Science Week

During the week of Monday 15 August, Shelford celebrated National Science Week. This year’s theme was ‘Glass: more than meets the eye’. A range of exciting hands-on activities were on offer for Senior School students during lunchtimes and recess. I have the pleasure of sharing our wonderful Science Week with you. 

Monday

Students in Years 10 to 12 participated in the lunchtime activity ‘Making edible glass’. This involved mixing sugar, glucose, and water over high heat. Once the mixture was allowed to cool a transparent piece of ‘glass-like’ material was formed. We also had the delight of hearing from Dr Melanie Eckersley-Maslin who works in Cancer Biology and Therapeutics at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Tuesday 

Our Senior School students viewed different shaped lenses to discover how light travels and bends (refracts). 

Wednesday

Students were delighted to engage in the art of glass painting. 

Thursday

Students modelled optical fibres using hot glue – those students who were able to create the longest optical fibre won a prize. Our students also took part in a whole-school assembly in which the Robotics team shared their experience at the recent RoboCup Junior event and received their certificates. We also were fortunate to hear from Dr Samantha Grimley from Melbourne University who shared her experiences as a research scientist, in the field of virology, working on the coronavirus. 

Thank you to all the Science staff, homeroom teachers, Maintenance and Marketing team for promoting and making our Science Week an unforgettable event for our students!

Jessica McKenzie

Head of Science