MIDDLE SCHOOL
Year 7 Precious Resources STEM Activity
Our Year 7 students have been working through a Science unit on precious resources which introduced issues of conservation and sustainability. The class discussed how single-use plastic shopping bags have been discontinued in supermarkets.
A common use of these single-use bags was for garbage bin liners. The problem is that plastic bags are non-biodegradable; they do not decompose in nature. Students carried out a STEM activity, recycling newspaper sheets to make biodegradable alternative bin liners.
A numeracy angle was added to the activity when students explored the dimensions of a 2-dimensional newspaper sheet versus their fully constructed bin liner.
And for those in the school community who want to try it out, you can watch the video tutorial below.
Angela Reid
STS Coordinator
Science Domain
Respectful Relationships Forum Held at Doncaster Secondary College
On the 23rd of October, year 10 students from around Melbourne came to DSC to participate in our respectful relationships program. Our student facilitators from year 9 and 10 worked together to create a day of activities and learning about respectful relationships, bullying, equality and so much more about creating a safe and inclusive environment in our schools. After learning about what respectful relationships means and sharing ideas, the students worked together in their school groups to come up with an action plan to promote respectful relationships in their own schools. It was such a rewarding experience to be given the opportunity, resources and facilities to make a day like this happen and to see the impact we can have on other schools by running events like this. "I feel energised, like I can actually make a difference" - Niosha. The RRRR team would like to say a thank you to Stef Tipping from the education department and Ms Chiuchiarelli for supporting the development and running of the day.
Logan A. 9C, Lauren C. 9A, Luke T. 10G, Niosha K-D. 10E, Tom S. 10A, Vasiliki S. 10G, Lara H. 10H
GUEST ARTICLE FROM A STUDENT OF SALESIAN COLLEGE
In the modern era, many social problems have risen, especially within the context of respectful relationships. Because of this, our school, Salesian College has endeavoured to make our school a pioneering and leading college in a Respectful Relationship school community. Recently, there was a forum held by a Doncaster Secondary College that brought in schools from all places and invited them to discuss this concept. They engineered icebreakers where we could learn about each other. They also talked and held plenty of discussions about relevant topics that included the likes of equality and equity when it comes to gender and ethnicity as well as gender boundaries and stereotypes. All of these topics where made engagingly and professionally, even though the whole forum was made by year nine students. Another topic they discussed was the relevance of Student Voice within a school community. They asked us to be more vocal about our opinions and launch initiatives to further and broaden the minds of the students within our college. Overall, this forum was incredibly crucial as well as relevant to the people in attendance. This just goes to show how powerful it is when the people of this generation rise up and take a stand on what is important to them.
Ben - Year 9 Salesian College
