Strong Hearts Strong Minds

Prep Sea Animal Incursion

Did you know that sea cucumbers are the cleaners of the ocean? The Preps enjoyed an incursion from Wildlife Xposure where they learnt so many interesting facts about the amazing sea creatures. This is part of our Core Studies Unit where we are learning about God’s beautiful world.

Fiona Holliday

Prep Team Leader & Classroom Teacher

I liked the blue ringed octopus because it had so many brains. They have 9 brains and they must be super smart. They must know Google Plex plus Google Plex. 

Lennox

I found it interesting that the hermit crab had an exoskeleton and it talked by rubbing its claws together. 

Ember

I found it interesting when the shark looked happy and I learnt that sharks don’t like the taste of humans. 

Lucy

I saw a blue ringed octopus and I liked its hiding spot. 

Zahav

I saw a cucumber and I held a sea star. My favourite was the shark. 

Noah

I held a cushion star. I got splashed by a Port Jackson shark. I touched a crab. 

Chloe

Ooey Gooey Science with Year 10

This term in JP we have been learning about Chemical Science. Our Deep Hope has been ‘Through play and experimentation, we can use God’s creation to discover how things can change.’ We have been conducting our own experiments and discovering how different things change. 

The highlight of our term was going up to the Secondary Science Lab and having the Year 10s conduct some science experiments for us. Please see some photos and highlights from the students below.

Josh Chamberlain

Junior Primary Teacher

On Thursday 13 June the JP classes went up to the senior school to watch 3 experiments. My favourite was the volcano because it was so cool. It was red and then it was yellow.

Ruth

My favourite was the elephant toothpaste. The colours were red, blue, yellow and green and everyone chose red. The colour of the toothpaste was red. It was fun!

Hayden

We saw a coin drop experiment. It had six layers. Each one had the coin go through in a different amount of time. We did it twice. Each time was 20 seconds. Density was involved.

Levi

We went to the Science Lab. My favourite bit was the Exploding Volcano! I liked it because I have been dreaming to see a real volcano all my life!

Myla

We went to the Year 10 classroom and did science experiments. We had 3 experiments to do. First, we did a volcano and it was fun. We needed vinegar and bicarb soda. The boy put the bicarb soda in the volcano and the other boy put the vinegar in. Then the volcano exploded. At the visit I felt nervous and scared but it was okay because the teacher was here. When I went inside I was scared, but then a boy gave me a high-five. It was so much fun.

Abigail

Wow that exploded very big! The volcano exploded half and a quarter to the top of the tub. While we were there we also saw how many seconds it took a coin to get to the bottom of a tube. It took 20 seconds to do it. The last one was coloured elephant toothpaste. They said to make sure to not touch it because it makes the bubbles warm up.

Oliver

When we were at the science labs, we watched an explosion.

Ezra

Wow that was cool! The volcano erupted and the paper tree fell down the volcano. Boom! Another eruption and more and more and more. Finally it stopped, this is so cool.

Will

Fizz, poof! The elephant’s toothpaste went up out of the big, tall jug. We were watching the Year 10s do a science experiment.

Holly

Year 10 Perspectives

It was a fun morning and so lovely to have the Primary students join us. The Year 10s got hands on experience with setting up and conducting experiments, considering safety precautions, not just for themselves but for the younger students too; and engaging young learners with their communication skills. They also had to think on their feet and keep the JP students engaged when their experiment didn’t work! They did a fantastic job and enjoyed themselves.

Sabrina Solomons

Secondary Science & Maths

We had so much fun conducting Ooey Gooey Chemistry experiments with the JPs. My group did the elephant toothpaste experiment, which the kids really seemed to enjoy! I loved seeing the kids eyes light up at watching the reaction and I loved that they listened carefully and tried to pronounce and remember all of the large, difficult words. They all were so engaged, asked awesome questions and made our day!

Meg Dempsey

These science activities were a great way for us to demonstrate leadership skills and our abilities to understand the experiments that we were completing. Although some things didn't go perfectly, we had a great time enjoying some laughs. We will never forget the quote, "Look guys, it's turned a green colour!" Hopefully it was enjoyable for the JPs.

Zac King

Lego Masters

In an epic showdown of young architects and engineers, our Senior Primary students faced the ultimate full day incursion allowing them to Lego off the stresses of school! Guided by the ever-enthusiastic Lego Master’s extraordinaire, Mr Ryan Evans, brick by brick they clicked their way through a series of challenges that had them all scrambling for the perfect pieces.

From designing and building Lego skyscrapers that stood taller than Uluru (well, almost), wild and wacky Lego cars careering down a ramp competing for the furthest distance, to the final blockbusting challenge, creating a bridge that wouldn’t buckle under pressure. 

It was a day that had the students continuing to build a foundational understanding of the importance of team work, creativity and problem solving all while having a brick-tacular time.

