Middle School News
Year 7 Incursion:
CyberBullying
On Monday August 30th, all Year 7 students were involved in a free incursion run by Optus Digital Thumbprint. This session looked at clarifying what Online Bullying is (including what image-based abuse is) and the different things that we can do to prevent it and protect people online.
Students were asked to reflect on their own behaviour and the behaviour of others that they have witnessed online. They also worked through a real-life scenario of online bullying in a group chat.
It was great to see so many students engage with the chat, offering tips, suggestions and questions to build our understanding of what positive behaviour online looks, sounds and feels like.
When reflecting, 94% of students surveyed said the incursion helped them to understand cyberbullying and online safety and 98% said they would absolutely or maybe recommend the program to other year 7 students.
When asked what they learned from the experience, here’s some of the feedback students shared:
“I learnt to make your account private and turn off location” – Olivia
“I learnt how to deal with cyberbullying, the implications of cyberbullying and ways you can get help.” – Kevin
“That 1 in 3 people from the age 9-15 years have experienced cyberbullying” – Anonymous
“I learnt the best sites to report people to and how much info sites take in about you” – Aleksander
“We learnt about cyberbullying, how to deal with it, how to help others who have been or are currently being cyberbullied and we also learnt about consent.” – Felicity
“I learned that by being a bystander you could be encouraging a bully to keep bullying someone.” – Anonymous
Some of the ways students can seek help if they experience online bullying are:
- Report to a trusted adult. This can be a family member, friend or member of the school community like a teacher or the wellbeing team. If a student is unsure, overwhelmed or uncomfortable about reaching out then kids helpline is available 24 hours a day – just call 1800 55 1900
- Report to the app platform on which the bullying occurred. This can also be reported through the safety commissioner: https://www.esafety.gov.au/
- Report to police
This workshop really focused on encouraging students to speak up and speak out – Don’t suffer in silence! A big thank you to our facilitator Dom, the staff who supported him to run the workshop and of course to our wonderful DSC students for getting involved.
Ms Anna Ditchburn
Year 7 Coordinator
Year 8 STEAM Chain Reaction
It is with great excitement that we have been able to provide 8I and 8G with the opportunity to complete STEAM remotely this term! Students have been in the process of designing their chain reaction-type machines inspired by Rube Goldberg.
Rube Goldberg contraptions are intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.
As preparation for their final project, our Year 8I & 8G students were given a mini challenge last week to use materials around their house to construct a chain reaction machine. The machine had to undertake simple task, for example, switching on a lamp.
Check out some amazing chain reaction machines the students created!
Ms Manisha Malhotra & Ms Fotini Hrambanis
Year 8 Science
Year 9 MYSELF:
Print Workshop
My Print Workshop provides students the opportunity to develop their creative and expressive capacities by learning about the different practices, materials and techniques within the printmaking discipline. During remote learning, My Print Workshop students have been working on completing a finished artwork using song lyrics as inspiration.
When we listen to songs, we can create images in our mind of what the lyrics are communicating to us.
Below are a sample of the finished artwork pieces created by our students.
Ms Sally Miller
Art Teacher
Jade C., 9A
“Let it happen” by Tame Impala
Jennifer E., 9C
“You miss all the shots you don’t take”
Linya H., 9G
"Animals" by Maroon 5
Teagan H., 9D
“This is my kingdom come” by Imagine Dragons
Bruce J., 9G
Amy P., 9H
"Southern Sun" by Boy & Bear
Year 9 MYSELF:
My Photography
The Year 9 photography students have captured various moments of beauty in lockdown as they explored the photography medium.
Students have engaged in an inquiry of different genres in photography including macro, portrait, landscape and documentary. They have learnt various techniques in composition, including prioritising natural light, understanding and manipulating the position of the photographer, composing a photograph and understanding contrast.
Below are a selection of some fantastic images that have been created by these wonderful students. A huge congratulations for your efforts!
Ms Ramya Annavarapu
Sebastien G. (macro)
Miah B. (macro)
Jasmine D. (landscape)
Charlie H. (landscape)
Sabrina J. (documentary)
Year 9 Ceramics
Take a drive down EastLink and you will enter Australia's largest sculpture park. There are four major artworks displayed beside the road, commissioned by Australian artists Callum Morton, Emily Floyd, James Angus and Simeon Nelson. Walk or cycle along the EastLink Trail and you will spot a further eight sculptures.
Taking inspiration from this, our students were tasked to design a sculpture for the EastLink freeway. Students had to include the materials they would use, the scale of the sculpture, the visual elements they would incorporate into the final sculpture and the location and why.
Math Games Day
So you think you're smarter than a 9th grader? Well, think again! Last week, students from Years 7 to 10 took part in the annual Doncaster SC Math Games Day. A selection of puzzles were up for solving... can you solve them too?
Maths Games Day was definitely invaluable in gaining further insight and skill set into Mathematics and working as a team. Honestly, all of the puzzles and problems, we were enjoying to solve, especially the Sodu-clue puzzle (I think that really perplexed us to no end!).
Dina MG., 8K
Today was a challenging day for my group but we still had a lot of fun trying to solve these difficult puzzles. We all enjoyed the day and got to know each other a bit better, We also thank everyone that made this possible.
Ethan P., 9B