Hearingunitnewsletter term2 2017

Yarra Valley Grammar Hearing Unit Newsletter www.yvg.vic.edu.au

Telephone: +61 3 9262 7700

Facsimile: + 61 3 9876 1077

Term 2

Email: reception@yvg.vic.edu.au

June 2017

Ryan Dang showcases his work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: FROM THE HEARING UNIT ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 SPEECH SPOT ............................................................................................................................................................................ 3 TERM 2 IN PREP ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4 YEAR 2 ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME .................................................................................................................................... 8 SENIOR SCHOOL EXAMS ............................................................................................................................................................ 9 YEAR 8 CAMP .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10 YEAR 7 ACTIVITIES DAY ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 MISSION TO MARS 1 ............................................................................................................................................................... 12 YEAR 7 & 8 PROJECT ................................................................................................................................................................ 13 YEAR 8 SCIENCE....................................................................................................................................................................... 13 YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE .................................................................................................................................................... 14 YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE continued… ................................................................................................................................. 15 YEAR 5 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 YEAR 5 CONTINUED… .............................................................................................................................................................. 17 JUST ONE DAY WORKSHOP...................................................................................................................................................... 18 TRICERATOPS .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 YEAR 9 RETREAT ...................................................................................................................................................................... 20 BRACHIOSAURUS .................................................................................................................................................................... 21 MY CROSS COUNTRY EXPERIENCE BY BEN BAULCH .................................................................................................................. 22 YEAR 9 WELLBEING DAY .......................................................................................................................................................... 23

FROM THE HEARING UNIT As Term 2 draws to a close, and the weather has officially become wintery, it is very pleasing to see Senior Hearing Unit students bring their friends into the warmth of the Unit at lunchtime.

It has been another busy term with our students heading in many directions, whether it be on camps or excursions.

During the term, we were very excited for Ben Baulch who came first in the cross country in multiclass.

Amara Crotty sang a French song in the Senior School Assembly, for Languages Week. She sang on stage with her Year 2 French Class. This is a highlight for the Senior School students at the Languages Week Assembly.

Emily Baulch was a member of the School Swim team during the term, swimming at MSAC in the AGSV meet.

On the last day of Term 1, Jaya Palmer of Year 8, raised over $1000 for the World’s Greatest Shave and during the Term break, Emily Baulch of Year 8, raised money with fellow students for The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Well done to Jaya and Emily for their involvement in Community Links.

It has been very pleasing to see Nelson Vu, Year 10, become involved in the Refugee Tutoring program at Mitcham Primary School.

It is always wonderful to see our students extend themselves.

We look forward to another busy term ahead, including Hearing Awareness Week in August.

Mr Ian Saynor Head of the Hearing Unit

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SPEECH SPOT Working on speech and language goals can be tricky – it’s hard to do something you find challenging.

So it’s important to have fun at the same time! Check out some of the fun we had in the Speech Room this term ….

Mrs Anneke Flinn Speech Pathologist

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TERM 2 IN PREP It has been another busy term in Prep. We have been learning all about Fairy Tales and the weather.

There have been many fun activities including playing with puppets, drawing letters in foam, making the gingerbread man and a fun incursion called the Fairy Tale Fiasco. The highlight of the term was the Fairy Tale ball where we were privileged enough to be in the presence of King Fabien and Princess Indi.

The children are doing an amazing job as they learn how to read and write. We have also been doing lots of fun science experiements in science and continuing to find out that maths is everywhere.

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YEAR 2 The Year 2 class have been learning about plants and healthy eating. We have planted herbs and vegetables in our herb garden and made vegetetable pizzas using fresh dough. We had Luke visit from DalyNutrition and he taught us all about healty and non healthy foods.

We enjoyed Luke’s visit so much that we decided to write him thank you letters.

We went to the Botanic Gardens where we learnt about different plants. We discovered that worms are very important in the garden. We got to plant our own seeds in recyclable pots.

During Term 2 we were also lucky enough to be visited by Professor Maths. He came with lots of challenging problems that required us to work collaboratively with our teams. Once we got a few problems correct we were given genius glasses and vest. This was a really fun way of learning about maths.

