Articles of Interest

Mission to Mars

Over the Term 1 holidays, I and many students from all across Victoria took part in the Mission to Mars program at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre. 

It was a program designed to allow students to experience real-life mission control protocols. We were each assigned a role within mission control, either a scientist or an engineer. The team of scientists and the team of engineers had to work together to complete a geological survey of the surface of Mars to choose a base on Mars suitable for human exploration. During mission control, we gained first-hand experience of what mission control would be. I was the chemist, which included completing tasks such as scanning different locations on the surface of Mars for minerals such as phosphates and sulphates and choosing the bases closest to these locations to take rock and soil samples from using the rover, as well as analysing these samples. It tested our patience and teamwork, especially when the system would automatically shut down, when the tyres had overheated and when radiation levels were too high. All parts of the rover had to be monitored at all times. 

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. I would highly recommend this program to anyone interested in space, physics and chemistry.  

Imanya Kodituwakku

Year 12

How to manage study and exam preparation

Learning how to manage exam stress and preparation is something we all do differently but something we probably all need to work on. 

Attached is an article prepared by our Wellbeing team for parents and students to learn how to manage stress during the exam period time.

More help or advice can be accessed via our Wellbeing team - John McCormack - john.mccormack@jmss.vic.edu.au

GOAT no match for kids in maths modelling challenge

John Monash Science School will represent Australia in this year’s International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C), after two teams from the school collected the highest honours at national judging for their method for selecting a sporting Greatest of All Time (‘GOAT’).

Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding achievements.   David Yue, Emily Papastamatopoulos, Thomas Ma and Hita Keshav (Year 11), and Ravon Chew and Harmohit Singh (Year 12), all teams were mentored by Mr Shane McLean.  

Well done to both teams!