Science Sparks!

As 2025 concludes, the Science & Agriculture Faculty has successfully completed yearly examinations, marking and reporting while continuing regular curricular and practical work. Hands-on activities across Years 7 to12 have been a focus, with student engagement strong during laboratory investigations, field visits and extended research projects. 

Agriculture 

On Monday, our Year 12 Ag class attending USyd Open Day at its Camden/Cobbitty Campus. Students participated in a variety of activities that demonstrated the diverse university opportunities available to them that meet the multitude of applications of agriculture in the commercial sector.  

Activities included: 

• Cattle breed identification, electronic tags, feed impacts on methane production 
• Plant hybridisation 
• Mushroom growing 
• Fish anaesthesia and water testing 
• Drone and robotic technologies 
• Sheep handling 

Students visited the main campus on Werombi Road and the Plant Breeders Institute in Cobbitty. 

Year 7 

The second half of this term, Students completed an introductory unit on evolution and taxonomy. Practical work included use of dichotomous keys, a school-grounds species survey and a fossil-formation modelling exercise. Learning outcomes included applying a dichotomous key to classify specimens; describe evidence for common ancestry; outline simple mechanisms of natural selection. 

Year 8 

Lessons focused on periodic trends and distinguishing physical and chemical properties. The investigations included malleability, electrical conductivity, density, and reactions with dilute acid (under controlled conditions). Students recorded comparative data and related trends to atomic structure. 

Year 9 

Year 9 engaged on balancing chemical equations, reaction rates and the role of catalysts and enzymes. A featured practical involved measuring the pH of household substances using universal indicator and pH strips. Creating p H rainbow chart was fun! This lesson assisted students to consolidate their understanding of acid/base reactions. The best rainbow received Kinder Chocolate as a prize with the winning rainbow selected by another science teacher. 

Year 10 

10SciL1 created the phases of Mitosis using Oreo's and lollies along with a brief description of what occurs at each phase. This fun practical lesson concluded the topic of reproduction before moving on to Natural Selection an Evolution. Year 10 are also doing basics of Mendelian genetics and progressed to Darwinian theory and adaptation. 

Year 12 

The current Year 12 conducted extended scientific investigations as their first year 123 Bio assignment which is a Mendelism project using fast-growing Wisconsin seeds to investigate inheritance patterns. The picture above and below (showing petri dishes) is a project by year 12 biology where Students germinated Wisconsin seeds under controlled conditions to test inheritance of early phenotypic traits (for example, leaf colour).