Science Week!

Science Week at Thornbury High School is always an opportunity to celebrate our love of all things science, and 2024 was a big one!

The week kicked off with demonstrations in the STEAM Centre, with teachers and VCE students showing water rockets, methane bubble explosions, safely lighting Mr Millar’s hand on fire, foamy and steamy elephant’s toothpaste, and a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ iodine clock reaction. 

We continued with drone races in the amphitheatre and enjoyed the excitement and anticipation of the week to come. 

Wednesday saw all students in year 7 to 9 go to an incursion in the Auditorium to see the Mad About Science ‘Extraordinary Elements’ show. The presenters showed us plasma, electrostatic forces, coloured flames, and fire bending. Students passed the final quiz with flying colours and the finale of the liquid nitrogen exploding a bottle saw heart rates going up and excitement bursting through the room – an excellent way to finish the hour of extraordinary science!

During our lunchtime viewing of ‘Design to Survive: The First Inventors’ that day students considered the STEM skills that would have been needed to survive 65,000 years ago, seeing engineering and scientific ingenuity that allowed First Nations peoples to survive and thrive.

On the final days of Science Week, the sports committee organises a ‘battle of the forces’ tug of war for house points, and Academic and SRC committee worked together to organise a scientific scavenger hunt. During the hunt students had 35 minutes to find answers around the school in hopes to win a canteen voucher. 

Roughly 40 students participated (12 teams in total). Five vouchers were awarded, and everyone had a great time stretching their science detective/ investigation skills and enjoying some free food!

- Tara Quenault, Head of Science