SCIENCE

NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK AT MCKINNON

Next week (12 – 16 August) we celebrate National Science Week at McKinnon.

 

National Science Week is an annual celebration of science and technology in Australia and provides an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of Australian scientists to the world of knowledge. This year’s theme is Destination Moon, allowing us to discover past missions to the Moon and space programs that have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems - and current and future space programs, operations and missions. To celebrate, we are running a number of activities, both in class and outside of class during lunch break.

 

Please keep an eye on the Compass News Feed for further information about these events. 

 

Science Faculty

YEAR 12 BIOLOGY INCURSION

During their classes, the Year 12 Biology students have been learning about genetic engineering and the technologies that scientists use. Last week all 115 Year 12 Biology students completed a bacterial transformation using the genetic techniques that they have been learning about.  Through the incursion they were able to isolate a fluorescent green gene from a jellyfish and put it in a bacteria in a process called transformation.  The students had to wait at least 24 hours while the bacteria was incubated to see if they were successful.  We had a great rate of success with most students finding they were able to get their bacteria to glow green.

I would like to thank all the helpers that came along to assist our Year 12s such as past Biology students: Myles Kelemen, Jean-Luc Karavendzas and Will Hardy. We also heartfully thank phD students Anthony Xuan, Athanasios Koulis and Izabela Todorovski from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre who gave up their time to help our students.

 

Emily Nicholls

Science Teacher