Whole School News

Mouse Trap Cars

Year Seven students have been learning about forces including levers, wheels and axles. They were tasked with using the potential energy available in a mousetrap to design a car that could travel as far as possible.

We had lots of variations on design and were helped in the last session by two of the Year Eleven ATAR Physics students, Luke and Ryan, to finalise their vehicles.

Congratulations to Edmund Toomey whose car was able to travel the farthest with an honourable mention to Joshua Irvine, Grace Outhwaite, Courtney Booth and Alice Roberts whose cars also performed really well.

The Adam Scott Prize for outstanding aesthetics went to Hannah Hull, Lachlan Evans, and Ayden Johnson.

Ms Di Thomas | Teacher

STRAFE Boddington Trip

On Thursday 7 September myself and eight other students from TAFE class arrived early at TAFE and set off on the bus bound for Boddington. Leaving at 7.00am in the morning and making it to Boddington at 10.30am after stopping in Mount Barker and Kojonup. Upon arriving at Boddington, we were met by Charlie who has worked for 13 years at the Boddington mine and works as a supervisor training people about the mine and some of the things they will be expected to do. Charlie showed the group around the mine site village which has many facilities such as cafes, bars, sporting facilities and events. The village can also house up to 1800 people at one time. After the village tour, we got provided with a delicious lunch while we watched a video that explained how the mine worked and how the Gold and the Copper is extracted from the mine.

After lots of explanation of mine site processes we got divided into two groups and got onto two different buses. The buses then headed away from the village and towards the mine and processing area. After we reached the main mine site area, we got a tour of the mine sites main control room. This controlled most of the processes of the mining aspect at Boddington. While in the control room we witnessed the detonation of 500kg of explosives from a camera inside the mine. The explosion caused an earthquake like effect in the ground. After visiting the control room, we saw inside their electrical process room. All the processes go through this room after going to and from the control room. This room ranges in processes from 240 volts to 33,000 volts.

We then went up into the processing area of the mine site and got to see all the equipment up close. At the very top of the processing stand some 30m in the air was another control centre which was responsible for looking after the processing plant. We then made our way back to the buses where we headed down to the crusher which was unfortunately blocked when we got their which forced a stop to anything going into it. Although not being active we still got to see the area around it. We then left the mine on the buses and headed back to the village where the groups rejoined and got back on the TAFE bus to begin the journey to Collie. Our evening was filled checking into our hotel for the night and going into town to buy dinner. 

Friday 8 September - Everyone got up early, made breakfast, packed up their room and got ready to leave the hotel on the bus by 8.00am. We arrived at Westrac Collie Training Centre at 8.15am. We again got shown around their site and were shown a video of how they do their operations. Once we had all seen the video, we got our PPE prepared and went down into the pit and checked out the truck. We then got to see the truck in action as it drove itself around. It’s kind of crazy to think of a 240-ton truck driving itself around. We left the training centre and started heading back to Albany. Everyone was well worn out after two packed days of learning and activities with most people sleeping on the way home. The trip was topped off with a visit to the Kojonup Bakery. This trip was such a good experience and is run yearly for any Year Elevens or Twelves who do Certificate II Autonomous Workplace Operations. I would definitely do this again.

Harley Roberts-Johnston | Yeasr Eleven student