Congratulations to the Lego Master Brothers on a bricktastic contribution to our Lego Masters day. Not only did they show impressive team building skills and engineering designs, their passion rivalled that of the host, Mr Ryan Evans. For this they were awarded a 3D printed frame holding a twisted brick from one of the challenges and a signed note from Mr Evans. 

Well done, Reuben and Toby B. 

Dave Sukh

Senior Primary Teacher/Primary Digital Technologies Teacher

Student Reflections

Ssh, ssh! There was a lot of Lego being moved in the tubs. We were doing a lego incursion challenge where we were needing to make a lego car that rolls. Our car was very successful, we came second. Originally we were fourth, but then they grabbed the top four and raced them for speed unlike the first time where they did distance. We came second in the race for our overall score.

Toby 

Oh no! Why is it tilting that much? Kablam! The tower that I and my group had spent the whole session doing had just fallen over and we only had 5 minutes left. Me and my group had to focus so we could win, so we quickly put our tower back together with only 2 minutes to spare. We were certain we would win but the very top of our tower that would make us win fell off and we only had 30 seconds. Me and my group scrambled to put it back on and we just managed to put it back on to secure the win. 

Hamish

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a blur until it was Thursday. Thursday was the day that Ryan Evans from season 3 Lego Masters came to our school. The first thing I knew, he was showing us his past in Lego Masters. Then we found out our first challenge. It was who could build the tallest tower. Colours, ideas and pressure when we built our own tower to combine them at the end but it kept falling over and over again. Frustrating, difficult, even more pressure. Okay we're going good until I look over, “Oh my”, there is one ten times as big as ours. We didn't win but it was still an amazing experience. Thank you!

Chloe L

I rush to build the bridge for the challenge. “1 minute left!” Ryan shouts. We put all our pieces together then, nooo! Someone steps on our bridge! I rush to find parts. At the end, I walk up to Ryan. “You forgot mine!” I say, holding up my tiny, only 6 stud long bridge.

Emily

Once upon a time I was trying to reach my dismembered arm when all of a sudden, a giant hand came down and swept away the lego, along with my arm. I heard a guy named Ryan Evans say that the kids were going to make a tower. Then he said the thing that the guy usually says on TV. I think it was something like, “Time starts now, go.” All the kids started to take specifically 2x2x2 bricks and 2x4x2 bricks. As well as a lot of flat pieces to make a base for the tower. All the groups started to build the bases for their towers. One of the groups built four, two block high walls, and then covered up the inside with the flat blocks they collected. Then they started building up, like really up. After much building, they finally got to the goal which was to build up to a metre tall. But suddenly the tower came crashing down! I didn't know how it happened, but the activity was fun. 

For the next activity the kids had to build a race car. Mr Evans put up a picture on the screen of how to build a basic car frame then most of the groups built the frame that was on the screen. The group that had the tub I was in, built the frame and then filled in all the gaps. Then they put the wheels on, but they didn’t fit, so one of the group members went to get new wheels. After everyone was done building their cars, one person from each group went up to talk about theirs. Then everyone went outside to race them. One of the cars, The Survivor, came 2nd. Their team was quite excited. 

The last challenge was the classic bridge challenge. This challenge looked a little bit more challenging because it was hard to make the bridge strong. After all the bridges were done, we tested how much weight they could hold. One of the bridges held up to 3.5 kg of weight. After that, everyone packed up and left. And that was the Lego incursion.

Reuben

We started the day with Mr Ryan Evans telling us about his favourite builds, then the builds that he won or came 2nd in. After that he told us what the behind the scenes of Lego masters was like. I found that very interesting.

Finally we gotta do what we all wanted to do: build. Mr Evans gave us a challenge, we had to get in groups and build the tallest tower. (bonus points if you get it taller than Mr Evans). I was in a group of 6. It took us a little while to get on the same page with our way to win.

By the end we got a tower that was not even close near Mr Evan's height.

We did another challenge and we went in a smaller group. I was in a group of 3. The challenge was we had to make fun/cool vehicles. My team decided to do a boombox. The base of the boombox was with hot colours like red, orange and yellow. We found 2 pieces that were perfect for the speakers. Mr Evans showed everyone all the cars.

We got to race after that, well most people got to race, unfortunately ours broke. We still raced at the end but it just didn’t look as cool.

To finish off the day Mr Evans gave us one last challenge. We had to build a bridge that would sit between two tables. I went back to my big group of 6. We tried to think of a good idea/strategy, but it turns out it wasn’t a good strategy because Mr Evans was putting iron on the bridges and ours fell down the second that Mr Evans put it on the 2 tables.  

Gemma

Last Thursday the whole of SP got to meet Ryan Evans! He is a Lego Master. First we got to make a tower that had to be 1m tall in a group. Ely, Jenny, Frankie and me were all in a group together. Our tower was as tall as Ryan!

The next time we had to make a car that would have to go down a ramp and not break, my group made a robber’s van. Unfortunately our group's car broke going down the ramp.

