Around the College
Year 9 CO2 Spectacular
On Friday 24 November this year’s Year 9 Material Technology students competed in the CO2 Spectacular. This is an annual event where students have a chance to race the cars that they have designed and made during the year.
The students are set a task that involves them designing and constructing a rocket car that is powered by a CO2 cylinder. Their design must meet strict size constraints and take into account weight, and the style of the car. Students are taught about force, friction and aerodynamics as part of this unit of work. In the testing of their design they now have the opportunity to race their cars along a piece of fishing line over twenty metres track using our timing facility. This allows us to record the time of each car to within 1/1000th of a second and also allows a style of racing that relies not only on the clever design of the car but also on the competitor’s reaction time to start their car.
This year’s final was the most exciting for many years. Baxter Fountain and Paul Wentrock went head to head over three races. Both boys false started in the first race pushing their start buttons too early. The second race saw Baxter win by a few tenths of a second, but his car collided with the finish gates and was unable to compete in the last race. This left Paul to beat Baxter’s time in the final race unopposed. Unfortunately for Paul he false started leaving Baxter to claim the 2017 CO2 Challenge trophy.
Darren Willsmore
Design and Technology Learning Leader
Year 7 Christian Living
In Year 7 Christian Living this year, one of our units focused on Service Learning. Each of the Year 7 classes were allocated a different focus for a service learning task that they had to contribute to. Core 7.1 was given the focus of serving the local community.
Students in our class nominated committees to work in, to plan, organise and run a fundraising event. Some of the committees included: catering, finance, advertising and marketing.
Our class decided to hold a fun run around the lake in Mawson Lakes for this project. We focused our fundraising efforts on one charity: Hutt Street Centre. This organisation serves around 50,000 meals a year and offers social work and support services to nearly 2000 homeless people in Adelaide.
The planning process took a while, but it was worth it as the day was successful and ran smoothly. On the day of our fun run, we started off by setting up a small food and drink stall and selling products to Year 7 students. A small group of students ran this and sold various donuts, cookies and soft drinks.
Later, the fun run began around the lake. All Year 7 classes participated in this event and a majority of the students raised money to contribute to the final donation.
At the end of the day everyone was tired but happy as we raised over $1300.00.
This money could be used by Hutt Street Centre to provide a hot breakfast and lunch to 43 homeless people for two weeks; a hot shower and laundry services for 3 months for 26 people; a home starter pack for 13 couples moving from the streets to a home; 5 families with safe emergency accommodation for 2 nights; or provide over 740 people with meals for a day.
Our class was very happy with this outcome and we hope it can help many people who are not as privileged as us in our local community.
Erin Gates and Sophee Liebelt
Year 7 Students
Year 7 Literacy
Literacy has taken a new focus this semester using project based learning techniques. The Year 7 Literacy classes have been focusing on sustainability and business and enterprise. This unit looked at developing life skills whilst involving areas of planning, drafting and editing. Following the visit to the South Australian Botanic Gardens in the final week of Term 3, the students planted the Endeavour Food Garden with edible plants. The aim of this project was to use the produce grown to cook and sell food to the school for charity. The students agreed upon the name, ‘Growing Endeavour’s Garden’, also know as The G.E.G. Project.
On Friday of Week 8, the students collected their produce which had grown to exceptional heights and used the goods to create cold roll style salads. They were also able to sell homemade garden themed cupcakes that I had made. The students showed outstanding levels of determination and confidence and were able to sell all of what they had made. Their teamwork and leadership skills were a testament to how far they have come over the year in Literacy. The Literacy groups successfully raised $176 which will be donated to the Smith Family for supporting the education of disadvantaged children in Australia. I would like to thank all those who were involved especially Mrs Willsmore and Mrs Barnes for all of their help and support during Terms 3 and 4.
Courtney Bond
Year 7 Literacy Teacher
Transition Days
Year 6 into 7 Transition Day
On Monday 27 November Endeavour College held a transition day to welcome 113 Year 6 students who will form the 2018 Year 7 cohort. The day was designed to familiarise the students with the College, meet key staff that they will be working with and to provide an opportunity to meet some of their peers for next year. Students were involved in a series of lessons aimed at getting to know one another, team building activities and were also given the opportunity to participate in specialist lessons such as Science and Drama. The day was very successful and it was great to see the new students making new friends and enjoying themselves. The Year 7 teaching staff are looking forward to working with them next year.
Jason Turner
Year 7 Year Level Leader
Year 7 into 8 Transition Day
The new group of twenty-six Year 8 students who are joining the current cohort in 2018, visited Endeavour College on Monday 4 December. The aim of the day was for these students to get to know the College a little more and to interact with their new class mates. Understandably, the students seemed a little nervous at the beginning of the day, but as the day progressed, they quickly fitted in, meeting new people and finding their way around the school! Thank you to all the students who participated positively throughout the day and to the new Year 8 students, we look forward to having you and your family in our community in 2018!
Simon Maddern
Year 8 Year Level Leader