Junior Science

Throughout Year 7 and 8 science, students study a range of science disciplines from earth and space science to physics, biology and chemistry. 

The Year 8s went on an excursion to the Melbourne Museum as part of the unit on geology in earth and space science. The students were split into different groups and learnt about specific types of rocks. The museum gave the students an opportunity to observe and hold rocks from their collection. These included obsidian, meteorites, and rock aged as 3.4 billion years old. Using their newfound knowledge, the students became experts explaining their understanding in a 2-minute influencer video. The videos produced by the students are creative, amusing, and informative. We are looking forward to having the premiere of the videos in a few weeks’ time. Throughout the remainder of the day, students examined the museum exhibits including the fascinating dinosaur, forest and bugs exhibitions. 

In Year 7, the students are looking at chemistry. They are investigating the different states of matter and how mixtures of substances combine and how they can be separated. During this unit, students complete a range of experimental activities that solidify their understanding regarding the scientific concepts. In a recent experiment, students created a density tower using liquids with different densities (e.g., honey, water, and oil). Then the students identified how the density of different solids (e.g., grapes) compared with the density of the liquids.  Another experiment practiced separating heterogeneous mixtures using filtration. Students formed the mixture using chalk and water passing the mixture through filter paper to filter the chalk from the water. 

Lisa Thomson

Chemistry Teacher