Lastly we got to make a bridge, it had to be at least 1m long. My group gave up near the end. Once we were done Ryan put weights on the bridge to see if it was strong enough, one bridge held 5kg! Crazy right?!

At the end of the day we packed up all the Lego. I am very grateful for Ryan for coming and teaching us about Lego and helping us work in teams and tell us things about Lego Masters!

Arianne S

Lego Day was really fun. Ryan Evans was our Lego teacher for the day. To start off the day we learnt about some of the creations that he had made back then and how he made it on the Lego Masters show where you build stuff out of Lego.

The first activity we did was, to build a tower that was at least 1 metre tall but if you had already built a tower over a metre, you were able to build even TALLER and the outcome for the tower at the ends were so tall and it was even like double my height.

The second activity that we did was to build a car for a race where we would put it on the top of a ramp. We then would wait for Mr Evans to say the word Lego. We would let go of our cars for it to go down the ramp and watch it ride down the driveway made by the other kids. It was really fun and my team had a red theme for our car and it was very cool in our eyes.

The third and last activity was to build a bridge that could hold weight and whichever one could hold the most weight would win. My group went for a triangle base which didn't work out and we had really high hopes for it but it sadly broke. But at the end of the day we had lots of fun.

Simon H

SP Science

Term 2 has been all about chemical reactions and changing states of matter in Senior Primary. Are those changes reversible or non-reversible? Students chose an experiment to practically examine changes of matter and used the scientific process called POE (Predict, Observe, Explain). Some experiments were successful, and some were not, which is a terrific lesson that God is always in control, and we are simply being curious to find out about his creation. Students understood that science works alongside God, but we are far from discovering everything there is to know! Students were introduced to many different facets of science – anthropology, forensic science, medical science and our first inventors – the Indigenous people of Australia to name a few. We often wonder if any of our students will become budding scientists in the future, and if they do, what they might contribute to our community.

SP Team

We made marshmallow slime for our experiment. We used marshmallows, coconut oil, corn starch and sprinkles to create a non-Newtonian liquid, which is a liquid with a very high viscosity and is not reversible. 

Gabrielle, Quin & Amelie

We made an erupting volcano. It was made from sand with a cup in the middle for the vent. We put vinegar, baking soda, washing detergent and a few drops of food dye into the cup. The chemical reaction foamed up and burst out the top to look like lava. These ingredients react because one is a base and one is an acid. This is a non-reversible change of matter. 

Jesse, Mark and Mack

We made an erupting volcano. It was made from a frame of cardboard and then plastered and then painted. We poured vinegar, dishwashing liquid, food colouring and bicarb of soda. There was a chemical reaction where it turned into foam and poured out like lava. We were really happy with the result. 

Noah, Stanley and Henry

Elephant's Toothpaste Reflection

This term in Core Studies we have been looking at science, and in my opinion there is no better way to do that than to explode some Elephant toothpaste with my partner Josh.

Our plan was to have two bottles on a lazy susan and just before it explodes, we would spin it and it would make a really cool effect.

Just before the experiment the lazy susan wasn’t spinning and so Josh, Matthew and I were frantically running around trying to fix it, we ended up solving it with the help of Mrs Taylor that the surface of the table was slowing it down by rubbing against the bottom of the lazy susan. So we then propped it up with a roll of sticky tape!

Now the nerves started kicking in, everyone was now outside and the explaining and experimenting began. 

Once we had put all the materials in, the foam began to shoot out of the bottle even before the funnel came out! Then the spinning of the lazy susan came late but it didn’t matter because there wasn’t enough force pushing it up so it just poured down the bottle therefore couldn’t do the spin effect.

The reaction happened because the bicarb soda is a base and citric acid is an acid. The acid is giving away hydrogen but the bicarb soda wants hydrogen so they react and make a foamy substance.

Noah A

Volcano experiment reflection                                              

This term in C.S we have been looking at the topic of science. People did many different experiments but I prefer ones that blow up! And what better theme than a volcano!

I worked with Spencer and Ezra and we made our own volcano that was supposed to explode… sometimes experiments don’t work and that is what happened to the volcano. We found out the reason and it was that the bottle was too tall and wide for the foamy lava to come out. The dishwashing liquid that we put in also made a really nice foam but it reduced the climb of the lava to get out of the volcano, so the lava didn't end up escaping the volcano.

But other than that it was all really fun and it didn’t work out, but not everything does work out. For now, we will just call it a well planned extinct volcano!

Matthew J

SPs Reading to JPs

What do you get when you combine some Senior Primary students with some excited Junior Primary students? Well, on this particular Tuesday, a lot of reading! The SPB class wrote a short story with illustrations to share with the younger students. On Tuesday we visited the Wallabies in their classroom to read our stories and then share a time of buddy reading. It was a lovely time and all the students enjoyed being together and reading to each other. As a teacher of the older students, I was so blessed to see the SP students work hard to make their stories appealing and relevant to a younger audience. To see them reading together with the younger students, encouraging and supporting their reading skills, was a delight.

Sarah Piesse

SP Teacher