Faculty Report

Science is always engaging with fun, hands-on practicals like burning magnesium, elephant toothpaste and reacting sodium with water.

2026 has continued to be exciting in VCE science with students in Chemistry making and testing their own biodiesel, Physics launching their own creations to determine the optimum launch angle, Psychology participated in a sleep study and Biology testing how clean their hands are by growing skin bacteria. 

Junior science students get to experience a little of all the sciences throughout the year to understand the world around them and gain some insight into the VCE sciences on offer. They also get to have fun with practicals such as, making their own gyrocopter, dissecting hearts and producing hydrogen gas. 

Year 7 students recently visited Melbourne Zoo to investigate endangered animals and campaigns being run by the zoo to help conservations efforts. This research helped students to then design their own campaign. Below are a few observations about the day from Year 7 students:

On June 22nd, 23rd and 24th, the year 7 cohort went on an excursion to the Melbourne Zoo. 

Noah (Year 7) shares his Zoo Experience:

The zoo is always a great place to visit as it has a range of different animals and species that you don’t ordinarily see. Some were extremely active like the gorillas and the monkeys and others a little more quiet like the koalas and the lions. From marsupials to reptiles, Australian to African animals, there is something for everyone. The orangutan that copies people through the glass is always a laugh. Throughout the day, the Year 7’s learnt a lot about different animals and campaigns to save them and had the chance to further bond as a group. The day finished with us all packing up and heading back to school after an exhausting but extremely exciting day. 

Xavier (Year 7) shares his passion for Wildlife Conservation

My trip to the beautiful Melbourne Zoo was amazing. Walking through the trails, I loved seeing all the unique wildlife up close. My absolute favourite part was watching the powerful tigers move gracefully and seeing the amazing gorillas interact with each other. It made me truly realize how important it is to protect these endangered creatures and their natural habitats. It has inspired me to support global wildlife conservation.

Seeds of Science: A Week of Discovery

This week has also been National Science Week. The theme this year is ‘Seeds of Science: Nurturing knowledge for all’ and Mazenod has certainly planted some seeds this week. Students have been able to participate in a ‘Guess that Seed’ competition all week and then on Thursday students were able to participate in an escape room activity. Particularly keen Biologists gathered a few weeks prior to science week to collect Wisconsin Fast Plant seeds. These seeds have the ability to transition through a complete growth cycle, from seed to flowering to reseeding in a few weeks. Students have been sending in photos of their progress with winners being chosen for speed of growth and number of seeds collected at the end. Unfortunately, winners will need to be announced at a later date as the plants aren’t quite at seed stage yet.

The science teachers at Mazenod love to see students so engaged and enthusiastic about science.

Dayna Hale

Faculty Head Senior Science