Science 

National Science week is on from the 12 - 20th August. The theme is Innovation: Powering Future Industries and students are engaging in activities and lessons around this. The Science team are also holding a morning tea for teachers to show off all the STEM based activities we do!

Year 10 VALID exams are on Wednesday 30th August in the morning for all Year 10 students. This important online exam will demonstrate how well students can interpret science stimulus through multimedia and text and respond to long and short answer questions. Students will be provided with practice questions in class to prepare them for this. The data collected will be used to get a snapshot of how well students in Year 10 are achieving in Science and areas we need to focus on as a faculty. 

Students in years 7 - 10 in the extension (Teal) class will be sitting the ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) tests designed to test student scientific skills and reward student achievement. This will be done in class time and students from other classes can apply to sit the test as well - just let your teacher know. The data collected will help us further extend students and challenge them in our normal science classes. 

Our senior chemistry students who won the Titration competition last term will compete in the national finals this term. Our team of Phoebe, Archie and Toby beat every other school in Armidale to get to this point and we wish them good luck and have fun in the upcoming finals. 

Our Year 9 Forensic Science classes are investigating the case of Anastasia Romanov, the Russian duchess who went missing around 1918. Our Doctor of Chemistry Mr. Czaban demonstrated how flesh and bone can be dissolved in an acid mixture to show how to dispose of bodies, and the classes are looking at the physics of bulletproof vests by making and testing them (not with real bullets!) as the Romanov family sewed diamonds into their clothes which made them bullet proof. 

The new draft Science Syllabus is released next week for consultation and feedback from science teachers statewide. The Science faculty will spend a good deal of time going through the draft and providing feedback to the Department of Education and NESA to ensure our students are getting the best education possible. We are excited about the prospect of revising our teaching and learning programs to better suit the needs of modern students.