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. Well done to our Maths and Science staff who ran an excellent excursion to Sheepvention in Hamilton on Tuesday. Mark Fraser, Lynn McDonald and Anne Frazer continue to run this excursion as a part of the Year 7 TAP curriculum in Maths; moving from a focus on shearing a sheep – how long does it take to shear three sheep, the average time per sheep, how much a shearer gets paid per sheep – to researching the products on offer and how they would save the farmer time and money. Science examinations included investigating simple machines which used levers, ramps, wedges, wheel/axles, gears or pulleys and more compound machines which are made up of two or more simple machines. Examples of simple and compound machines at the Sheepvention site included shears, spinning wheels, wool presses and a Lucas Saw Mill. Once again thank you to David Pope from Pope’s Buslines in Timboon who generously donated his time and bus to transport the students to Sheepvention. |
Archives
February 2024
|