BioCats By Addison

On the 27th of the March of 2023 my class and I, many other schools woke up at around 5am in the morning to go to an excursion called BioCats. It was the most fantastic excursion ever and it involved science, math and of course footy! We all went to enjoy a day out of school and to learn some stuff about footy. This event was at the GMHBA Stadium in Geelong. I am now going to list a few reasons why this was one of my favourite excursions ever!

We were at Hamilton to start our bus trip and it was about 6 in the morning and only a few schools got on there including us, Merino and Macarthur. After driving in the dark for some time we got to Glenthompson to pick up two more schools and a few other teachers these schools were Penshurst and Dunkeld. After we picked up those schools we were off to BioCats. It was about a 3 hour drive there.

After all the schools had gotten off the bus we went to a meeting room and we sat there and they gave us a list of things we were going to do that day and all the activities. After that we got a tour of the stadium then we went back and split into two groups.

I was in a group with my friend Holly and we were on activity two which was a challenge session with teams. We were put in groups of three and went through little challenges and completing them and then going on to the next and there would be a winner at the end. When they announced the winners, we came second and we were very proud of ourselves for what we had accomplished in that period of time. We only had fifty-five minutes.

Once we were done our first activity we went and had a thirty-minute break.

Break was finished and we then went on to the next activity which was a testing activity. In this time, we were testing our abilities and strengths of different things. Some of the things we were testing were our sprint time, a reaction time, grip strength and many more. I thought that I did really well in my grip strength test. This was a piece of equipment that had a handle that you pulled on and then it would measure how strong your grip strengths were. My result on my right hand was thirty-nine kgs and on my left forty-eight kgs. I thought this result was weird because I usually use my right hand for everything. We were also seeing how fast our sprint time was and mine ended up being five second for a twenty-meter sprint. After that I was doing a vertical jump which was not my strongest activity but was still very fun. When we were doing this activity, we were jumping and trying to reach the highest point we could reach. Once I was done I went over and I measured my arms ad my height against a footy player. The last one was the reaction test which was on an iPad and it was a fun activity and it was scored out of 60 and I got 46.

After we were done with our activities we just got to go through the activities again or the ones you wanted to and have free time with your friends. When both the groups were done we all sat in the meeting room where we first sat at the very start and we said our good byes and then we all got a BioCats drink bottle! When that was done we got back on to the bus and all the schools headed home.

In conclusion BioCats was a very fun day with lots of fun things to do and I hope that you agree that it was fun and that you might get to go one day and have as much fun as I did. Thanks, you for listening and maybe one day you can go to!

BioCATS By Mietta Price

On Monday the 27th of March, the 5/6 class went to the BioCATS in Geelong to the GMHBA stadium. We had to wake up really early when it was still dark. Merino, Dunkeld, Penshurst, Macarthur, Glenthompson and Cavendish schools had to drive into Hamilton to get on the bus that drove us to Geelong.

When we finally got to the GMHBA stadium we watched a video about what we were going to do. All the schools went and did the team challenges. My team was Tilly, Charli and I. We nearly got all the challenges done but the time was over and we did not get to finish the task we were doing. Before the team challenge we had a tour and a lady called Lodgey took us on the tour.

We did all these activities after the team challenge where we had to go outside and inside and measure our arm span and our height. We also did a vertical jump where they measure how high we can jump.

I think the BIOCATS was really fun and we got to meet new people. I hope that everyone gets to go there too.

BioCATS By Hughie Price

On Monday the Grade 5/6 class went on an excursion to Geelong for BioCATS. I got up at 4:30am to get on the bus in Hamilton at 6:15am. We went with Merino, Dunkeld, Penshurst and Macarthur.

We drove for three hours (but it seemed a lot longer than that) to get to Geelong at 9 o’clock. When we finally got there, we went on a tour of the GMHBA Stadium and sat down in the stands. Then we went back inside and got split into two groups. In those two groups we did a challenge and some other physical things. First, we did the challenge. We got into groups of 3 or 4 and worked out the questions they had for us. I was a group with Darcy, Justin and Jack. Our team won the challenge. Then we swapped with the other group and did the physical tests and stuff. We did the vertical jump, grip test, reaction time and 20 metre sprint.

At lunchtime Justin, Darcy, Jack and I played with a Vortex torpedo thing. It was a lot of fun. After we did that we went back inside and did a few more things. I can’t remember what we did but I do remember we got free drink bottles at the end. When we left the stadium at the end of the day we started to walk to where the bus was waiting. We got on the bus and chose our seats. I was sitting next to Darcy on the way back.

In conclusion it was a great day and I had a lot of fun.

BioCATS By Justin Coates

On the Monday we went to BioCATS in Geelong. We had to get to the bus at 6:15 am and the bus ride was long but was not too bad. We went with some other schools such as Dunkeld, Merino, Penshurst and Macarthur.

When we got to GMHBA stadium we got off the bus and went in side the stadium. We were welcomed by a man named Tommy, since we were early we had something to eat and had a little look around. When it started Tommy asked a few questions and went over a few things like the meaning of STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths), we were put into 2 groups and we split up and carry on to do work.

The first thing we did was the BioCATS challenge I teamed up with Darcy, Jack and Hughie. The actives are made to be a bit tough but every one got through them okay. At the end, out team won and we got to hold up the trophy.

At lunch they had some stuff to play with like rubber chickens, footballs and a vortex ball which me and a few other people played with.

In the second half we tested our bodies. We did a vertical jump, 20-meter sprint, grip test and reaction testing. But I liked the vertical jump the most. All in all, it was a good day and I had fun.

Weekly focus - Good Manners