Physics 

Physics at Ecolinc

On Wednesday 27th March, our Year 11 Physics class attended a full day session at Ecolinc Science and Technology Innovations Centre, Bacchus Marsh. Students Jeremy, Ashleigh, Joey, Vivian, Davey and Josh spent the day playing with infrared cameras. 

The students used them to explore and investigate thermal signatures of hot and cold objects, as well as using them as a tool to determine the effectiveness of certain building designs on the cooling or heating in homes, such as double-glazed windows for insulation and ceiling fans as a means of evaporative cooling.

The day was a terrific opportunity to review classwork and do some hands-on investigations. The carefully designed Ecolinc buildings provided many interesting applications of thermodynamic principles, which further developed our appreciation of energy-saving cooling, heating and lighting.

Girls in Physics Breakfast

On Friday 22nd March, two of the three year 11 female physics students from our school attended the Girls in Physics Breakfast (organised by VicPhysics). This is the second year that Federation University has hosted this event.

Ashleigh, Vivian and I, embarked on an early morning drive into the city campus of Federation Uni. At the venue, Ash and Viv were assigned to separate tables with female students from other schools in the region and further afield. On each table were women who were beginning their careers based upon a physics education, such as Manufacturing Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Astrophysics.

After enjoying a delicious breakfast, the guest speaker, Dr. Dianne Ruka, introduced herself as a Kyabram girl who liked science at school but didn’t know what she really wanted to do. She explained that by doing what she liked (Biology) she moved though a number of careers to eventually working at Monash University as the Education & Training Coordinator with FLEET (the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies). Here she takes research being completed in physics and materials engineering and translates it into educational tasks and demonstrations. Dianne explained the physics behind superfluids, transistors and superconductors, as well as outlining some of the very exciting new technology that is just around the corner. She was very easy to listen to and made complex physics simpler to understand.

The three of us had a great morning and there were many very relevant messages for the girls to take away, that we will discuss as the year proceeds.

Jackie Kerr

(Physics Teacher)