Year 11 VCAL Literacy

This term the focus of the Year 11 VCAL Literacy class has been on understanding the importance of text structure and organisation in the persuasive writing genre. Our students embraced the opportunity to complete research on an issue of significance and demonstrate their understanding in an extended response.

We congratulate all our students for their efforts with this task and are very proud to share some of their responses with our school community.

Katrina King, Alex Shepherd and Debbie Mantzanidis

Electric Cars Must Be Intergrated As Soon As Possible

Electric cars are cars that are powered by electricity instead of gas. There are a lot of car brands that are now making electric cars such as Tesla, Hyundai and Toyota. Many people can’t wait for the change, but some people don’t want cars to be electric. There are many positives and negatives from the public. Indeed, we need to rethink about making electric cars because of the increased pollution from charging, the cost of charging and the price of the vehicle, maintenance, and the risks of auto drive.

We really need to rethink about making cars electric instead of gas powered. The reason they shouldn’t intergrate electric cars to our roads is that they are a lot worse than what they are advertised as. This is because they are causing the same, if not more pollution than a gas-powered car when they are charging. When charging an electric car, you are using electricity and you must burn coal which pollutes the air that we breathe which is not good for our health. That is worse than the carbon emissions from any gas-powered car. In addition, you can’t charge them in the rain as electricity and water can cause the car to short out and put an electric current through the car and that is dangerous to the owner and all the people around the car. The high voltage Lippo battery if hit in an accident can explode and cause serious damage and put the driver and everything around them in danger. This shows us the dangers and why we shouldn’t integrate electric cars.

It is a myth that some people think that electric cars are cheaper than gas-powered cars. In fact, we can clearly see that they are not. Electric cars are not cheaper than gas-powered cars as they cost a lot more to purchase upfront and they cost a lot more to charge than to fill a gas-powered car with petrol, as you must charge your car daily, whereas you only must fill up your car with petrol weekly. My source for my evidence is Budgetdirect.com and Jolt.com.au. The price to fill up a car with petrol $92.14 a week for an 80L tank as an electric car cost on average about 32 dollars a day which works out to cost $224.00 a week. As you can see this is more than double than what it costs to fill up a car with petrol. This further proves my point that electric cars cost more than gas-powered cars and should not be intergraded on our roads any time soon.

Another reason electric cars are not worth the trouble is the price of the upkeep. The upkeep on electric cars costs a lot more as a standard service is a minimum of about $1,000, as for a gas-powered car is only about $450. For an electric car you have to a specialist to come look and to do the service on the car as for the gas-powered car you don’t need a specialist to come look at the car. The parts for and electric car cost a lot more then parts for a gas-powered car. This is the site that I got my evidence from www.canstarblue.com.au. This proves my point that in the long run that electric cars will cost you more money and that is why they shouldn’t be intergraded into our roads.

The risks of auto drive are far more deadly than traditional driving. Electric cars with auto drive are starting to cause more accidents on the road. This is making the roads that we travel on more dangerous for more road users. There is a You Tube video of a Tesla on auto drive colliding with a rolled over truck on the freeway. this video here is the evidence to prove my point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3hrKnv0dPQ. There are lots of different videos of cars using auto drive having accidents. This evidence proves that they are making the roads more dangerous for the drivers and the other road users.

It is very hard to charge you electric car on the go. There are not many charging stations in Australia and if you are out and run out of charge you will have to call someone out to charge your car on the spot and they use a petrol generator to charge your car. The few charging stations that there are only have one or two stations usually so if they are being used you have to wait until someone else is finished charging their car and that could make you late to where you have to go. As with a gas-powered car there are lots of pumps and you can fill up your car a lot faster than having to wait for your car to charge. Evidence www.drive.com.au You would not be able to charge your car if the power goes out and then you would not be able to use your car as of a gas-powered car the fuel is mined and won’t stop as power might be one day. This proves my point that electric cars are not worth the trouble as they will take more time out of your day due to charging.

On the other hand, some people say that they are as good as advertised. Many would argue that they have no carbon emissions and that you can charge the car even when it is stationary. That means you can have a full battery charge every day and that they have a long-lasting battery life. Although these are valid points, there is still not enough evidence to show that electric cars are better than gas-powered cars. Gas-powered cars are going to be the superior car for the next few decades as they are more liked in the public over electric cars. If they what to intergrate more electric cars, they could use more hybrid cars. With the hybrid car they charge the battery when driving and they are still better than normal gas-powered cars. On the other hand, the safety problem with auto drive system could be due to the drive using the drivers assistance aid irresponsibly.

