From the Science Department

Brain Bee Challenge

The Brain Bee Challenge is a world-renowned competition for Year 11 students to learn about the brain and its functions, neuroscience research, to find out about careers in neuroscience and to dispel misconceptions about neurological and mental illnesses. The New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge, launched in 2007, is the regional competition of the Australian competition.

There are four rounds to the International Brain Bee Challenge. Round 1 is the online quiz, Round 2 is the regional finals, Round 3 is the national finals and Round 4 is the international finals, which are held in the United States.

For the past six years Diocesan has entered approximately 20 students for the first round of the competition and this year was no exception. Round 1 was held during Brain Awareness Week in March. Students studied through Education Perfect along with regular lunchtime sessions with one of the biology teachers. They then completed an online quiz that determined their knowledge and understanding of the structure and function of the brain. This online quiz was

The Brain Bee team Back row, left to right: Shania Kumar, Charlotte Hulme, Lara Johns, Natalie Kirke. Front row, left to right: Sarah Young, Kate Wellington, Jessica Marshall, Priscilla Huang.

hosted on the Education Perfect testing platform. At this stage the students were competing against students from all other secondary schools across the North Island.

Students who perform highly in the first round are selected to attend the regional finals, which are hosted by the University of Auckland Medical School. This event was held at the end of Term 2, allowing time for the students to study a neuroscience book on which they are questioned.

The day itself is very exciting and involves the students’ participation in two rounds of live questioning to determine who will become the state/ regional champion, along with activities to educate them about neuroscience and associated research. These activities include laboratory tours, demonstrations, lectures, experiments and the opportunity to speak to researchers. There is also a team competition on the day where schools compete against each other to win prizes for their school.

This year the following girls were selected for the regional finals: Lara Johns, Jessica Marshall, Charlotte Hulme, Natalie Kirke, Shania Kumar, Sarah Young, Priscilla Huang and Kate Wellington. All the girls performed exceptionally well on the day, with particular mention going to Lara Johns who came second in the individual competition.

Year 7 Success at EPro8

In September, three teams from Diocesan represented the School at the EPro8 Challenge. This is a threehour engineering and problem-solving race in which teams of four compete against each other as they work their way through a number of challenges. Every year over 10,000 students from 900 schools from throughout New Zealand take part.

Congratulations to our Dio girls for their performance on the night. The final placements were first place to the Dio Electrics, second place to the Dio Donkeys and seventh place to the Rainbow Crusaders. This means that the Dio Electrics go on to represent Diocesan at the semi-finals in Term 4.

The Dio Electrics team Yeshvi Kamdar, Alice Chambers, Ivy Barrington and Lutie Spencer.

Bridge building

Throughout the year, a small group of Year 9 and 10 students have been working on the design and building of bridges in preparation for the Aurecon Bridge Building Competition.

The competition’s challenge was for students to design and build a bridge that could transport good across to the other side of a river, allow residents to drive, cycle or walk across it, be strong enough to withstand winds, and be aesthetically pleasing to look at. The girls spent numerous hours before school, at intervals and during lunchtimes designing, building a trial, testing it for an in-house competition, drawing a digital design on SketchUp, and then finally building and decorating a real bridge – with assistance from Mr Boasman and Mr Augustowicz.

Challenges faced

One of the most challenging parts of this year was the digital design using Sketchup. Many of the girls were unfamiliar with the application so it took some getting used to. As part of this process, the students were also given a basic lesson on how to use Sketchup from Mrs Ong from the Creative Industries Faculty, which was very useful. The students also had the opportunity to use a splicer to cut the wood into three thin sheets so that curved arches could be produced for the bridges. This was achieved by taking a very large piece of wood, laser-cutting the arch shape into it and then pushing in the three thin sheets. A custom tool was also made, which splits 90 degrees into 60- and 30-degree pieces of wood. We also added tension to the bridge by taking a piece of string, dividing it into three pieces and then stretching them out. By scoring a thin sheet of wood it was possible for the string pieces to sit in the indents of the wood, which was then glued to the bottom of the bridge on both sides. The hope was that this would add tension and stop the base from being pulled apart. After the technical aspects of building the bridges were done, the girls were able to use resources from the Art Department to spray paint their bridges.

Competition day!

Three teams entered the competition: ‘Woody’ created by Amie Cummack, Sarah Wong and Sunny Zhang ‘Skjeggestad the 60th’ by Alex Young, Anastasia Sun and Hayley Wong ‘The Little Silver Destroyers’ by Amelia Lockley and Sarah Ellis. On the day of the competition, the girls were early enough to get front row seats, where they were able to enjoy watching bridges from fifty schools across the North Island being tested and destroyed. The students were given a presentation from the Aurecon bridge engineers about different bridges around the world and the types of bridges that are most effective in certain landscapes.

The girls’ bridges performed well in the competition with ‘Woody’, one of the arch bridges, holding a total load of 57.8kg. The other two teams’ bridges also held impressive loads, with particularly exciting decorations on Skjeggestad including icicles, snow, a train set and a moose warning sign.

Amie Cummack, Sarah Wong and Sunny Zhang were the recipients of the All-rounder Award for their bridge ‘Woody’. They each received a $50 voucher and $500 for the School.

Congratulations to all three teams for the creativity in their bridges and for their determination, teamwork and dedication to the completion of the task.

The Year 10 Bridge Building Team 2019

Left to right: Amelia Lockley, Amie Cummack, Sarah Wong, Sunny Zhang, Alexandra young, Anastasia Sun, Haylie Wong (Absent from photo Sarah Ellis)