STEAM News

ConocoPhilips Science Experience

From the 11th to the 13th July, during the recent school holidays, Tyana and I (Yr9) joined about 60 other high school students at Swinburne University to participate in various Science workshops, presentations, activities and social events as a part of the ConocoPhilips Science Experience.

 

It was one of the most memorable and enjoyable Science events I have been to; jam packed with lots of fun, exciting workshops and interactive activities. It was a very ‘hands on’ experience! Including extremely engaging presentations by some cool figures in science such as Alan Duffy, covering various topics from the microscopic level (forensic analysis of DNA and chromosomes) to an infinite level (virtual exploration of the solar system and the universe)

 

We visited the ‘Synchrontron’ where particles hurtle around a machine almost at the speed of light, we put on the full lab gear to handle dangerous chemicals, do experiments and conduct forensic analysis, we worked with electrical circuits to create lighting and engineer our own electronic dice, we used coding to create our own simulation of the solar system, we learnt about black holes and exoplanets, we geared up to take an fully immersive virtual tour of the universe, some flew drones in the flight simulator, we toured the amazing Design and technology facilities at Swinburne and met lots of incredibly inspiring university lecturers, funny, energetic and friendly science students and made lots of new friends from schools all across Victoria.

 

I had a fantastic time and I would definitely recommend it.

 

Jade Leung 9G

Invetech

Having the opportunity to go to Invetech for a week of work experience was such an amazing adventure. We were a total of six people with three of us from Melbourne Girls’ College. We were first divided into two teams and had to work on building a Linebot robot by the end of the week with the help of our leaders. So, we were given a room, like a small office, and it was there that we did all the planning and designing. But aside from working on our robot, we also had some additional activities such as presentations, tours and workshops which were led by people who worked within that field. When both groups were finished with designing their chassis, we were taken to the 3D printers’ section to see how it all works.

Some of our planning and designs for our robot.

 

On the last day, both groups were mostly working on coding their robots. At the end of the day, each group had to do a short presentation about what they found challenging, interesting, things they learnt and a short description of their robot. After the presentation, we tested our robots on a track and then we had a drag race.

 

It was such a wonderful experience. I learnt so many things, made new friends and gained a lot of new skills. It changed the way I thought about engineering and I would definitely love to be doing something like this in the future.

 

Yasaman Dehbozorgi (Year 10)