Science

DNA All The Way

In Mrs. Hoskin’s DNA All The Way class, students are studying Inheritance. Using their knowledge of how characteristics (traits) are inherited, students determined the various characteristics for a family of Bilby kids. They were then required to construct one of these ‘kids’. This activity gave students a greater understanding of modes of inheritance and genetic variation.

Photos:

Sarah and Ella using hot glue guns to create their Bilby.

Lily and Carissa work out the traits (phenotype) of their Bilby kid based on the genotypes in their instruction kit.

Bridie with her finished Bilby kid.

Women in STEM excursion

A small group of Year 9 to 11 students attended the Women in STEM conference on Tuesday May 30th. The day included a keynote address by Rose Hiscock, followed by a series of hands-on sessions highlighting some of the emerging job areas in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Rose Hiscock is the inaugural director of the Science Gallery, which is being established in Melbourne, which is designed to inspire and transform ‘curious minds through the collision of art and science’. The hands-on sessions included programming a computer board to record reaction times, using GPS coordinates and social media photos to track a stolen mobile phone, and programming robots to perform specific tasks.

Wanganui attended the conference with students from McGuire College and Mooroopna Secondary College. Our thanks go to McGuire College for arranging this worthwhile excursion on behalf of the Better Together Alliance schools.

Student comments:

I thought it was really interesting and fun how they showed us what jobs are out there and not just make us sit down and listen. It was very hands on. Meg.

It was interesting. It was good because it was hands on. The talking at the start was boring and didn’t really have anything to do with the activities. Nikita.

I liked it. I thought it would be boring and listening to people talk but really we got to do a lot of different fun things. Katelyn.