Science Week 

Primary School lab visits 

Over the weeks surrounding National Science Week  Year 5 students from Beaumaris Primary visited our science laboratories and used equipment to carry out experiments.  MGSC students from Years 8 to 10 assisted the primary students in conducting and understanding the experiments and what important scientific concepts were involved.

The students rotated around the workbenches, exploring a game changing idea in each of the VCE sciences studied at MGSC:

• Biology – Students operated microscopes to observe the tiny hairs on spiders legs, tar in a smokers lung, and the individual cells of a plant.
• Chemistry – The chemical reaction between magnesium and an acid was observed (and heard as they lit the resulting gas with a match!)
• Environmental Science – water quality was considered as students challenged each other to make a filter that would produce the cleanest water.
• Physics – Evidence of the electron shell model of an atom was observed in the form of coloured flames produced by burning chemicals over a Bunsen burner.
• Psychology – Baffling optical illusions were tested and discussed.

MGSC students share their experiences. 

My partner and I were doing the environmental science experiment. I think that this was great as it got the visiting students involved and I believe that they really enjoyed making their water filtration systems. I found it interesting to see what kind of solutions each group would come up with. Some water filtration systems worked well and some didn’t work well. They saw for themselves what they could have done. I think that it was a great learning experience for the kids and they were very diligent in thinking about what materials would filter out the large and small bits of dirt and reaching the end goal of making the water clear.

Asmita Raj (Year  9) 

I had a great time helping out with the primary school visit. The students visited our science classroom and completed five workshops. The five workshops were all topics that were covered in science at our school which included, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Psychology and Environmental Science. I had an amazing time assisting with the Environmental Science workshop. In this workshop, students had to create a water filtration method to filter dirty muddy water into clean water. This workshop not only used their creative skills but also their thinking skills as they had to use materials that were different to the other group. It was amazing to see the different methods the students came up with. Overall, the primary school students enjoyed all the workshops. 

Julia Le (Year 9)