More relationship building between the social support group at the hospital and the Art in the Garden group at Timboon P-12 School. Yesterday we visited taking our half completed mosaic projects to show and discuss. At the same time we traced each others hands in preparation for Hollywood stars style mosaiced paving stones. We also helped to plant up some big pots already sitting in the courtyard. Thanks so much Kathy and Linda. So lovely to see the relationships building between the oldies and young ones. Sarah Mackieson

The Year 7/8 ‘Best in Show’ Food Technology class are creating Lunch Box Muffins for the Melbourne Show! Before planning their own creative muffins, students learnt to make traditional muffins with a wide range of recipes in the classroom. Students were given a planning sheet to enable them to brainstorm possibilities and come up with a final recipe plan. Each student was asked to think about great flavour combinations and use ingredients that they liked. They had to think about colour, flavour and type, we also talked about different types of wholegrains, having some tastings and a brainstorming session. Good Luck to all!! Gabby Theologous

Continuing their Natural Disasters theme, the Year 5/6 class hosted Kelvin Boyle and John Mahony who recounted their first hand experiences of the tragic Ash Wednesday bushfires that devastated the South West on 16th February 1983. The bushfire that swept across our region was introduced with a DVD presentation by the Moyne Shire Youth Councilors which commemorated the 30th anniversary with a documentary which outlined the events of the day. John recounted his role as Fire Controller during the blaze and Kelvin detailed how procedures and fire fighting have changed based on the lessons learnt from that tragic event. 

​As part of their studies of Natural Disasters, and despite the mild August in the southwest, our Year 5/6 teachers were still interested in investigating the Flood Maths unit of work as introduced by local farmer, Chris McKenzie. Chris described the situation on his Cooriemungle farm in 2016 when floods took out some of his fences, laneways and paddocks and challenged students to determine what it cost him to replace and repair the damage to his farm. Coincidentally, as Chris was describing the location of his farm and the damage sustained in September 2016, several school bus routes had to be altered to allow for flooded roadways and paddocks this September as well!

The Year 7/8 Pajama Party Textile elective students have risen to Gabby’s challenge to create handstitched sleep masks and matching pajama pants in flannelette or cotton. Some students are even considering entering their creative PJ sleepwear in the Camperdown Show, keep an eye out for them and George the Farmer who will be a special guest!

In 2016 the TAP and Science Department applied to the Origin Regional Community Development Program to access financial assistance and inkind support from Origin to promote students’ STEM skill development and source educational opportunities. To this end, Origin coordinated the innovative Reegioneering - Engineers Without Borders workshop and hosted our Year 11 chemistry students earlier this year. We were also fortunate enough that Origin were able to fund our Robotics in the Classroom project which means that our classes have access to a Junior Robot Pack of Ozobots and a Senior set of Lego Mindstorms Ed EV3 packs. Thank you to Anne Frazer and Origin Community Development Officer, Linda French for producing and supporting our application. Watch this space for some exciting coding experiences!

The Year 9 Science unit on body systems was given an extra boost with Zoe Vogels (The Vet Group) speaking to both classes about about calf disease types, causes, effects, treatment and the prevention of diseases. Zoe very creatively uses cartoons to add to her presentation and provided lots of practical examples of how diseases work in animals and humans. Thanks Zoe! 

​A grant from the Collier Charitable Fund was secured by Deakin University to run Power of Engineering workshops in regional Victoria with Timboon P12 School and the TAP hosting Year 9/10 students from Timboon P12 School, Mercy Regional College, Camperdown College, Colac Secondary School and Kings College. The Power of Engineering workshops are designed  “to inspire young people to consider a diverse and creative career in the profession of engineering, with a particular focus on females, regional and Indigenous students.” It was wonderful to have the day presented and facilitated by some inspiring female role models for all of our students. The workshops were conducted by experienced engineers and engineering students from Engineers without Borders and Deakin University and included
-a humanitarian water filtration exercise
-a small motor workshop
-a bridge building challenge
-VEX robot challenges
-STELR wind turbine workshop
-Telstra Chinese whispers with Morse code
-Aurecon Autonomous vehicle

​Fun fact!  Did you know that when you shine a light at a cow at night the cow's eyes shine with a blue-green light because the light reflects from the shiney, blue-green tapetum which is at the back of a cow's eye under the retina! As part of their investigations about body systems and how they interact, the Year 9 Science students have been learning about the respiratory and circulatory systems and will be studying the nervous and immune systems later in the year. During the course of these explorations students have dissected a sheep’s heart and a cow’s eye to learn how they function and understand the various components of these vital organs.

Mrs Mackieson has proudly displayed these regal roosters in the senior primary corridor which were produced by the Year 5/6 students using a fork- no paintbrushes in sight! Check out these textured, brightly coloured, feathered fowl.