Science News

National Science Week

Glen Eira College has been celebrating National Science week which occurred from Monday 17th August to Friday 21st August, 2020. The theme for this year was “The Year of the Ocean - Deep Blue -Innovations for the Future".  Some interesting facts about the oceans on Earth are:

1. Our oceans produces 70 to 80% of the oxygen in our atmosphere.
2. Ocean covers 70% of the planet.
3. It is believed that there are 2.2 million marine species in our oceans.
4. Coral reefs help form rainforests. They release the chemical dimethyl sulphide which seeds rain clouds and cause rainfall in rainforest areas.
5. The world’s largest mountain range is under the ocean.
6. If you placed Mt Everest in the Marianna trench ( the deepest part of our oceans)  it would still be 1.2 kilometres under the water.
7. Only 5% of our oceans have been explored.

To start the celebration for National Science week some quizzes on the Oceans were created for Year 7 to 9 students, Year 10 to 12 students and a quiz for parents. I would like to extend my congratulation to the following people for winning the quizzes:

Year 7 to 9 Students: Shanmukh Chennuri 7F

Year 10 to 12 Students: Aidan Lightbody 10A

Parent winner:  Neera Gupta 

All Year 7 students undertook an incursion online by watching the Perform Education – Marine team. The marine team outlined to students what is ocean sustainability. The program then outlined how oceans impact our planet, solutions that generate healthy oceans and how you can help embrace innovative ocean technology. After completing this activity all students were asked to participate in our Poster competition to reduce plastic around GEC with the winner receiving a gift certificate for a book. I am looking forward to seeing the posters that are being created. 

Other activities that were offered to students to participate in were: making your own compass and carrying out a practical to see what acidification does to molluscs and coral. 

It was great to see students participate in these activities and discussing what they can do to help the ocean. In addition to these activities, Glen Eira College was fortunate enough to be contacted by author Anthony Clancy who has written an ebook entitled The Rain Circle. The Rain Circle is a novel about climate fiction which has received good reviews on Amazon and Good Read.  We would like to extend our thanks to Anthony for his generosity of providing a non- formatted copy of the book free to all students.

Lastly, the Science faculty would like to thank everyone for their support and participation in these activities during the week.

Science Talent Search 2020

This year we have 6 students participating in the Science Talent Search which is organised for all science students in Victoria. Excitingly, our students have elected to participate in a range of activities and topics as outlined below:

• Year 11-  Ishwarya Polisetti - How paper centrifuges are used to diagnose malaria? (Model)
• Year 8 - Harshitha Meenakshisundaram – An ocean of change (Creative Writing)
• Year 8 – Amelia Sujana – Jigsaw puzzle (Creative writing)
• Year 7 – Param Dave – Scrap Sucking Ship (Model)
• Year 7   Yug Soni - Space trash game (Computer Game)
• Year 7 Group entry: Jamie Katic and Alexander Tari – Circle of Light (Video)

All the students worked very hard to complete their chosen project. It was great to see their interest and passion in Science plus there independence and research skills to find out further information about a topic. . I would to wish them all the best in Science Talent Search competition which will be judged at the end of August.

Elizabeth Allan

Head of Science