Student Projects/Co-curricular activities

What a Fine Zine! 

By Rupert Fulljames and Mia Reber, Year 11, The Ridgeway Campus

Hey everyone, Rupert and Mia here!

We’re here looking for any and all artists, poets, and creative folk from Years 9-12, to put their creativity out into the world! As part of our IB CAS project, we are putting together a zine (a collection of creative works), and we want you to be involved.  

Ultimately, this project is about putting together a bunch of different perspectives on individual identity as people within our generation; whether that be how popular culture has influenced you as a person, or your perception of society. Potential subject ideas can be anything from:

● Media 

● The arts

● Politics

● World issues (this can be anything from international affairs, to climate change - try to

avoid COVID!)

● Development in STEM

Through the collation of these pieces, we hope to create an anthology that represents who we are as a generation, and what influences us as people. Growing up in a rapidly changing global climate (literally), it can be difficult to pinpoint what it is that holds us together and signifies who we are as a generation; the goal of this zine is to recognise our similarities and differences in order to preserve what’s important to us as a collective.

Contact us about submissions here: thisisfinezine@gmail.com

If you need any extra help or further information, feel free to message us:

● Mia Reber: mreber21@igs.vic.edu.au

● Rupert Fulljames: rfullj21@igs.vic.edu.au

IGNITE(ing) Passion Projects from Within

By Quang Do, Year 9, University Campus

For 6 months at the University Campus, Thoresby and Sherwood took part in the IGNITE program; a program allowing students to explore and learn more about their interests and hobbies in a creative manner. As well as this, students could explore new hobbies that they were keen to try. With the guidance of teachers and Latrobe University staff, students were able to flesh out a main question or statement for their topic, e.g., 'How does a Tesla Coil work?' and 'Data & Telecommunications'. At the end of the six months, students presented a final project. These final projects were the culmination of all the effort the students had put into learning more about their interests, which could be in the form of a video, presentation, e-book, collage, built object, etc. This year’s IGNITE showcase was online, allowing parents, teachers and students to look at all the amazing projects from their devices.

My ignite project was on Vietnamese spring rolls, and my big question was 'How are Vietnamese spring rolls made?' Previously, I didn’t know much about the process of making spring rolls, however, I was interested in learning more about it because my mom owns a Vietnamese restaurant. I brainstormed different ideas for my project until I settled on my big question and then started thinking about how I would present it in the end. Finally, I decided on making a video tutorial on iMovie, showing all the ingredients and steps to making spring rolls. It took me a day to record all the parts for my video, and another day to edit all the parts together and add music. Everything was a lot of fun, from rolling spring rolls, making the video, and of course, eating the spring rolls!

One of the challenges I faced in cooking the spring rolls was getting the right level of crispiness. For a while, the skin wasn’t very crispy. With help from my mom, I found that keeping the spring roll skin in the freezer for a bit would make the skin crispier.

With the iMovie editing process, I didn’t face many problems, apart from adding text in each section, which was quite tedious. I had to make sure the text was on screen long enough so that it could be read properly, align the text, etc. It probably took up 80% of the editing alone. I could’ve just done a voice-over; however, I just didn’t feel like it.

For Year 9 students next year doing IGNITE, my advice is to choose a topic you’re really interested in or really keen on learning which you can put around 50 – 60 hours into. IGNITE can be boring if you’re not motivated! Also, try not to leave everything to the last minute, as it will make you feel stressed. With my project, I did quite a few things in the last week, which was not ideal.

Overall, IGNITE was quite a unique program, since it’s not often that you get to learn more about your unique personal interests at school.

The Greenway is the Only Way 

By Selina Liu, Year 9, University Campus

The Greenway Cup is a fierce debating competition between Ivanhoe Grammar School and Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar that is held annually. Because of the current situation with COVID-19, this year’s Greenway Cup was held over Zoom. 

The Greenway Cup originated in 1932 and since then has become a tradition between our school and IGGS. The topic of the debate this year was that ‘Indigenous people should be paid for life as a form of reparation’, with Ivanhoe Grammar School on the affirmative and IGGS on the negative. 

The debate overall was really enjoyable to watch as both sides had some very strong and convincing points and arguments. The main points brought up by both sides were mainly about how money isn’t something that can solve everything and that the roots of these problems are deeper and have impacted the Indigenous culture, something that cannot be fixed financially. 

Personally, I am very interested in debating and I have debated in Year 7, Year 8 and this year before the season got cancelled due to COVID-19. I feel like watching the Greenway Cup this year was not only very interesting, but I was also able to see how the Year 12 students debated which has definitely made me even more interested in debating. I especially enjoyed watching Charlotte Groenewegen debate as she was my Year 11 debating coach last year along with Gemma Starkey. 

The competition this year was definitely very intense and close, but unfortunately, Ivanhoe Girls Grammar won by four points. From a spectator’s point of view, I was very drawn into the debate and as each speaker spoke, I could definitely see their point of view and therefore sided with them. I really think that watching this debate has widened my perspective and experiences. And I look forward to returning back into the debating season next year and hopefully being able to take part in the Greenway Cup debate when I’m in Year 12. 

More Than Words

By Sara Suiter, Year 11, The Ridgeway Campus

More Than Words is an event I have participated in every year since Year 7. I have performed as a soloist and part of both a trio and The Ridgeway Chorale. For me, the experience has been really rewarding each year, as it was an outlet for learning and growth, as well as for fun with other musical fanatics. This year has been very different from past years. In light of COVID-19, there had to be a few changes made to the workshop and performance.

If you are not familiar with the process of More Than Words, it begins with auditions, and then soloists are selected from these auditions by an adjudicator to perform. Normally, the Ridgeway and Locksley Chorale would perform as well, but conditions this year led to a change in possibilities. The audition stage has always been in a video format, but this year we each had to record and upload our audition clips online, which posed a challenge for all regarding audio and camera quality. Nevertheless, all the audition clips I viewed were incredible (and so were the parents behind the camera!). These clips were then meticulously viewed and reviewed by this year’s adjudicator Emma Gilmartin to select the soloists. Unfortunately, the number of performers had to be reduced to eight, (as opposed to the usual 30 or so) all from the senior years.

Emma Gilmartin led the workshop, in which students performed their song to the other soloists and received feedback and tips from Emma and the other performers. This was a very rewarding experience for me, as I was able to learn from others and myself, to create the best final piece. The final stage was the performance. This was probably the most different stage to past years. Of course, at both the workshop and performance we had all been excitably sanitising and social distancing, but this also meant that the performance had to be restricted to very few numbers; a few teachers, the tech crew, the performers and Emma. I can say that knowing five cameras were on me at all times made it a little scary in a different way to performing in front of a large crowd, but the experience was still just as fun. Even with a reduced audience, I think everyone enjoyed this experience, and it was a great way to bring some hope and happiness into Ivanhoe Grammarian homes. Thanks to all the teachers, students, and other peoples that made this possible during this time.