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Year 2 had the responsibility of leading assembly in the big Assembly Hall. Amara and Matthew had to stand up in front of a large audience and speak clearly and fluently. Even though they were nervous they both did an excellent job.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of Term 2 was the Masterchef competition. Amara made a delicious chocolate ripple cake with fresh berries and Matt made a superb breakfast parfait complete with berries.

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YEAR 4 DINOSAUR EXPO The Year 4s have been exploring the world of dinosaurs. They had an Expo celebrating their work on the last day of term. Part of their featured work was a dinosaur game. Each of the Year 4 students had to design a game, make it then play it with some students in other grades. As part of the design process they drew a diagram of their game. Some of the games stayed the same as the design and some changed. That is all part of the design process. Here are the original designs:

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NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME CABs ACTIVITIES The whole Junior School got together on Wednesday 24th May to listen to the Resource Centre captains present the book, “The Cow Tripped Over the Moon.” We then moved to our CABs groups. CABs is short for ‘Cross Age Buddies’. The Year 6 students run the CABs groups. Here are some photos of the activities we did:

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SENIOR SCHOOL EXAMS Our Senior School students were hard at work during the Semester One examination period. We were thoroughly impressed with how diligently the students all worked and how well-prepared each of them were. During this time, the Hearing Unit was filled with revision notes, summary books, dictionaries, flip cards, CAS calculators, boxes of tissues, glasses of water, scrap paper and the emergency supply of TimTams. We congratulate Nelson Vu, Joshua Randall, Phoebe Dare, James Webb and Sam Rickard on how well they approached their exams.

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YEAR 8 CAMP Year 8 Camp was held in May (8-12). It was an adventure style camp, where we camped in tents every night and completed a range of activities.

The first night was spent at Camp Eildon. One of the first activities we did was the low ropes activity.

This involved different balance challenges. In the picture I am trying to get across an area by putting my feet into triangular stirrups and balancing myself by holding onto the ropes. As I was doing the challenge I was feeling a little bit anxious as it was a little bit difficult trying to get across easily. I had two supporters whose job was to make sure I didn’t fall over and hurt myself. They also encouraged me and gave me advice.

On the second day one of the activities before we went to a different campsite was the over water challenges. The challenge I did was the log challenge. The goal was to get across the log without falling into the water. If you fell in the water you had to start all over again. What I did was sit on the log and drag myself across it. I proudly achieved my goal when I got to each end of the log. (We had to get from one side to the other and then back again.) What made this activity even more challenging for me was that I had to take my hearing gear off and my glasses. As I couldn’t hear without my implant or see anything without my glasses (everything was blurry!) I had to rely on the feeling of the log between my legs and in my hands to keep pulling myself along. This might sound scary, but it wasn’t really, it was only tense. What didn’t make me so scared was that I had someone in front of me and someone behind me. What helped me was the people that were standing guard and keeping an eye on me.

When I finished the challenge I was feeling very, very proud of myself as it was a very big challenge for me.

The next day we did the high ropes challenge. As I was watching everyone else doing the high rope challenge, I was feeling very nervous as it was very high and I’m scared of heights. My goal was to reach the top of the ladder where the tyres were. It was very difficult getting up the ladder as it was a bit wobbly. When I had my turn I was standing nearly at the top of the ladder, I was feeling very, very scared as it was very high. I came down as I was too scared to go any further up. I was feeling great as I nearly achieved my goal. When I was watching Yufei and Maggie going right up to the top I was astonished to see that happen.

On camp, it was like freezing -5oC (minus) and I had to keep myself warm all the time. On Friday morning, my hands were freezing like frost when I was helping my tent mate pack up the tent. It was a bit fun as I saw quiet a lot of amazing places like Jerusalem Creek Camping area and Lake Eildon. Camp was an adventurous and great experience that happened in my life. By Jaya Palmer

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YEAR 7 ACTIVITIES DAY On Friday 23rd June, the Year 7 students celebrated their successful transition to Year 7 and the end of first semester with an activities day. The Year 11 Peer Support leaders also joined in the day to add to the fun and excitement. Students started in Foundation Hall with some games and a Kahoot quiz. The finals of the great fargling (rock-paper-scissors) contest were held, musical statues was played and there was a lot of laughter throughout the morning. Pizza lunch was a huge hit and with bellies full, the Year 7s departed for bowling in Chirnside. The day was much fun and a wonderful way to reward the Year 7s for their hard work so far this year.

