Parent & Student Matters
Science Club Members don their diffraction grating glasses
What's happening in the College?
- Science Club
- Languages Department
- Write a Book in a Day Report
- Robotics Club Resumes
- School and Sport Photos
Science Club
On the last day of Term 2 Science Club met to explore electricity and magnetism.
Year 12 Physics student Oliver Bowers demonstrated that a magnet dropped through a copper tube falls very slowly, much slower than one dropped in the absence of the tube. Oliver explained that this was due to electrical currents produced in the pipe as the magnet passes through it.
The boys explored static electricity with a Van der Graaf generator, with a couple of brave volunteers stepping forward to have their hair raised. Hair raising occurs because the student becomes electrically charged and the like charges in adjacent hairs repel.
Finally, the boys donned diffraction grating glasses to observe the light produced by gas discharge tubes. These glasses split the light into different colours allowing the boys to see the specific light emitted by low pressure gases of helium and mercury when an electric current is passed through them. The spectral lines (colours) produced by the mercury discharge tube are circled below.
Mr Justin Donnelly - Senior Physics and Junior Science Teacher
Languages Department
The Ghost of Versailles
Year 9 French students used their both their critical thinking skills and their language skills to solve a ‘murder mystery’ style activity in the last week of Term 2.
The setting was the Palace of Versailles, where Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI once lived before the events of the French Revolution were sparked in 1789. It is said to be one of the most haunted places in France, and to contain the ghosts of some important historical figures, former staff and past residents, all of whom were killed during the events of the French Revolution.
The students acted as detectives and were presented with a variety of clues in French such as an audio file between a psychic medium and a ghost, as well as documents including profiles and tombstones of five famous figures from French history, including writer Molière, composer for the King - Lully and Military Marshall Vauban. Our detectives needed to consider the clues and evidence to determine who was haunting the palace. They completed a reasoning worksheet, giving alibis for the other suspects, a motive for who they believed was the culprit and giving justification for their reasoning.
The winners of the mystery, Kai MacAndrews and Jerome Pickering were crowned as King for their victory and awarded a prize. All of the students enjoyed the challenge of the activity and have expressed their interest in solving another mystery in the future.
Mrs Sarah McCormack, French Teacher
Write a Book in a Day 2020: Convenor's Report
Despite the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, Write a Book in Day (WABIAD) went ahead with 6 Pius teams competing in the National Writing competition. As the Convenor, I organise the teams of 10 from Years 7 to 11 and prepare the teams to meet the competition guidelines. On the day, each team receives a unique set of story parameters including characters, a setting and an issue. How successfully teams include the parameters and tell their story is the task of the competition judges. My round-up on the teams' stories follows:
On debut, the Year 7's upbeat adventure story with a catchy title, Marathon at Aqua City proved to be one of the best stories written. The talented writing team backed by outstanding editing delivered a near faultless story told in the one voice.
Year 8's day was full of drama both on and off the page. During the story plotting phase, the team was divided over two differing plot ideas. A coin toss resolved this with The Vault in the Open Stone the result. Such experiences are valuable in developing skills to negotiate successful collaborations in future workplaces or studies, though it is hard to imagine the coin toss working in the workplace.
The Year 9 team wrote under the name, the Tenacious Turtles and proved to be one the most efficient and cheerful writing teams ever! In fact, they were so pleased with their story, Settler’s Treasure which they delivered in record time, they want to turn it into a movie.
Year 10's Ben’s Book Club lively plotting and story boarding produced The Last Gift, a tale in which Santa’s usual Christmas sleigh run is disrupted by a cyclone and a hypnotist. The team's inventive use of the parameters makes for a suspenseful outback retelling of Christmas night.
The second Year 10 team, named themselves ‘For Ethan’ in homage to their absent team member Ethan Griffin. Ethan was unable to participate due to back surgery. I am sure Ethan will love his dedication and the story, Henry and Jake which features an Artificial Intelligent camel is hilarious. The computer-generated graphics by Alex Hawkins are a knock-out.
Year 11's The Finest Gentleman drew on their collective competitive creativity and prior WABIAD experience to produce Gunnedah's Goanna. The group invested significant time in the story boarding phase and this attention to detail is rewarded in the seamless flow of an engrossing and polished plot. Dom Panozzo’s illustrations coupled with Nathan Byrne’s graphics create a sophisticated aesthetic.
All in a day’s work; WABIAD again proved itself a valuable event that our students embrace.
Ms Karen Keighery - Senior Library Coordinator
Robotics Club Resumes for Term 3
Robotics Club will resume in Week 2 of term.
Year 6 resumes Tuesday 28 July. Students to meet in the Junior Resource Centre (3.30 pm - 4.50 pm).
Year 7 - 12 resumes Thursday 30 July. Students to meet in LC2 (3.30 pm - 4.50 pm).
Year 5 workshops will be offered in Term 4.
Please note that any sport commitments must take priority over Robotics Club. Students may negotiate training times with their coach. Please note that it is at the coach’s discretion to allow students to attend Robotics if there is a clash. If students are not already on the Roll then they will need to see Mr de Silva for a permission note.
Mr Paul de Silva - Robotics Convenor
School and Sport Photos
A reminder that the Year/Individual and other Group Photos have been rescheduled to Monday August 3. More details are to follow.
Ms Leisa Proc - General Coordinator