What's On @ MFG

Mathematics Competition and Mathematics Challenge

This year we have had a number of students undertake the Mathematics Challenge and Mathematics Competition.  Both of these Mathematics competitions are conducted by the Australian Mathematics Trust, so are National competitions.

The Mathematics Challenge involves the students working through six extended problem-solving tasks independently over a 3-week period in term 2. This year we had five students undertake this challenge, and all managed to complete it in the time allowed.  Most of the work for this Challenge was completed in the students’ own time.  We are very pleased to announce that two of these students were awarded recognition for the work they completed. They are:

• Olivia Butel (Year 7) who received a Credit award
• Leila Ducret-Santi (Year 10) who received a Distinction

A big thank you to Mrs Melissa Walker who supported these students during this three week period and completed all the administration work involved.

The Mathematics Competition was conducted in August.  This competition involves students working through a variety of Mathematical questions in a set time.  It was great to see how all the students involved approached this competition with great endeavour and tried their best.  Again it is pleasing to announce that several of our students achieved great results for this competition. They were:

• Madison Taylor                   (Year 7) – Credit
• Amelia Taylor                      (Year 7) – Credit
• Susan Goedegebuur           (Year 8) – Distinction
• Brooke Trotter                    (Year 8) – Distinction
• Samantha Hovey                (Year 8) – Distinction
• Annie Stephens                   (Year 8) – Distinction
• Julia Lawrence                    (Year 10) - Credit

I would like to congratulate all our students who participated in both of these Maths extra-curricular activities this year.

Mrs Sharon Hogan

Maths Learning Area Leader

Woo hoo!  Congratulations to Niesha Hunter

Niesha Hunter of Year 12 has been successful in gaining a fully funded position from 11th – 18th December in the Earthwatch Student Challenge Program.  

This fabulous program will take place in South Australia, where Niesha will be looking at the ecosystems of the Murray River.  She will be working alongside researchers and other students to carry out small mammal and reptile trapping, vegetation studies, wetland and water surveys and grazing pressure surveys…..so EXCITING for her!

Flights, airport transfers, accommodation, food, insurance and all resources are fully funded under the program!

SSV Western Metropolitan Region Athletics 2016

It was ‘four seasons in one day’ as our athletes battled the weather conditions in Melbourne on Tuesday October 4.   We had some successful students who managed to win themselves a medal but unfortunately no one progressed to State finals for this year.

Well done to everyone involved.  Check out the table below for the list of results.

Defying The Drift

During the holidays on the 26th-28th of September, we took part in an agriculture program called

‘Defying the drift’. We stayed at Marcus Oldham where we stayed in uni-students rooms. This

program was for students in rural Victoria, interested or looking for a career in agriculture to find

out more.

On day 1, we got to meet everyone and had a couple of classes to get to known one another. On

day 2 we had a 4:30 am wake-up for a 5:00 am breakfast and then we went to Colac to a dairy

farm, where we watched the last of the milking process and talked about their calving procedure.

We then had our second breakfast of the day. We visited the co-op at Colac, then headed to Bulla

for a tour. At Bulla we learned about what happened when the milk came from the dairy into the

factory and how, after it was processed, it’s packaged and sent away. The factory we visited was

only handled ‘chilled products’.

We then headed to Inverleigh to meet a bio-dynamic farmer and his methods of how to farm. The

final tour of the day was in ‘Murnong’ where we were shown a presentation about a farm and how

technology and genetics are impacting how things are done. That night we had a formal dinner

with our sponsors who had helped us to get to this camp.

On our 3rd and final day, we presented 3 minute speeches in front of the class. Straight after we

had three panel speakers who told us about their careers and pathways in agriculture or

agribusiness.

We really enjoyed this program. Not only did we learn more about agriculture, we learned more

about ourselves and made some life long friends. This program gave us public speaking skills and

a taste of University life. We recommend this program to not only students who live on farms or

live in rural parts of Victoria, but to the the ‘city kids’ who want to learn more about agriculture. It

was a great experience and we ended up getting a lot out of the course.

