Lab Team News

Hi Everyone,

The end of term 3 has again had the labs being very busy with mostly Extended Investigation work.

Physics Extended Investigation 

As we wind down term 3 we have had a lot of Physics students doing their EPI’s and the lab has been humming with all sorts of crazy physics experiments.  We have seen the inner mad scientists come out in many of you at times.  We enjoy assisting you on your quest, however, believe that you are the experts in these areas, and we can learn from you. We hope you are enjoying the organized chaos that is the physics lab.

Year 10 Extended Investigation (EEI)

The last 3 weeks of term has a busy time for the year 10’s as the whole cohort is embarking on their EEI for the year, we have seen some fun and challenging projects, it’s sometimes hard to come up with new ways of doing things but the students are doing a great job extending themselves, their pracs and asking the right questions.  The lab team would like to thank the students for their care and consideration for our equipment and labware, it’s great to see it used respectfully and in fun new ways. 

Mapping Platypus populations in Melbourne’s River system – an update.

The Platypus eDNA project is gently rolling along.  After some issues with our sample processing, we are back on track with thanks to Ms Trickett and a water scientist over at Monash University.  Unfortunately, the change in process was too late to facilitate our years 10’s who had chosen it for their EEI project.  Again, we thank you for pivoting back to your original EEI project on such short notice and understand your disappointment and frustration.

With the new process we have seen that 6 out of 11 water locations that were sampled along the Yarra river and it’s tributaries, have shown positive signs of eDNA for platypus.  This is very exciting and confirms the research that has been done.  Work is currently continuing and more samples are running. We will update you in term 4 as the project wraps up for 2025

Last but not least: Don’t forget your labcoat and glasses, please leave them in your lockers for the term.  They only need a wash at the end of term or after a dissection.  PPE loans from the Labtech office (back of 1L3) are available but you will need your compass card to record the loan.

~ The Lab Team

Anna Zonneveld, Erika Trickett, Itta Waterson