Around the KLA's (Key Learning Areas) - Science

FEATURE KLA -

The Science faculty at O’Connor comprises of David Lush, Bryan Allerton, Nicholas Bolger, Brad Powers, Shane McCann, Regina Menz, Daniel Fittler and our lab technician Liz Brown. These are the people who are responsible for the nurturing of curiosity and scientific inquiry of every student who passes through O’Connor.

This year has been full of challenges (but none that we can not overcome) right from the very beginning.  We were the first cab off the rank in the newly restructured audit process which all of the schools in the diocese part take in and each faculty across the school is involved in this year. This new process is designed to enable schools to share the good ideas that are embedded in their teaching practices while checking to see that essential administration documentation is being used to ensure that teaching and learning are running efficiently at school. Year 11 and 12 Biology was audited this term and Year 11 and 12, Physics and Chemistry will be audited later in the year. The feedback received from the audit process commended us on our organisation and alignment to NESA expectations. I would like to thank Nick Bolger, Bryan Allerton and particularly, David Lush for the work that they have done in making sure that all documentation is correct and up to date.

By far, the biggest challenge that we are facing the pandemic COVID-19. The disruption that this has posed to learning has been huge, but the response to this situation by students and staff has also been huge and each day that we complete together reminds me of how fortunate we are to be at O’Connor.

Junior Science

This term, Year 7 have been introduced to high school science with the topic “Filthy Filthy Water”. In this topic, students learn about Science skills that will set themselves up for learning in Years 8 through to 12. Learning to light the bunsen burner is always the highlight of this topic. As the threat of COVID-19 worsened, students stayed home if they had the option to. This environment has forced our learners to become more independent. As teachers, we have had to learn a lot as well to try and support our students as best we can through this difficult time. Here is an instructional video that teaches students how to get pure drinking water from dirty water through the process of distillation;

Experiment - Home Distillation Video - getting pure water from filthy water

I am always blown away by what kids learn and in this video, you can see that I have a little sign language assistant who decided it was a good idea to interpret what I was saying for the deaf community at O’Connor.

The experiments that students conducted in response to this video were outstanding (like the one shown above), highlighting some of the good that has come out of this situation - that students recognise that Science experiments are not just done in a lab at school, they can be completed anywhere. This is a powerful message that is coming from the students and will serve them well in the future.

Our year 8 students have been learning about energy. They will be able to tell you that energy can take a variety of forms but, importantly, energy can not be created or destroyed it can only change from one form to another form (my Mum would always say that “you only get out of it, what you put into it”). To understand these ideas, students have conducted a range of experiments on energy transformations. When students made the move to learning from home, the teachers realised that the amount of feedback from students dropped significantly. Teachers rely on both smiling faces, confused looks and even bored expressions (although there are none of these in our classes) to gauge whether the content being covered is pitched at the right level. Students and teachers are now more reliant than ever on comments, feedback that is posted through learning platforms such as Google Classroom. So a quick “I enjoyed this” or “this was too hard” or “I didn’t understand this part” is now even more important than ever. It might look like this;

Senior Science

Zoom meetings have been taking place in Biology, Physics and Chemistry to allow students the opportunity to ask questions and get fast feedback around the learning that has taken place that week.

With the flexibility of hours that comes from remote learning, students have been able to use that time to come up with creative and highly entertaining ways of displaying what they have learnt as you can see in the following assessment task that was submitted to explain how an electric motor works;

Isabelle Kennedy - Assessment - DC Motor operation

Ruth Toakley - Assessment - Explaining the DC Motor

FEATURE TEACHER - Mr David Lush

In the past few newsletters, some of the new staff have been introduced to the wider community. I would like to take this opportunity to reintroduce David Lush to you, someone who has worked at O’Connor for a long time. As students finish Year 12 and reflect on their schooling journey, they often comment on the experiences that they had in “Lushy’s” classes. With an incredible knowledge of Biology, something that you can only get from immersing yourself in it for years, the connections that he can draw out for kids gives them insight into the awe and wonder that can be found in all living things.

What is your Full Name? 

My name is Peter David Lush.

What years and subjects are you teaching? 

I am teaching every year, that is, one class in each junior year as well as a Year 11  and 12 Biology class.

Where have you lived? 

I was born and spent my first 4 years in Melbourne (Essendon: go the Bombers), we then moved to Armidale. I did my schooling here except for 15 months living in Cairo, Egypt (my father was working for UNESCO) when I was in Year 11. After school, I spent 6 years in Sydney and then came back to Armidale in 1980 and have been here since.

What kinds of hobbies and interests do you enjoy? 

I have played a lot of sport throughout life and still run a boxing group (not right now of course). These days I like to walk in the bush (no running anymore – dodgy knee) and like to do woodwork when I can get the chance. I also love music.

Which Mr Men character would best describe you? 

There are times when this may not apply but I am probably closest to Mr Happy.

What do you enjoy most about O’Connor? 

I have been here a long time and I love it when students and I enjoy our time together, especially in the classroom and then meeting up again after they have left school. I also love our grounds and buildings.