Technologies News

Technologies Showcase

On Wednesday night last week, I attended the Technologies Showcase which was a terrific night where everyone could see the designs and work of students across DigiTech, GovHack, Woodwork, Agriculture, Woodwork, STEAM, and Hospitality.  Mr Sawle launched the GRAMMAR Grown 2022 wine vintage and presented a framed label as a thank you and memento to Year Ten student Xanthe O’Neill who designed this year’s wine label.  Mr Gugenheim also received a large canvas of the same label - he was instrumental in managing the vineyard and students, arranging the grapes to be picked and coordinated the winemaker to produce this year’s vintage.  We were delighted and honoured to host our Keynote Speaker, Zina Cordery, a lecturer in Digital Technologies from Edith Cowan University.  She spent two full days in the school visiting classes across Junior, Middle and Senior School. 

Zina explained how rapidly changing technology is, how it will continue to impact all our lives, and how important it is to take opportunities in the Technologies subjects at school. 

Thank you to all the Technologies teachers and students who assisted in many ways during the day preparing for the Showcase, and for speaking to the audience and engaging with them while representing the wonderful subject displays. 

Mrs Teresa McAllister | Head of Technologies 

Agriculture 

Bees and The Queen 

It is an ancient tradition that a black ribbon is placed on beehives to inform the bees of the passing of their keeper. The tradition dates back centuries and spawned the phrase “tell it to the bees.” Those who kept bees used to believe that the insects needed to be told about important events, such as births, deaths, marriages or any incoming or outgoing household members, otherwise the bees would be distressed and leave their hive or stop producing honey. In Australia, a sprig of wattle is placed on the beehive instead of a black ribbon and so in respect to the enormously significant event of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we decided to follow that tradition. Alex Sounness and Thomas Emberson checked the bees on Monday and then placed the wattle on the school’s beehive. 

The Queen herself was a beekeeper and in carrying out this tradition, the bees have been told of her death.  

Technologies Showcase 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jacinta Cooper, Abbey Andrew and Maddy O’Neill for their interesting and informative presentation on Wednesday evening, outlining some of the interesting and varied learning opportunities that students have when studying agriculture and participating in Cattle Club. They were also very hands-on extracting honey from some hive frames for attendees to take home small samples in honey jars. By explaining some of the diverse items that were on display, they gave a tangible sense of the things students can get up to in Agriculture here at Great Southern Grammar. 

Grapevines and the 2022 Vintage 

The Year Nine Agriculture students, with some help from Facilities, are getting close to completing the pruning of the vineyard. It is such an important task and sets the tone for not only the 2023 vintage, but also the one after that. This is timely given the School has now launched the 2022 GRAMMAR grown Kanyinak, which will be available for purchase at key school events during the rest of the year.  

Mr Julian Gugenheim | Teacher and Farm Manager

Digital Technologies

The Technologies Showcase was a fantastic celebration of student successes in Digital Technologies and Digital Product Design and Innovation. Thank you to all students for their involvement and commitment to showcasing their work and the work of their peers. 

Students in Digital Technologies are hard at work on their assessment tasks in Year Seven and Eight. Both are working in MakeCode (Microsoft’s block-based programming language) to apply their learnings in creative projects that foster each students' imagination and interests. 

Year Seven students are working in the immersive Minecraft: Education Edition platform to code a structure. They are applying computer science principles like coordinates, variables, conditions, and events to create a program that allows a user to input the dimensions of a structure and have their code generate a building based on user input. 

Year Eights are unpacking their game design task. Their design brief is to create and code a game that teaches a younger student about one of the Untitled Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They will need someone to review their game as a part of their design process; if they ask you, ask them how they have incorporated the fundamentals of challenge, change, choice, and chance into their game – they may just blow your mind!  

DigiTech wishes all students a (digitally) safe holidays! 

Hospitality

Technologies Showcase

Food technology is studied in Hospitality classes from Year Seven through to Year Ten. The emphasis is on providing students with a broad knowledge and understanding of food properties, processing, preparation and their interrelationship with nutritional considerations and consumption patterns. 

A display of equipment, student work and products was on display at the Technologies Showcase last week.

Year Ten student, India King, represented the Hospitality Electives.  

She talked about her love for experimenting with foods and new ways of preparing them and how studying food technology has immersed her into a world that relies on technology and science to develop new food products.  India offered tasting samples of the delicious samphire pickle the class made and preserved in Term One.

Year Twelve VET Certificate II Hospitality student, Jasmine Bradshaw, explained to the audience how she has gained valuable employability skills studying the qualification.  Along with her classmates, Jasmine served a delicious selection of appetisers to everyone who attended the Showcase. 

