Science

PSC SCIENCE FAIR 2025

The Parkdale Science Fair is back in 2025 and we hope to see you all get involved! This year the Science Fair will be split into 3 sections spanning Senior Secondary, Junior Secondary and Primary divisions. Students will be able to submit science-based experiments, writing pieces or art/photographic pieces. Each piece submitted will be judged by one of our amazing team members and then displayed at our Science Fair Expo night held on the 14th August during Science week. Prizes and titles will be awarded to the winning pieces. The Expo will be during the afternoon and evening to show off all the wonderful work and everyone is welcome, especially family and friends. If you are interested in being involved, registration forms are available from the front office and a link to the online registration form is on Compass (and included below). Make sure to tell your friends and we can’t wait to receive all your amazing entries.  Good Luck!

Registration Form Links

Secondary Students: https://forms.gle/FhsGztyKiJyr8sg16

Primary Students: https://forms.gle/XqQ8HKHJp3Mvzsxx5

Thanks, 

The 2025 PSC Science Fair Team 

STEP F1 Racing

Our F1 Racing PSC students are hard at work finalising car designs, and we are 3D printing the cars.  We have had the racing track out to test how fast they actually are.  Students must continue testing, improve and finalise designs for our competition day in term 2.

Tim Thompson

Science and Girls in STEM news

Girls Engineering the Skies – March 5th

For International Women’s Day Maria Kuksa (Year 10) and Mikayla Lessware (Year 7) attended the Girls Engineering the Skies Day at Moorabbin Airport.  They learnt about different career pathways in aviation and listened to women in the industry talk about their roles and the industry. They had an opportunity to be in the working control tower and also made models of aircraft to test flight parameters.

GTAC – STEM cells and Cancer research excursion – March 14th

GTAC collaborated with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine, reNEW Melbourne, located at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), to offer a program for Victorian school students. 11 students from Years 10-11 attended this program is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of the ‘real science’ of stem cell research and what it holds for the future, with a focus on the circulatory system.  Students conducted research into stem cells and used specialised lab equipment.  

Lexi Firth (Year 9) has been successful in her application to become a Youth Conservation Leader for Zoos Victoria.  She will be attending sessions at Healesville Sanctuary and Melbourne Zoo.

Students from across the state will develop tangible and usable Science skills while growing as a leader in a group environment. They will learn from Zoos Victoria mentors and be supported to undertake a Science research project to inform a wildlife conservation project. Along the way, students will learn about First Peoples connections to the land and how to care for wildlife to ensure a sustainable future. The program runs for 11 days from May to June 2025.

STEP Robotics 

The STEP Robotics students have been putting the skills learnt on their trip to Quantum to good use while preparing to put on a show for the school Open Night and the upcoming RoboCup Line Rescue competition.

Ben Loxham

Year 7 STEP 

We have had a fabulous term with our Year 7 STEP students!  Students have been working really hard on our Water Rockets and we also had a fantastic family Astronomy night!  

We saw some amazing jewel clusters, the Moon, Mars and Jupiter (including 4 of it’s Moons) just to name a few!!

A massive congratulations to our Water Rocket Competition Winners! 

10m Accuracy Competition 

1st Water Rocket Sim 

2nd Space Wide

3rd The Bumblebees

Longest Distance Competition

1st Thunder Jets – 22.5m

2nd Victory Vortex – 18m

3rd Space Wide – 15m 

Strongest Brand

1st Mosquito

2nd Bumblebee

3rd Victory Vortex

We had a great morning with our water rockets, well done everyone! 😊

Janelle Scott & Tim Thompson

STEP Cosmetic Chemistry

Our New Unit has been truly amazing.  Lead by our fabulous Science Captain Jas Buckingham and fantastic Head of Science Julie Mullins, this dynamic duo along with our awesome STEP students have explored the Chemistry of Henna, Face Mists and Skin layers and Sugar Scrubs….and we have only had 3 sessions!!!  Can’t wait for more, well done everyone!

STEP Forensics 

Our Forensic students have been hard at work perfecting their techniques in cast making, witness identification and trace analysis!

We have also had a visit from Monica van Wissen, who is a Forensic Scientist, and Senior Case Manager - Biological Science Group (Major Crime) of the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department.  Students were treated to the inner workings of being a Forensic Scientist.  They were also able to ask as many questions as they could come up with!

Well done everyone!

Janelle Scott 

STEP SuperChef 

Our SuperChef’s have been on fire lately, cooking homemade Pizza’s in Pizza ovens!

They looked, smelt and tasted AMAZING!  Well done everyone!

Year 12 Physics Luna Park Day

On Friday 7th March our Year 12 Physics Students headed to Luna Park for the long-awaited Physics Week!!  This is where Luna Park is closed to the general public and year 12 Physic students from across Victoria come to experience the Motion concepts they have been working on in class.

Particularly concentrating on Circular motion and change in energy.  It was not all fun and rides as they had some work to do, to take measurements and do calculations to complete the Luna Park Motion Booklet.  It was a great day with only a few feeling some queasy effects from the rides!  Thanks Mr Page for coming along and joining in the fun!