Science News - Relationships! 

Our Year 9 students have been looking at relationships between organisms. They have had the opportunity to create a Terrarium and decide on what soils, rocks and living organisms are going to survive within the walls of the container. The growth of the bean will help the students with data. Also as part of the relationships, the students are underway looking at how to count populations of organisms that move using the mark and recapture method and plants using the quadrat method. These simulations and field studies are showing the students how effective population counting can be when looking at endangered or over-populated areas.  

The Year 9 Forensic students are also looking at the relationships between toxicology and deaths. They have been looking into case studies that have used different substances, whether natural or unnatural, that have caused death. 

The Year 9 Astronomy and Earth Science students have been looking at the relationships of distances in the universe. They have been investigating different strategies for determining the distances to far-away objects in the universe. They have verified the effectiveness of the parallax effect in determining distance, by checking predictions made using the parallax effect against actual measurements, and have investigated the inverse square law for light using solar panels and multimeters.  

The Year 8 students have been looking at the relationships of light waves with different lenses. What does light do when it goes through different types of lenses or a mirror! What does the lens do in the eye to help with a person’s eye-sight. This relates to the eyeball dissection which enabled the students to see the inside of the eye. 

Year 7 students have been looking at simple machines and the relationships between forces in particular no turning force like ramps, pulleys, wedges or a turning force like screws, wheels, axles levers and gears. They have completed a task looking at the relationship between friction and mass working closely at the skills required for writing practical reports.