She suggested that perhaps in 20 years’ time, robots might be serving the food instead! 

Electives

Year Seven 

The Mokare class have learnt food and nutrition skills that encourage healthier eating, how to contribute to cooking with the family at home, used mathematics, boosted their self-esteem, and explored their creativity in the kitchen. Recently the students developed a work plan, designed their recipes, and produced healthy savoury muffins. 

Year Eight

Year Eight students are learning why breakfast is an important meal. Breakfast boosts brain power. Kids who eat breakfast tend to eat healthier overall, are more likely to participate in physical activities, and maintain a healthy body weight. 

Eating breakfast helps a child's attention span, concentration, and memory—all important for learning in school. Students produced a portable breakfast suitable for a ‘grab-and-go’ brekky, French toast, wholemeal oat pancakes, ham and herb soufflés, and homemade crumpets. They are currently following a design brief to create and produce their own healthy breakfasts soon. 

Year Nine

The Hospitality kitchen smelt like an Italian pizza shop when the students produced a delicious selection of pizzas after designing their own pizza dough and toppings. Every pizza was unique. 

Nutrients are chemical compounds in food that are used by the body to function properly and maintain health. Year Nine students are learning about the six types of nutrients. Over the past few weeks, they’ve identified simple and complex carbohydrates, why your body needs them, and foods high in them. They have produced a selection of recipes high in both types of carbohydrates including high fibre nacho bowls, and individual apple pies. 

The apple pies contain a whole apple high in complex and simple carbohydrates, but added extra simple carbohydrates using sugar, chopped dark chocolate, and chocolate sauce to the popular dessert. 

Year Ten

After a lot of recipe designs, food orders, production trial and errors, and hard work this term, the Year Ten class had an 8.00am start last Tuesday to prepare, produce, and present the incredible recipes developed as an entry into the McCormick Foods Flavour Forecast Recipe Challenge. The three-hour cook challenged the students however they worked well in their groups, were organised, and plated up their recipes for food photography.  

They are currently writing justifications, reflections, and calculating the cost of their recipes to put together their entries.   

VET Certificate II Hospitality 

Year Eleven

Students have worked hard to complete several theory-based units of competency this year via the Moodle platform provided by our Registered Training Organisation in Perth, Hospitality Group Training (HGT). Over the past few weeks, they made some tasty, sweet appetisers, and now learning various methods to construct mocktails. 

The group have completed two functions, looking very sharp in their Hospitality uniforms, and interacting with customers confidently. 

Year Twelve

Working with this group of Year Twelve students has been an absolute delight. They have been particularly willing to put their best foot forward in every situation asked of them. To round off their qualification, last week each student was assessed on their knowledge and practical skills associated with making espresso coffee by a HGT assessor who travelled to Albany from Perth. 

The students were also assessed while demonstrating their front of house skills at the Technologies Showcase offering appetisers to guests.  

Congratulations for achieving your Certificate II Hospitality.

I am so proud of you all! 

Mrs Teresa McAllister | Head of Technologies, Teacher

STEAM

The Technologies Showcase was a wonderful opportunity to show the work that the Years Eight and Nine STEAM classes have been working on throughout the year. Amy Medway did a superb job at summing up what the classes do, which is actually a very hard feat as each year the classes change significantly. This is due to students being the ones who drive the program, and as such there are always different topics being covered. 

At the Showcase, attendees were able to see the work Year Eights did on surviving an asteroid attack by creating a Minecraft bunker and a gas mask created from found materials. They also exhibited some outstanding Lego builds and images of their Rube Goldberg machines and future worlds. The Year Nines displayed their newly built living wall, which is now hanging in SS3 to motivate and inspire students, as well as increase their mental wellbeing.  

Overall, the entire Showcase was such an eye opener to see what amazing and innovative projects are being worked on around the school. I encourage all students to get on board with all types of technologies and embrace the inventive and ground-breaking ideas of the future. 

Ms Angelina Ross | Head of Humanities and Social Sciences, Learning Enrichment Coordinator (Gifted and Talented Education) 

Woodwork

I had the privilege of looking after the Year Eight Woodwork class for some of this term with Mr Colgate on leave. The students did some great work on their acrylic bowl, boxes, and boomerangs. The students showed creativity with the boomerangs, incorporating some of their own inspired artwork.  

The Year Eleven students are also hard at work constructing their hall tables. It has been great to see the different designs and levels of complexity attempted by them all.  

Mr Brodie Sarre | Teacher, Senior School Woodwork