Cassidy Plier and Ebony Bath

DEAKIN SINGERS

The Deakin Singers, once again, have done a fabulous job of representing the school at the Deakin Graduations.

They did six performances over 3 days in the first week of this term.

Congratulations to all the girls for singing so well to perform with Michael Cristiano, Jess Markovski and Janeva Burrill.

LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

All Year 7 students are currently learning about life in ancient Egypt as part of their study of history.   They have been discovering some amazing facts about the way that these extraordinary people used to live and have immersed themselves in their learning.  This was really evident during 7F’s mummification race, which was a team event with the goal of wrapping the neatest ‘mummy’ in the shortest amount of time.  All teams soon discovered that this was not as easy as it sounded!

The students in 7F have also mummified some apples by slicing them up and placing them in containers full of salt.  Once the mummification process has been completed, the apples will last indefinitely.  Ms Myers has one on her desk that is about 10 years old!

Here are some interesting facts about life in ancient Egypt that we have discovered:

• If a family cat died, all members of the household would shave off an eyebrow as a sign of mourning
• Many Egyptians shaved their heads, but they wore heavy wigs made out of wool
• Only scribes were allowed to write in hieroglyphics
• During the mummification process, the brain was removed using a hook inserted through the nose

Robyn Myers

Class teacher

Matthew Flinders Poetry Club:  The Weird Sisters

We meet every third Friday lunchtime in the Library to share poetry and support each other in writing and crafting. Sometimes we end up having a good old chat about writing, life, the universe and everything. Students from all year levels are very welcome.

Here’s an example of a Group Poem inspired by the image below.  It was a fabulous merging of group members’ responses to the intensity of the visual.

Ms Jones

Empty Once More

Chairs and wardrobes in a room so bare,

Withered paint, withered soul, gazes on without care.

So be it! Let the world shatter like windows,

Let it all come down and disappear to where the wind blows.

Books flutter in the broken breeze,

Where did it all go wrong?

Former grandeur plays hide and seek,

With velvet green mould and rotten wood.

Creaks and moans fill the empty space,

No love for the place.

It took a life or maybe two,

No one knows of the empty space.

Stale air caught between my eyelashes,

Underwater, peeling wallpaper and dust mites.

A scene drowning in the colour of decay,

Of jealousy, of frozen time and holding your breath.

Your empty shadows whisper,

Longing to cast off your cloak of decay.

Lively laughter, quickened steps, child’s squeals of joy.

Dulled by the ever-changing light.

Taken by the monster’s moans of the age-old supports.

The echoes of voices,

A breath of fresh air.

Faint sound of laughter,

Food the table used to bear.

A bustling environment,

Explorers take care.

An ancient writer’s emporium,

Filled with mystery and heartache.

Cracking ceiling, dirty floor,

A once full house, empty once more.

Laughter filled the hallways,

Light came from every door.

A once cheerful house,

Empty once more.

Some of “The Weird Sisters”:  Molly Bridger, Bec Cocking and Penny Woods

SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

You may have recently seen a very cute clip on YouTube that was posted after a film crew visited a wildlife sanctuary to make a promotional film.  During the photo shoot, one of the koalas had a very close encounter with a butterfly and the clip went ‘viral’.  Jade Kelly of Year 9 had a similar experience on a recent Indonesian trip to the Melbourne Zoo.  Can you spot the difference?

GEELONG SHOW SUCCESS

On Thursday the 13th of October we went to the Geelong show. First up we went to see the chickens, sheep, cows and then the baby animals. Then we went to the horticulture and arts and crafts sheds to try and find all of our entries we had made to see if we had won any prizes.

We came away with lots of prizes in cooking, photography, decorative and vegetables. After that we had free time to go on some rides and buy some show bags.

Everyone had an amazing day full of lots of fun!

Gracie Goodman 7F