Science SCIENCE WEEK National Science Week is Australia’s biggest week celebrating science and technology. The theme in 2017 was ‘Future Earth’ and St Joseph’s College celebrated on Monday 14 August. We ran an electromagnetic bike challenge, providing green energy for our future. Students competed to see who could generate the most watts in three minutes. Competition was fierce but the eventual winner was Jameson Richmond, who produced 5.8 watts. As the winner, Jameson took home a nanodrone. There was also a kokedama workshop. Students created beautiful hanging plants to help green up the school. The Science Week Quiz had three winners, each taking home a box cube puzzle as a prize. The winners were Nathan Fox, Declan Brown and Marcus Zulumovski. Well done to all students who participated. - Philippa Barber, Science Curriculum Area Leader YEAR 8 SCIENCE ENGINEERING EXCURSION Year 8 science students attended Deakin University Waurn Ponds in the first week of Term 4, as their entry event to PBL Engineering. They received a presentation from Deakin University staff on what an engineer is and the types of engineers, as well as a tour of the CADET (Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training) Engineering building to see 3D printed bones, ears and gears, a virtual reality room with a CAD WALL, the civil engineering lab, a mini power grid of a city and of course, the high voltage room. Students used this experience to then complete theory and activities on energy, energy transformations and engineering back at school. - Samantha O’Keeffe and Philippa Barber, Science Curriculum Area Leaders
RACI TITRATION VICTORIAN SCHOOLS COMPETITION Each year, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute invites students from Years 10, 11 and 12 in each state to compete in a titration competition. Students are required to apply skills specific to chemistry which involves the use of pipettes and burettes, determining the endpoint of an acid-base reaction using an indicator and calculating the concentration of an unknown solution. Those who participate do not need to have any background in chemistry. Teams consist of three students and this year St Joseph’s entered 15 students. These students gave up multiple lunch times during Term 2 practicing for the competition. This preparation ended with a 90 minute session to complete the titrations and calculations involved. All teams placed in the top 50% of the 350 teams who entered across Victoria. Congratulations to the following students who competed: Year 10: Eamon Wheatland, Nathan Fox, Tom Anderson, Matt Davie, Charlie Roache, Ethan Near Year 11: Sean Wee, Tom Mahon, Xavier Dowd, Patrick Richards, Tom Boardman Year 12: Jackson Kos, James Bowers, Liam Jelley, Michael Bongiorno - Joanne Board, Science Teacher SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING CHALLENGE 2017 There were 22 students who were a part of the Year 10 super group to represent St Joseph’s College Geelong on Thursday 18 May at Deakin University for the 2017 Science and Engineering Challenge. These students signed up for the exciting group collaboration challenges to immerse themselves as everyday engineers and scientists solving problems.
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