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MISSION TO MARS 1 By the time we are adults, we could be the ones going to the first human expedition to Mars. At the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, we learned a little about what astronauts had to do in space. We also experienced how in Mission Control, we have a huge responsibility to keep the astronauts safe. There is a lot we know about in Mission Control that the astronauts don’t. Besides a simulation as the first humans on a Mars Base, we learned about static electricity and circuits. The whole day was enormous fun, even including the evacuation (simulated) due to a meteorite hit AND an unknown virus contaminating our water supply.

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YEAR 7 & 8 PROJECT The Year 7 and 8 Project, was a fun way to learn about illusions, mysterious and conspiracies. We were in small groups and chose the topic we were going to be researching (my group chose ghosts). My group gave everyone a topic about ghosts to research, which was a good way to make sure everyone knew what they had to do. After finishing all of the writing, we got to set up, getting all of our decorations set up was definitely the fun part. We had more then a few trouble with making sure nothing fell down, but all of your information was up there. Over all, we all worked together to achieve our spooky corner of the room, and it looked great and we all had a fun time. By Abbey Gartlan

Huge congratulations goes to Emily Baulch and her group upon winning the prize for the best presentation for their house (Annells). The group was awarded iTunes gift cards.

YEAR 8 SCIENCE "The year 8 students have been learning microscope techniques. Their challenge was to take a photo with their iPads of a slide they had prepared. They could choose their subject. Can you guess what Emily and her friend Tahlie have photographed?" Answer over page.

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Year 8 Science answer: Human skin rubbed from Emily's palm. The fibres in the picture come from a bandage she was wearing at the time.

YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE

During work experience, I went to Monash University to learn about the construction of solar cells.

Professor Udo Bach invited me to help his team and to learn about the fundamentals on solar cells and how they’re made. His team’s latest project is to research and improve the efficiency of Perovskite solar cells. Perovskite is a light sensitive material that was discovered approximately eight years ago and has since been used for many things. However, the crystals properties are found to be most useful in solar cells. The common solar cells that are found on the roofs of our homes are silicon based solar cells which have been around for roughly sixty years and are about twenty-five per cent efficient. In comparison to perovskite solar cells, which, after eight years, has already become twenty-two per cent efficient and is expected to reach twenty-eight.

Solar cells undergo a process in order to convert light into energy. When the photons found within light make contact with the cell, it is absorbed by the absorber (i.e perovskite). This process excites the electrons found within the absorber and in doing so the electrons jump from what is known as the valance band to the conduction band. This jumping of electrons leaves behind “holes” which remain in the valance band. Now that the negatively charged electrons and the positively charged “holes” are separated they wish to recombine. However, the electrons cannot drop back down to the valance band and the “holes” cannot reach the conduction band. Depletion levels were implemented transfer these electrons and “holes” into their respective electrode by allowing them a path to take that edge them slightly closer to their polar opposite. However, before this happens they collected with electrodes, which, in turn is connected to an electric circuit.

They most intriguing part of my week at Monash was the ability to watch the perovskite crystals grow.

About a year and a half ago one of the post-graduates in Udo Bach’s team tried to slow down the process of forming perovskite crystals by exposing them to low temperatures. This resulted with fine white fibres that strongly differed from the bright orange perovskite crystals. The student discovered that the fibres slowly formed back into perovskite they increased in temperature. I was able to observe this process under a microscope and it was astonishing.

I thank Professor Udo Bach and his team for allowing me to experience the experiments they undertake and teaching me the fundamentals on how solar cells function. I enjoyed everything from the introduction to the literature research. Monash University seems to be a great place filled with great people. Perhaps, down the little rabbits hole I may end up in the same position as them.

