Science

Year 9 Science students enjoyed some extracurricular opportunities during Term 2 to build on the knowledge they gain in the classroom. Early in Term 2, Year 9 students attended Melbourne Museum’s Road to Zero experience: “A world leading road safety experience at Melbourne Museum as Victoria works to create a future where no lives are lost on our roads”. In this experience, students participated in two activities. In the first activity, students tested different simulated driving conditions and made predictions about vehicle stopping distance. They were able to develop their key science skills in this activity by making predictions, ensure appropriate variables were controlled, and analysing the outcome of the simulated experiment. In the second activity, students had time to explore various interactive exhibits about road safety and car safety features. 

Later in Term 2, Year 9 participated in an incursion from Education Interactive. In this experience, students analysed a ficitious forensic science case that enabled them to look at different types of evidence such as DNA, clothing fibres, toxicology reports, digital evidence from phone GPS data and other pieces of evidence to solve the fictitious crime. This is always an enjoyable experience for students as they use their skills to piece together small bits of information to work out the how it all fits together, and feel a sense of accomplishment in being able to use their critical thinking skills to contribute to solving case.  

Lisa Cardamone 

Science Domain Leader 

Year 7 Bin Competition Results

Starting on 12 May, the Year 7’s at MGC have been participating in a high-stakes competition where each class will get a week of ownership over one set of 3 bins (recycling, paper, & general). This competition is part of the rollout of our new bins, generously donated by the MGC Parents’ Association. The winning class is awarded a class party with the popcorn and fairy floss machines! Plus - House Points for the best overall house. 

The goal is to minimise the amount of litter and bin contamination that occurs over your week by advertising the correct pin usage using posters and design and by monitoring the bin all week. This project aims to educate not only the Year 7 students in the competition about how important their decisions about waste are, but also any student that walks by. Classes were judged according to the accuracy, appeal, originality and positioning of their signage. They were also awarded points for evidence of any sorting of waste and deducted points for any decontamination that occurred. Here are the judges’ reports for the top three classes.  

Thanks to all home room groups who participated, especially those who took the challenge so seriously! It was a tough competition to judge, but very rewarding to see the message is getting out there! 

Third Place 7C1: 

Total: 20 

Very knowledgeable about the process, signage construction and sorting of waste! Signage was original and extensive though could have been more localised to the bins. One sign had coffee cups incorrectly listed as being able to go in the recycling bin. Some plastic wrappers, carrots and gum were found in the recycling bins. Overall fantastic effort! 

Second Place: 7L2: 

Total: 26 

Class presented clear and well-done signage that was visually appealing and very broad. It could have been more specific to target the people and waste of MGC. There were also amazing decontamination efforts shown to not only prevent waste going in the wrong bin but directly avert it. 

First Place and winner of the ZERO WASTE class party 7M2: 

Total: 31 

A bonus two points were scored due to the excellence of the video sent to Mr Vance of students taking an apple core to the solar cones. Full points were awarded for posters including in positioning, accuracy, originality and appeal. The blue paper recycling bin was slightly contaminated upon inspection. Fantastic effort! 

Ellie Baxter 

Environment Co-Captain

Bring the Desalination plant to life for MGC Environmental Scientists 

On 30 May, the Year 12 environmental class was fortunate enough to have the opportunity for Chris French and Rebecca Belza – two chemical engineers from GHD consulting - to come in and deliver an insightful presentation to us based on the Wonthaggi Desalination plant and their involvement in the project. They informed us about all the stages in planning, developing and running the project, displaying how the principle of ecologically sustainable development is applicable in the real world.  

The project was proposed in response to the millennium drought that occurred in Victoria, resulting in Melbourne’s water storage levels drastically dropping. Chris and Bec gave us a detailed description about how desalination works, revealing how seawater can be transformed into potable water through reverse osmosis which is a very energy intensive process. They demonstrated how all big developments such as this must undergo rigorous evaluation before even being built and how the partnership between the Victorian government and the developing company addressed all the stakeholder perspectives when designing the plant. In terms of minimising the impact of the environment, the intake and outlet tunnels for procuring the seawater were dug beneath the seabed to make sure not to disturb the local marine ecosystem. An aspect I found especially interesting was how big of an impact the visual appeal of the plant had on the design process. Stakeholders such as the community of Wonthaggi argued that they didn’t want to be able to see the plant from any public viewpoint and as a result, the development was built at a specific height, with manufactured sand dunes and a green roof, entailing a roof covered in vegetation.  

Thanks so much to Chris an Bec for visiting our class and sharing with us their time and expertise on this topic. It certainly brought our case study analysis to life and gave us all an insight into a career as an environmental engineer. We thanked Chris and Bec by showing our commitment to the circular economy and presenting them with two bottles of 2025 vintage MGC worm wee! see pictures below: 

Nadja Ataata

12L1