Success Stories

To Infinity and Beyond

From September 29 - October 15 2018, I attended Advanced Space Academy with a group of Australian students. This program runs in Huntsville, Alabama, USA and with my tour group of students, the majority of which are from NSW, I travelled on a science tour of the USA, attended the program in Huntsville, and then flew home. The tour takes you to Los Angeles, New York, through a few other states, Washington DC, and in Tennessee for one night. The actual experience of Advanced space academy was incredible. I participated in mission simulations, engineering challenges, mini lessons on different aspects of space travel and space, team building activities and physically challenging activities. The program is for students in Years 9-12, and there are a few different Australian groups that go every year. 

The best part about this experience for me was the mission simulations, in which you are assigned a position either in the control room, on the ISS, or on the shuttle and must try and complete all tasks to ensure the mission is a success. In the second one of these missions, I got the amazing opportunity to be shuttle commander, and although I cannot land a shuttle to save my life, getting the opportunity to try and to flip all these levers that would control your life or death in reality was amazing.

If you want to participate in this program, I have included a link to the website below. Please note the popularity changes every year, and you may not get a spot.

http://www.spacecamp.com.au/Spacecamp/Space_Academy.html

By Alia Pollard

History in the Making

We celebrate the achievement of Year 11 student, Ella Bibby, who is the Victorian winner of the National History Challenge (Year 11/12 Category). Ella's submission, based on the competition's theme of "Turning Points", investigated the Kokoda Campaign as a turning point for the course of WWII in the Pacific Region. Ella presented her submission at the Victorian finals in September and was selected to proceed for national judging, which occurred over the holiday break. Ella received her prize at a presentation on Friday 19 October 2018 at the History Teachers Association of Victoria Conference in Melbourne. We are all so very proud of Ella and the hours of research that she put into her submission. A special thank you to Ms Laura Thompson, our Library Research Officer, who assisted Ella with her research. You can read Ella's submission by following this link.

https://turningpointsmilitaryhistory.wordpress.com/