By Joshua Randall

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YEAR 10 WORK EXPERIENCE continued‌

I was excited about my work experience because of working in a field that I want to do when I leave school. What I was not looking forward to was that I had to wake up early and arrive at the work place by 7am! But I was looking forward to it because of working at the engineering firm. I decided to choose Fratelli Engineering as my work experience because of that business can help me to think about becoming an engineer.

Since I am a year 10 student, The types of activities I could do were a bit limited because most of the jobs need university qualifications. What I did was stock management, designing using a computer program and cleaning a machine.

My expectations of being an engineer was something different because most of my time were watching and listening to the employers who teaching us how to use the computer program which feels like school. But I did get one idea of what it like to be an engineer is building. After work experience, I am still interested in engineering because I saw some employers working on machine, cutting steel. I would like to thank Fratelli Engineering for showing me the lovely experience of becoming an engineer.

By Nelson Vu

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YEAR 5 SPACE PROJECT: EXPLORATION OF MARS This term Year 5 have explored space. Each of them had to present their information to their class.

Here are two slides from Remington’s presentation.

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YEAR 5 CONTINUED… And here are two slides from Ryan’s presentation

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JUST ONE DAY WORKSHOP To help us understand what people living in poverty experience, we had a workshop. This was in preparation for our fundraising for Just One Day. We will have a casual clothes day. After hearing different ideas about what we should do, our Student Representatives Council will select the ones that we will need to do for just one day. It may be going without power, having only 4 ingredients in our lunch or not using furniture. In the workshop, we had to carry water on our heads from the ‘well’ to our ‘home’. We had to keep our homes clean using straw brushes. We were only allowed 2 cups of cold water to wash our food and our dishes. At the school, we had to sit on the floor and use a chalkboard to write our answers. Most people living in poverty don’t have toys or sports equipment.

We played soccer using a ball made from plastic bags and duct tape.

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TRICERATOPS The triceratops is perhaps the most recognizable dinosaur ever known. Triceratops means “Three Horned Face�. It was 9 metres long.

Predators Most carnivores were predators to the triceratops. The tyrannosaurus rex was one of the predators of the triceratops. The triceratops used their three horns and their neck frill to fend off predators.

Food The triceratops was a herbivore and weighed around 10,000kg. It ate low growing plants like ferns and cyads. It has happened before that a triceratops has been found near plants.

First Fossils The first triceratops fossil was found in Denver, Colorado in 1887. The triceratops was once mistaken for a giant bison. The triceratops lived in the Cretaceous Period.

There is plenty to learn from the triceratops. As in, the tyrannosaurus rex was one of the main predators of the triceratops and the triceratops was a herbivore.

Glossary Herbivore: A plant eating animal.

Predator: A predator is an enemy of the animal as in the animal that eats it.

Cretaceous: It was a period in the time of the dinosaurs.

Fossils: Remains of a living thing.

By Gabe Cameron

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YEAR 9 RETREAT

In this activity, we were given a square piece Strapping up for the high ropes course. of material, for us to personalise and make it our own with drawings and writing.

Our tute was split into two and in our smaller groups we tried to see who could get their entire group through a hula hoop the fastest. Our group won.

Our group is learning how to use the rope system in high ropes. I am ‘The Guinea Pig’.

Hanging on for dear life!

Trying to balance my way across the high rope course.

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BRACHIOSAURUS

By Hamish Dickins

Brachiosaurus was a huge plant eating dinosaur that lived in the Jurassic era. Its name means ‘arm lizard’.

The brachiosaurus ate conifers ,ginkgos and cycads. It ate up to 400kg of leaves a day. It was a herbivore.

The brachiosaurus had a long tail, big feet and a long flexible neck. It was 26m long and it was 13m-15m tall. Its front legs are bigger than its back legs. The brachiosaurus had one claw on each foot.