In conclusion all the evidence in this essay shows that gas-powered cars will be the superior car for decades to come. Gas-powered cars are a lot safer and better than electric cars as they are cheaper to run, and they are cheaper in the long run. Gas-powered cars are safer than electric cars as they don’t have a Lippo battery that could explode at any time. We need to rethink about making fewer electric cars and take more time planning how we are going to intergrade them into our roads.

By Tristan Hartley.

Is Mental Illness on the Rise?

Mental illness is a condition which causes a serious disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking. There are many different aspects of mental illness such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and many more. Many people believe that mental health issues are on the rise because of COVID 19, while others would argue, that is not the case, Indeed, Mental Illness is on the rise because of the effects that COVID 19 has had on our lives. The writing will explore the impact of COVID, increased use of technology and the loss of loved ones.

Clearly COVID 19 has had a major impact on many people’s mental health over the past 18 months. Everything has changed so quickly, and we were not expecting it. This has had extreme effects on the mental health of many. Not being able to socialise at all and being stuck in our homes for extended periods at a time is not part of our nature and contributes to mental illness for some individuals. “Between mid 2019 and January 2021 mental illness has risen over 30%. The above information clearly demonstrates the impact this virus had on mental health”(aihw.gov.au). It is therefore evident that COVID 19 had a huge impact on people affected by mental illness all over the world.

As we have been in lockdown for so long, people have relied a lot more on technology. This had led to increased time on technology such as video games and phones. Spending so much time on technology can lead to an addiction and poor mental health. Cyber bullying is also a very common problem on social media, causing people to fall into mental illness. Statistics show that “About 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online.” (Do something.org)

Indeed, it is very clear that lockdown has boosted the usage of technology leading to increased mental illness rates.

As we all know, many people have lost loved ones from COVID in the last 18 months. As a result of COVID many people have contracted the disease from places such as illegal gatherings and workplaces. This has happened because they have not been following the safety rules such as wearing masks and social distancing. “In September 2020 there were 59 deaths on one of the days.”(9 news). All of this has had an impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing and contributed to a arise in the number of deaths.

Some would argue that the rise of mental illness is not true and that it is only more evident because people have been in lockdown and have more time to communicate about their thoughts. They believe It hasn’t risen and that it is just being voiced more now because of COVID. We all know that COVID 19 has had a real and devastating impact on mental illness due to loss of socialisation and increased social media use.

Mental illness has been and will always be a key issue in our society. As seen in this piece, it has been shown that the impact of COVID, increased use of technology and loss of loved ones has had a major impact on mental illness around the world. As Jacinta Ardern said “This is something that affects everyone, because either you have someone in your family who may be affected, a friend, or you yourself.”

By Isla McDonald

The Racing Industry

Horse racing, a dangerous, exciting, and very popular industry. 1000-pound animals running on ankles the size of a humans, running over 30km, filled with drugs, abuse, injury & ending in a slaughterhouse. Are horse races as abusive as people believe? Is there so much more than what meets the eye?

A horse’s bone structure is fragile & delicate, they begin racing at the age of 2, late yearlings (still babies), where their skull is still under development. A horse’s bones don’t finish fully developing until the age of 5, so there is 3 years in between where major injury can occur. Their legs snap, break, fracture, their spines cave in on themselves and for what? To get a few good years in? They can injure themselves by kicking the starting gates because they’re scared of being caged in, missing a beat while running and breaking their metacarpal bone, what is it worth? 149 horses died from August 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, with at least one death every 2.5 days, at least 6 from cardiac causes, at least 5 from bleeds, and NINE horses were only 2 years old when they passed on the track. One trip, one fall, one tiny mistake; and the horse’s career, its life, is over.

Drug addiction. Something we know well; did you know horses can get it too? If given too many drugs to enhance performance, the horses can rely on it which eventually affects them mentally and physically and causes addiction. Even their vets; the people meant to be helping and protecting the horses, are filling them with drugs & medications, finding an American racehorse purely trained on traditional hay, oats and water is pretty much impossible. Most horses are given a drug called furosemide or less formally known as Lasix, which in humans, decreased the chances of heart failure, liver disease or kidney problems, in the horse’s case, it helps decrease the chances of a horse bleeding in its lungs. Lasix is also banned from being able to be given to horses the day of races, yet not completely illegalised. Although the industry is slowly becoming better with the drug and injuries that surround the track, horses are still fed these substances to enhance performance and hide any sort of pain, to keep them in the races, which just simply leads to more issues later.

