Science

Women in STEM excursion

The Monash Women in STEM Program, also known as the WISE program, offers teams of Year 10 girls from various schools the opportunity to learn more about enterprising and utilise STEM skills to create an innovative solution to a problem of our choice.

The four of us were lucky enough to go to Monash University Saturday 1 June and participate in a day program, during which we listened to talks from entrepreneurs, chose a real-life problem, and spent the day incorporating our MicroBit devices to try to solve it.

Overall, the day was extremely busy and packed with all sorts of activities. It was so interesting to practise new skills that we don’t usually get to use, such as coding and coming up with innovative ideas. While slightly stressful and exhausting, it was an amazing day and provided us with a lot of valuable lessons that we will be able to incorporate  throughout our schooling and everyday lives.

Throughout the day, we worked together to create a pitch to present in front of the other teams at the end of the day. We were tasked with explaining our problem, solution, and incorporation of technology in a three minute speech. Our chosen problem was asthma, and how many people are unaware of when they are at high-risk of having an asthma attack. In attempt to create an idea to tackle this problem, we designed a device that detects an individual’s asthma triggers and, once detected, alerts the person that an asthma attack may occur. We used our MicroBits to demonstrate how some of the programming would work with our device, such as detecting an asthma attack through a rise in heart rate, and sending a message to an emergency contact when needed.

The program is actually a competition and, if successful with our pitch, we could possibly be one of 10 teams chosen to move on to the next level: a two-day workshop on Enterprising. If successful in that, two teams will be chosen to go to Silicon Valley to pursue their innovative idea. However, whether or not we are successful in progressing to the next levels of this competition, the day in itself was still an awesome experience and was generally enjoyable.

Thank you Miss Gurm for organising this opportunity for us: opportunities like this are truly valuable and we encourage all students to participate in these kinds of activities to gain exposure to the pathways of higher education.

Angela Cremona, Cathy Shi, Stephanie Papaxanthou and Sara Kendirjian

Secrets of Cola

Have you ever wondered what cola is made out of?

In 7B science we learnt what nasty things are present in cola. We placed the Bunsen burner underneath the tripod stand with a conical flask containing Coca Cola on the gauze mat. Then we got a tube and placed it over a retort stand with a clamp and a boss head. Then on the other side of the tube we placed another conical flask which a funnel was placed on top. After a couple of minutes the cola started to bubble and the liquid came out of the Coke and went down the tube to the conical flask. We watched the bubbles get bigger and all the liquid remaining in the conical flask. After 15 minutes the Coke turned into a thick, chunky and burnt substance. The remains in the first conical flask was mostly sugar and food dye. In the other conical flask there was mostly water and a tiny amount of food dye. This experiment taught the class what really was in cola and how bad it is for you.

Now what do you think about cola?

Olivia Yankos and Krystelle Vougas