The first brachiosaurus fossil was found in Grand River Valley in western Colorado, U.S.A. in 1900 and Elmer Riggs discovered it. But in 1883, Othniel Mash found a brachiosaurus fossil skull near Garden Park Colorado, which he thought belonged to a brontosaurus skeleton. In 1998 they correctly identified that it was a brachiosaurus skull.

It was one of the biggest dinosaurs to walk the earth.

By Hamish Dickins

Glossary Herbivores: eats plants.

Fossil: An old stone that has been compressed.

Jurassic: a time zone between the Triassic and Cretaceous Identified: found out

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MY CROSS COUNTRY EXPERIENCE BY BEN BAULCH

It all started when I came 10th at the cross country at YVG. It was a tough race. At the start of the race I tripped over two kids in front of me and my implant went flying. I grabbed it and just kept running.

When I got into the lead of the race, Gabe Norton from Year 3 took over the lead. When I got to the swimming pool I started walking and then a few minutes later I started running again. I was excited when I was told I was going to district cross country. I blew up a balloon and yelled out “Celebration!”

A few weeks later it district cross yelled to my family are going to be happy that Emily her braces that day could come to see didn’t know I was multiclass athlete, with different race against each though I thought I actually came 1st as athlete and I the next race. blue 1st ribbon I was faint from surprise.

was the day of country. I “hurry up, we late”. I was was getting because Mum me run. I running as a this is for kids disabilities to other. So even came 58th I a multiclass qualified to When I got my 99% about to

The day of the division race had come. I was so excited but I was feeling nervous. We got on a little bus. Kids were screaming because they were excited. When we got to Yarra Glen racecourse I started to feel nervous. I was the only deaf one there. We ran around the racetrack where the horses race and there was a mud pit and my feet almost got bogged in the mud. I came 50th in that race but as a multiclass athlete I actually came first. I was going to REGIONALS!!!!!

The day had finally come to go to regionals. I heard my mum say that I was going to be racing against my old friend from Taralye, Ethan. The race was at the same racecourse at Yarra Glen again. I thought I was going to be running 3km and my mind said “Uggghhhhhh”. Luckily though it was only 2km. This time I raced against only multiclass athletes. I came from second to first to third! This means I get to race at a state level in Bundoora. If I get passed Ethan at State Cross country I could go to the Nationals down at Tassie. I am going to do some training with Emily so that she gets fit too. I am feeling very nervous but excited.

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YEAR 9 WELLBEING DAY

Health and Wellbeing Day was an interesting day filled with many guest speakers who spoke about the importance of making clear and simple goals for yourself.

David Buttifant, an AFL psychologist, spoke about the brain, what creates stress and how to handle it. We did activities that showed us what stress does to our bodies. When we are on stage preforming, we develop ‘Acute Stress’ which makes us nervous and sweat.

They gave us motivational tips and told The feeling of breaking the us that we may be feeling absolutely board filled me with nervous at first as you may not chop determination and success. the board in your first attempt.

At the end of the day, we had Sam McLarty and Sam Harper as guest speakers in a ‘Footy Show’ style talk show. They spoke to us about how difficult it can be to manage Year 12 life when there is homework, exams and sports piling up on you. Overall, Health and Wellbeing Day was an interesting and enjoyable experience!

We also had lessons on selfdefence and how to do a spinning kick. Throughout the lesson, they built up the excitement on how to karate chop a plastic board.

At the very start of the day we were separated into boys and girls; the girls went to the pavilion to have some sort of “slumber party” and the boys were separated into two more groups. My group went to a self-defence class. The self-defence class was much more than hitting bags and kicking stuff; we learnt about the whole spirituality side of martial arts.

By Adem Goktepe

After recess we went to our second session which was a long presentation about sport science and mentality.

There was a lot of talking and I personally found it quite boring but in the end I learnt a few things about sport mentality and achieving goals in school.

In the last period of the day, Mr Carlson hosted a “talk show” with two old grammarians: Sam Harper and Sam McLarty.

It was really interesting to sit down and listen to the two Sams’ advice towards school and many other things. In the end, they told us to enjoy school while we can but still work hard on our grades.

Throughout the day there was lots of talking but a few fun activities that we could engage in.

By Naish Dare

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