students could receive a university entry rank.
But VTAC has told them the move wasn’t possible unless students sat an external exam such as the GAT, a General Achievement Test undertaken by all Year 12 students completing their VCE exams. Upper school co-ordinator at Little Yarra Steiner School, Lisa Branch said next year’s 13 Year 12 students had all chosen the research project over the GAT.
“The Year 12 project is so important – we’ve been doing it for eight years now at the school.
“The students were clear they wanted the project, not the exam.”
She said the projects were about learning and inspiring the students rather than cramming for an exam.
“What we’ve found is through working up to a project they transition into the outside world really well,” she said.
“It’s quite demanding but because it’s something they’re passionate about it’s so valuable…there’s no comparison to sitting in an exam where you don’t get much out of it.”
She said the ATAR, the name given to the university entrance rank, gave no guarantees to students.
“If you don’t get the score, you don’t get in,” she said.
“But only about 50 per cent of courses these days require an ATAR – the other 50 per cent are interviews, tests, folios.”
Ms Branch says although the students don’t receive an ATAR, the project “creates pathways into tertiary institutions or professions that just aren’t the normal pathways.”
“After one year of being away from school you’re a mature student anyway and don’t need an ATAR, so at least (our students) have got something physical to show what they’ve learnt.”
Under the current curriculum, students study four VCE units, but do not sit the exams, and complete an independent research project with a physical component, a 5000-word written reflection and a 45-minute oral presentation assessed by external university lecturers.
Ms Branch said one student from the 2008 class deconstructed a real car and reconstructed it with remote control capabilities, which got him straight into engineering at RMIT, “while others have got into unrelated courses purely because of what they’ve done and learnt along the way.”