Around the School
Youth in Philanthropy
Four Year 10 students participated in a program called Youth in Philanthropy. The Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation gave us $10,000 and our role was to decide how much we would donate to each charity.
We chose three charities, which were Scope, The Smith family and Center for Multicultural Youth. We were allocated a mentor- Margret Mitchell, who assisted us through the whole process.
Before visiting the charities, as a group we thought of some questions which would help when making our decision. The first charity we visited was Scope. We were given a wide variety of information about the project ‘Kids Chat 2 You’, and its aim. The presentation was presented very professionally. The next charity we visited was the Smith Family; here we were informed about the ‘student2student’ program. We saw books being packaged and ready to be sent to students around Australia, it was interesting to see the work involved and inspiring to meet the volunteers. The third charity we visited was the Centre For Multicultural Youth, here we were informed about the Youth Active Citizenship program, as a team our impressions were very positive. The making process was very tough. The four of us had a long discussion on how much we would donate to each charity.
We came to a conclusion that we would donate $1,000 to scope, $3,000 to the Smith Family and $6,000 to the Center of Multicultural Youth. We all thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Through our visited we gained a deeper understanding on what it means to be a philanthropist.
Ashlee Huynh and Philip Grimley
Book Week
Our annual Book Week Trivia Quiz celebrated this year’s theme ‘Escape to Everywhere’.
This was going to be an interesting battle as last year’s winners, now in year 10 had split into two teams and were in competition with each other!
The Year 12 students were looking for one last moment of glory before the end of their school days, and planned to show off how much they knew with all of their extra years of study… Their ambition - to take home the coveted Village movie tickets.
But for the first time ever in the history of the Quiz, in an amazing and stunning upset, a team of year 8 students knocked them all out the top spot. The clue to their success? Their thorough knowledge of current popular books and movies.
Questions such as ‘Which one of the Weasley twins died in the battle of Hogwarts?’ and ‘What is Wonder woman’s first name?’ (Diana) were no match for these feisty junior school students.
Our heartiest congratulations to 1st place winners: Amy Pearson, Gabby Thatcher, Ruby D’Arcy, Lizzie Brooks, Sophie Duffus and Bella Roach.
Extension Programs at RSC
Tournament of Minds: Another Fantastic Result!
On Saturday, 26th August, our Tournament of Minds team competed at the Lilydale Regional Competition. Tournament of Minds is a 6-week adventure in problem solving and discovery. Students who are part of a TOM team learn to work together, make decisions, solve problems and communicate effectively with one another. The team was selected in April, but the challenges were not released until day one of Term 3. Of the four Challenges offered, the team selected the Engineering Mathematics Challenge: One Way Trip. They had 6 weeks to formulate a solution to the Challenge, design and build a lottery machine, prepare their script and 10 minutes to present their solution on Tournament Day in costume. They also had to complete a short Spontaneous Challenge on the day.
Our ACE TOM Team:
Shion Kim, Aidan Maher & Elley Steenhuizen of 7I, along with Vithara Gunawardena, Isuri Jayasinghe, Sam Rhodes & Daniel Watson of 8I.
The Engineering Mathematics Challenge:
It may be a one-way trip but too many people want to have the chance to be the first to live on Mars, even though there is no chance of ever returning to Earth! A lottery is needed to reduce the number of candidates for the spaceship crews. However, some concerned scientists fear that the lottery will eliminate too many desirable candidates. They need to try and rig the result to include preferred candidates whose lottery numbers they can select!
Task:
Design and build a lottery machine that randomly delivers a subset of numbered balls to determine which of the million candidates will proceed to the next selection round, by having the three winning numbers. To have a secret modification that cannot be easily detected, which will improve the odds of preferred candidates being selected. To explain and justify why these candidates need to be preferred.
This was an exciting challenge, and students met at lunchtime on a regular basis, set up a chat group, and spent the first few weeks developing their ideas. The last 2 weeks were much busier, as they began building their lottery machine. They had to start it again from scratch 3 days before the tournament, and stayed back after school on several occasions until 5pm to meet their deadline. They showed great commitment and dedication. Their costume-making skills were hilarious!
Results:
Results were published on the following Monday: the team gained ‘Honours’ in the Secondary Engineering Mathematics Challenge, along with two private schools. The challenge was won by a private school. This was a fantastic achievement by our RSC team, and they were very pleased!
Thank you to the parents of the team members for their support and encouragement, and their attendance on the day to watch their son/daughter compete in the Tournament.
It’s been a pleasure to work with this group of students over the last 6 weeks in preparation for Tournament of Minds, and they were brilliant ambassadors for the college. Congratulations!
Ms Annette Niven
ACE Program Coordinator
Languages News!
Term 3 has certainly busy for both the French and Indonesian Departments. Teaching staff have had a succesful Curriculum Day together this term where they were able to plan and develop the Languages program at RSC. Teachers have also been busy learning more about how to use technology in the Language classroom as well as the creation of iTunes U courses – the future of Languages is looking very exciting!
The Indonesia trip is coming up on the 16th of September and the travelling party of 18 are all very keen to get going. They will spend 12 days in Bandung which is located in West Java. They will be participating in a school visit and homestay program with Sekolah Tunas Unggul. They are all looking forward to all of the yummy food, the cultural experiences, the language challenges and the lifelong memories that will be made!
At the end of last term some Year 8 students had the opportunity to experience language learning outside of the Indonesian classroom. Students attended an Indonesian film put on by Bioskop and then indulged in an Indonesian lunch at Pondok Rempah in the city. All of the students had a great time and it was a wonderful way to celebrate learning about another language and culture!
Finally, good luck to all of our students who entered the SBS Languages Competition at the end of August. This was compulsory for all Year 10 French and Indonesian students. All submissions were highly creative and the winners will be announced in a couple of weeks. Semoga sukses/Bonne chance!
Jessica Lundie
Head of Languages