Technologies News

STEAM Elective 

Earlier this term after completing research and an assessment on the “The effects on life on the planet earth should an asteroid hit earth,” the class worked in pairs to make a gas mask from everyday materials. This was a fun activity requiring critical and creative thinking and problem-solving skills. The class has just finished working on a competition submission. 

This competition explores the twentieth-century Australian Dream of a detached house in the suburbs – which, while still alluring - is increasingly out of reach. Australian cities are also beset with environmental problems. Our cities rarely meet their targets for urban densification and, in some cases, are devouring fringing biodiversity. Students needed to predict what housing would be like in 80 years’ time. The final product is a postcard with an image and a message. These will be displayed next term when the competition is closed to entry.

We are also working on a very exciting collaborative venture with Mr Rose’s Year Eight Digital Product Design and Innovation students. STEAM students have been designing and Digital Product Design students are taking those designs and making a product. More to come on this.

Ms Elinor Couper | Teacher and Head of Library Services

Wood Technologies

Middle School

This term, students studying Wood Technologies in Years Seven, Eight and Nine are making very good progress on their practical tasks. A new group of Year Seven students commenced their ten week course and are at the halfway mark. They are currently finishing a design task which incorporates wood and plastic. Some of the processes they learn are cutting, shaping, routering and sanding wood. At the same time, they are learning how to cut, shape, drill and bend acrylic using a strip heater. 

The Year Eight students are approaching the end of their semester course completing their desk tidy and racing car. Both projects require conceptualising and making the projects to serve a useful purpose. Some students are making a desk tidy to house their stationery, others have designed mobile phone charging stations or a combination of both. They also had to design a racing car which when completed will take part in a class range test to evaluate the efficiency of their designs. 

Mr Peter Colgate | Teacher 

Senior School

The Year Eleven students are ready to kick back and put their feet up on their newly finished upholstered footstool they have been working on over the past few weeks. The students were required to design, manufacture, and then upholster their footstools.  They are very proud of their finished products. 

Mr Brodie Sarre | Teacher

Agriculture

Middle School

The Year Eight students have now got their young marron in the tanks, wheat (belatedly, due to illness) into the ground, and the chicks now in the adult chicken coop. Year Seven students have planted most of their vegetables for the winter season and are beginning to really understand the differences between different vegetable families and how the needs change over the year. 

Mr Julian Gugenheim | Teacher and Farm Manager

Digital Technologies

As we begin the climb to the end of the semester, Digital Technologies students in Year Seven are now beginning work on their final assessment for the semester “Quiz Me”. With their knowledge in computational thinking (computational thinking is a problem-solving approach that integrates across activities and involves developing a set of instructions that a computer can understand and execute) they are busy building flowcharts and designing and creating an interactive quiz based on digital systems content from term one. Towards the end of term, they will test out their interactive quizzes and understand how decisions selections/responses impact the flow of a program.

Year Eight students in Mr Rose and Mr Bailey’s classes are rocketing along with learning a new programming language, Python. Python is a high-level, general-purpose and a very popular computer programming language. Python is being used in web development, Machine Learning (ML) applications, along with other cutting-edge technology in Software Industry. Did you know that parts of the algorithm for music streaming allocation Spotify are built using Python? Students have worked hard to overcome the challenges and success that this text-based programming environment brings. 

Year Eight Digital Product Design and Innovation students are working at tremendous pace completing their practical projects. In the past week, learning how to solder electric LED circuits has kept everyone busy. These circuits will form a part of their “light box project”, eventually being a personalised decorative light, powered by USB. All components of the light box are designed by these students using industry standard design software and hardware. We are looking forward to showing everyone what we have made!

Mr Kyal Rose | Teacher 

Mr Kieran Bailey | Teacher and Head of IT Services

Hospitality 

Year Seven

Our enthusiastic Year Seven Students continue to implement their safe work habits during practical cooking lessons.  They have learned how accurate measuring of ingredients contributes to successful baked products, and that products high in sugar and fat are classified as discretionary, or sometimes, foods.  Comparing healthy apple muffins and not-so-healthy chocolate chip cookies made students realise eating delicious foods do not always have to contain high amounts of sugar and fat. 

Year Eight

When the Year Eight students arrived to class and saw takeaway cheeseburgers to taste, their excitement was quashed when they realised the nutritional benefits of choosing them are not great!  We compared a homemade cheeseburger by writing a sensory analysis on the appearance, aroma, taste, and texture of both types.  Adding seasonal ingredients, choosing a healthy bun, and limiting high sugar and salt sauces improved the look and the nutritional content of a homemade burger.  Students are currently following a design brief to construct brilliant burgers for their semester assessment.

Year Nine

What is nude food?  Simply put, it is food without excess packaging.  The Year Nine students are currently researching the effects packaging used in school lunch boxes have on the environment by analysing rubbish as being recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, or ending up in landfill. To combat throwing away regularly used cling wrap, zip lock bags, and the like, students made their own beeswax wraps to incorporate in the nude food lunch box they are currently designing. They had fun practising some food photography after designing several lunch box combinations using ingredients on hand.

Year Ten

Year Ten students are experimenting with spices commonly used in Indian and Chinese cuisine.  They have made homemade curry powder to use in a delicious ricotta curry served with homemade naan bread, and homemade tandoori paste that was compared to a store bought product.  The paste was used to make tandoori chicken skewers that were grilled and served with a beautiful papaya and pineapple salsa.  Students used interesting wonton wrapping techniques use the process of steaming in bamboo baskets to produce delicious, Chinese steamed wontons that were served with a spicy, salty dipping sauce.  Currently, the class are working in groups to plan for a shared Dim Sum meal in several weeks.

Year Eleven

Our Year Eleven VET Hospitality students continue to produce a range of appetisers in the kitchen. Recently they prepared and presented very tasty fish goujons with lemon mayonnaise.  A new unit of competency has begun which is a Tourism unit.  Last week we went to the Albany Visitors Centre for an insight into how it is run, the service it provides, and the resources available there.  Students are currently using that knowledge to produce some marketing material for various hospitality venues in Albany.

Year Twelve

Front of House service is the main focus of the Certificate II Hospitality qualification, and our Year Twelve students continue to refine their Barista and customer service skills during weekly staff coffee service.  Students have commenced the last few units of competency of the course so are working hard during class to support each other through these.  This preparation will stand them in good stead for their final assessments at the end of Term Three, when an assessor from Hospitality Group Training will visit our school to work with the students.

Mrs Teresa McAllister | Head of Technologies