Should horse racing be banned entirely, or should better the animals in the industry be treated better? The industry would need to change greatly to be able to fix itself and redeem all the wrong it has done in the past.

By Skyla Chase

Why is animal testing still allowed?

I assume many of you have pets including cats, dogs, rabbits & mice etc. Imagine your very own pet locked up in a tiny cage with millions of others. Being shocked, burned, poisoned & killed from failed test. Allowing these deadly experiments to continue is just torturing innocent animals & going against their rights. This is something that goes unnoticed every day because of the benefits that humans gain from it.

Animals & humans are very alike in several ways. Both can feel, behave, think & experience pain. If humans have rights, why can’t they. Animals can’t speak or stand up for themselves, therefore we need to take a part in helping them. The general public tends to believe that these animals who serve as research are kept under decent conditions. However, this is most certainly not the case. In fact, they are literally tortured to death, thrown into their own faeces & abused. All this just for 95 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests fail in humans.

Animal experiments are so worthless that up to half of them are never even published. Vivo testing uses roughly 115 million animals every year globally & only 59 new medicines were approved by authorities in the year 2018. Animals do not get heart diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s or schizophrenia, so the experiment performed on them are often ineffective. Besides, animal testing takes months, years & can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide results, its very time consuming & costly process.

At some point in time, humans might have needed animals to survive. But after decades of evolving, this should not be the case anymore. The fact that we are still using the same methods of cruelty to test cosmetics to find cures to diseases, then we are either to lazy or to cruel to innovate. There are so many simple available alternatives on animal testing. Alternatives for cosmetics can be testing on simple organisms like bacteria or tissue & skin cells donated from people. Some tests can even be carried out on computers or by using chemicals.

Millions of animals are killed because you are buying products that are not cruelty-free, which also then supports them to continue cruel experiments. This is complete violation of animal rights. These creatures should be treated & respected the same way you would with a human being. Animal testing belongs to the wrong side of history & everybody should play a part in ending it.

By Alicia Martin.

Is Climate Change caused by humans?

Burning fossil fuels is a main cause of climate change because of human use. Humans burn fossil fuels for energy and electricity. In our homes it provides heat, and they are needed to power engines. According to NASA, burning fossil fuels increases global warming due to the “increase in concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere,” Fossil fuels are non-renewable and therefore cannot be used again, knowing this could make humans burn fossil fuels slower and/or less to prevent them running out and therefore slow down or prevent climate change. It is therefore, important that humans are made aware of the impact that burning fossils fuels has on Earth’s climate.

Deforestation is also a large contribution to climate change caused by humans. It is the removal of trees/forest for clearance of land. When the trees are cleared or burnt, the carbon dioxide they store is released into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. According to the Climate Council, forests are an “important carbon sink” as they absorb a lot of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If humans stopped cutting down the forests and clearing the lands, the trees would help to clear carbon from the air. Humans need to be made aware of the effects of deforestation on climate change.

Increased live-stock farming impacts climate change massively. Livestock farming is the farming of animals such as cows, sheep, and goat for use or for owning as a pet. Livestock produce large amounts of methane which is a strong greenhouse gas. According to the Department of Industries and Regional Development “livestock emissions account for 70% of greenhouse gases”. There are suggested approaches to reducing the emissions of these gases including reducing numbers in livestock. Humans should consider these approaches as livestock are a major contribution to climate change.

Ocean currents is also believed to be a main factor of global climate change that has nothing to do with humans. According to the heartland institute “Global temperature variations over the past century-and-a- half and particularly the past 30 years were due to the slow-down of the ocean’s Thermohaline Circulation”. This is why people are on the opposing side of humans causing climate because of natural causes like so. It is therefore extremely important that people educate themselves on natural causes before coming for humans.

In conclusion there is no one answer to how climate changed started or what it is caused by. From burning fossil fuel, deforestation and increased livestock farming all the way to ocean currents there are so many other possible causes. There is no one answer but there is many possible ways we can slow it down or improve for the people after us and for people in many years to come.

By Gemma Van Grondelle

Resource List Information 2022

Resource List Information 2022