Technologies News
Computer Science and Digital Technologies
In Computer Science we have begun work on our major term projects. Year Eleven General students are busily working through the design phase of their role-playing games and thinking about level design and artwork. Year Eleven ATAR students are making a start on their major Python project for the year to build out a point-of-sale system for a community store.
Our Year Twelve General students have continued to work through coursework and their knowledge of systems analysis and development – building out the right solution for a client, factoring in ICT policy and procedure and thinking through scenarios diagrammatically. Finally, our Year Twelve ATAR students are completing their first programming project for the year, focused on object-oriented programming concepts in Python to build a school production theatre booking system. It’s all systems go!
Our Year Eight students have been exploring ‘A Hero’s Journey’ as they consider their creative side in designing and coding retro games. As they have thought about their hero and what backstory their characters might have, this led us to the clever use of prompt engineering to have an artificial intelligence image generator provide inspiration in how we might take our hero ideas and translate them into computer code. Students will now begin the interesting work of taking their ideas from the design phase and turning them into playable, coded games!
Mr Kieran Bailey | Head of IT Services/Teacher
Hospitality Electives
Year Seven
As the term advances, our students have embraced kitchen expectations and safety procedures. They’ve studied and applied various cooking terms, a vital step toward following recipes successfully. Armed with knowledge of cooking techniques, they used ingredients and kitchen tools to create a delightful batch of muffins and a wholesome pizza snack.
Year Eight
Exploring Food Groups: Our students continue their culinary journey by studying food from the five essential food groups, including cereals and grains, dairy and dairy alternatives, and protein sources.
Cooking with Purpose: Armed with this knowledge, they prepared dishes centred around specific food groups. Their cookery skills were demonstrated as they created, produced, and presented an array of meals representing these groups.
Recent Recipe Adventures: Flavourful fried rice complemented with freshly fried prawn crackers. They learned the art of culturing homemade Greek yoghurt overnight, which they later incorporated into a moist and delicious lemon cake. High-protein Bolognese sauce was produced after exploring various mince options including beef, pork, chicken, and kangaroo served with traditional Italian Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves from our kitchen garden!
Year Nine
Devonshire Tea and Culinary Exploration: Our students graciously hosted a delightful Devonshire Tea for invited staff before embarking on their week-long camp. Now back in the Hospitality kitchen, they’ve delved into various healthy eating models.
Designing a Wholesome Pizza: Armed with knowledge about balancing food groups and essential nutrients, they crafted a nutritious pizza using ingredients commonly found in home kitchens.
Pesto Showdown: In a flavourful showdown, students compared store-bought pesto with their own delicious homemade version, crafted from an abundance of fresh basil harvested from our kitchen garden. Using a mortar and pestle was a fun experience!
Pizza Adventures: Exploring the magic of yeast as a leavening agent, they prepare a variety of pizza doughs. Topped with classic Margherita ingredients, they then compared their creation to a frozen supermarket pizza and a local pizzeria’s offering.
Year Ten
Preserving from our Garden: Our kitchen garden yields a treasure trove of freshly grown ingredients, which students skilfully transformed into an array of pickles, relishes, chutneys, and jams.
Colourful Creations: Our pantry is brimming with preserves! Corn and zucchini relish, tomato relish, strawberry and bush spice jam, and eggs were boiled from our resident chickens – now taking on a ruby hue, thanks to fresh beetroot, awaiting transformation into devilled eggs!
Mexican Corn: Using excess corn cobs, our students went on a flavourful journey to Mexico, preparing a traditional Mexican corn-on-the-cob favourite that tantalized their taste buds.
Zucchini Crunch: Harvested zucchinis took on a crispy transformation as they were turned into crunchy chips using the crumbing techniques and cooked in the air fryers.
Certificate II Hospitality
Year Eleven
I love seeing my students arriving with enthusiasm, donning their chef uniforms, and ready to cook! Their precision knife skills are put to the test as they create a selection of plated appetiser-style meals. This group learn and support each other every lesson!
Recently, our students mastered the art of making spring rolls. They not only learned the correct storage procedure (freezing with precise labelling) but also explored safety protocols around using a commercial deep fryer. Chef Nick’s expert guidance made this experience both educational and exciting. In the boarding kitchen, students took charge, deep-frying their homemade spring rolls. These were served with a side of kecap manis, a dipping sauce, and julienned capsicum. Back in our own kitchen, our students whipped up Italian-style bruschetta and Thai-style chicken meatballs.
Year Twelve
Our talented baristas have settled into a routine, brewing up espresso coffee orders for our staff every Tuesday. They step into various roles, appreciating the tasks and procedures essential for success in a busy hospitality environment. But that’s not all! Our budding coffee enthusiasts are also mastering the art of crafting non-alcoholic beverages. Recently they explored iced coffee, iced chocolate, and iced chai drinks, following industry-standard recipes. They enjoyed experimenting with a selection of cordials as the base for making refreshing concoctions. Using fresh rhubarb from our kitchen garden, juicy strawberries, and hint of fragrant rose water, students made their own homemade cordial. This is a delicious foundation for a mocktail. Just add a splash of sparkling mineral water, a twist of lime, and a sprig of mint – a magnificent summer refresher!
Mrs Teresa McAllister | Head of Technologies
Sustainable Production
The Year Seven students have been treated to fresh apples and strawberries in the garden in the last couple of weeks. They are still harvesting lots of tomatoes, zucchini and cucumber which Hospitality has been using in their creations – for example last week students used the fresh basil to make pesto. Perhaps the most exciting thing is that the melons are ripening. So far the Mokare and Baudin Year Seven homerooms have enjoyed a delivery of homegrown watermelon. Camfield and Wilson are scheduled for their watermelon feasts after they return from camp.
With the change in weather comes rapid growth of everything including the weeds. The gardeners tidied up their plots this week pulling out weeds and covering the soil with pea straw. We have learned about the importance of covering the soil with mulch and could see a clear difference between the areas that had been covered well and areas left bare.
This term we have Daniel helping out in the garden, he is a student placement from NASHS Education Support. He has been helping collect the FOGO bins from around the school, looking after the chickens and collecting vegetable seeds for the City of Albany Seed Library.
We have also welcomed Mrs Keatch’s Year Four students into the garden, they are collecting eggs and designing breakfasts around the produce available in the garden. I look forward to seeing their ideas come together.
Ms Diane Thomas | Teacher
Materials Design and Technologies - Woodwork
Year Nine
The Year Nine class have almost all finished with their shelf construction focussed around producing a tee half lap joint which forms the support for their individual shelf design. This is a great challenge to tackle early on in the course as it highlights the importance of good marking out and accurate measurements without these the joint will be sloppy and lose strength and integrity. This group has also completed their theory around lathe safety and safe operation procedure and will now begin their rolling pin tasks.
Year Ten
The Year Ten class has almost all completed their box construction centred around creating and using finger joints for the box corner joints. Much like the Year Nine project this really helps the learning and skill development around how to measure and mark out properly. On completion of this, the group will then begin to make their fruit bowls which involves several steps before they can begin on the lathe.
Year Eleven
In Year Eleven the students have started on the production of their upholstered footstools. The students have been busy collecting their required wood and have made a start on some of the first components of their footstools. It will be good to see their creations come to life over the next few weeks.
Year Twelve
As pictured here the Year Twelve group has made a great start to their bedside tables. The designs are all very original and differ vastly from one another which will make this a very enjoyable project to follow along with.
Mr Brodie Sarr | Teacher