School News
Catalina Cureceanu
visits MGC
"Where are the others, do extra-terrestrial civilisations exist?”
Each year the AIP funds the national Women in Physics tour by an eminent physicist. This year’s AIP Women in Physics lecturer is Dr Catalina Curceanu, Head Researcher of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN).
Dr Catalina Curceanu graduated in physics with the highest qualification in Bucharest Romania and obtained her PhD in experimental particle and nuclear physics within the OBELIX experiment at the particle laboratory CERN in Geneva looking at antimatter. Since 1992 she has lived in Italy and worked at the Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati. She leads a research team performing nuclear and fundamental physics experiments on the DAFNE collider at Frascati and also at the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso. Her team participates in experiments performed at CERN in Geneva and J-PARC in Japan. Dr Curceanu is an author of more than 200 scientific papers in international journals.
She encourages physicists and students to be courageous: "Physics is 90% trial and failure" "It is much worse not to try, than to try and to fail."
We were lucky enough to have Catalina visit us on Tuesday the 23rd of August to discuss outer space, whether aliens exist, and the physics involved in trying to answer that question. She spoke to the girls studying physics at year 10, 11 and 12. Her talk illustrated how physics can explain the world and universe around us, as well as how it is used to answer big questions. She also opened our eyes to possible future careers and opportunities in the field of science, particularly physics.
Sandor Kazi, Senior Physics Teacher, and Brooke Scallion, Science Captain
Year Seven State Soccer
On Friday the 9th of September, the MGC Year Seven soccer team competed in the State Championships. It was held in Kingston Heath Soccer Complex with great facilities and staff. In our first game we played against Gallen Catholic College and we won 6-0. Our second game was against Bendigo South where we won 2-0, which was the game we were aiming to win. The last game was against Warrnambool College and we had a great game, winning 8-0. This meant that we would play the winners of the other pool, Maribyrnong Sports Academy in the grand final. This game was very close and they shot one goal in the first half putting them in the lead. We came back, shooting one goal in the second half, making it even by the end of the match. Because it was a draw we had extra time, but still no goal was shot. This then went to a penalty shoot out, which Maribyrnong won in a tightly fought contest.
We were a bit disappointed with the outcome but still very happy to be the Victorian State Runners-up! Thanks to Gab, Cassie and Mr. Kovassy again for coaching us and shout out to Ms. T who had been training us but unfortunately couldn’t make it to the game. Great job girls!