SCIENCE

WELCOME FROM THE SCIENCE FACULTY 2024!

Welcome to and welcome back to McKinnon Secondary College for 2024. The science faculty are so excited to embark on this new year and are looking forward to implementing an inspiring science course to our students. This year, as a science faculty, we will be continuing to deliver engaging classroom activities, experiments, school-based incursions and exciting excursions across multiple year levels so that all students may be provided with a truly enriching science curriculum. Look out for these upcoming events and exciting opportunities as they feature in the fortnightly newsletters to come. 

As McKinnon’s incoming Head of Science, I’d like to wholeheartedly thank Cherie Marks, our outgoing Head of Science, for her years of dedication to this faculty. Our team of science staff expands this year as we welcome a few new and returning staff to our faculty. 

New staff:

• Tamlin Dobrich
• Anthony Joy
• Amanda Phillips

I wish them all the best for their start here at McKinnon and look forward to their contributions to our science department.

I’d also like to warmly welcome back Sarah Ridout who was on leave for 2023 and has spent time teaching overseas. 

Key Events Coming Up:

This year, there are a few whole school activities that we look forward to showcasing at McKinnon.

National Science Week: Later in the year during Term 3, we will be celebrating National Science Week (10-18 August). Over a number of days during that week, we will be hosting the McKinnon Science Week Festival which will include a variety of exciting activities, both new and old (beloved by students and staff), that will run during classes and lunchtimes at both the McKinnon Road and East Campuses. The dates of this festival are still being finalised. Watch this space!

Science Competitions: Look out on the Compass newsfeed later in the year for information on how to participate in a variety of different competitions in science. At McKinnon, we provide our students with the opportunity to take part in “Science Talent Search”, “Big Science Competition” and the “Science Olympiad”. 

Key Resources - Science Google Site and Google Classroom:

A reminder to students (and parents) that all resources for Year 7 - 10 Science subjects can be accessed from our Science Google Site linked here (please be advised that only @mckinnonsc emails will be able to log in. Parents; you will require your child's login information to view this website). Our VCE Science courses have their own individual Google Sites which teachers have already made available to students. 

Additionally, all subjects will have a Google Classroom generated, which teachers will manage and add resources and assignments to (parents have access to these). 

It is really important that all students regularly check their subject Google Classrooms and Google Sites (as well as emails and Compass) to stay up to date with information shared to them by their teachers regarding their learning and assessments. 

I wish all students, staff and parents a fantastic year ahead in Science at McKinnon. I will leave you with this (terrible) science joke:

“Why did the scientist take out his doorbell?” - Answer: “He wanted to win the ‘Nobel (no-bell) Prize’”. 

Katherine Johnstone

Key Learning Area Manager (Science)