News
What’s happening in VCAL at MSJ?
Year 11 VCAL
Congratulations to the Year 11 VCAL students on their fantastic contribution to the Mary Mackillop Today fundraising dinner on Friday 31 August.
The students, under the guidance of their teacher Bianca Stafrace, have been preparing for the event for weeks, ensuring their canapes and soups were of the highest quality to serve to over 200 guests who were in attendance on the night. In addition to making the food, the students also served the guests and even packaged some tasty treats for all to take home at the end of the night.
The girls represented Mount St Joseph Girls’ College with the upmost pride and the feedback from all who were there on the night has been excellent, we may even have some future MasterChef’s in the making.
Well done to all those involved for another successful Mary Mackillop Today fundraiser.
Year 12 VCAL
The Year 12 VCAL students have demonstrated their creative side through their latest numeracy venture where they were asked to design their own personal project.
Using a variety of numeracy skills such as budgeting, measurement, and design, the end result produced some unique designs that reflected the individual interest and passions of the students. Some students created artwork using crayons, blow-dryers, and bathroom tiles, one student made a horse blanket for her horse, while another hand-sewed a pillow for her baby sister. These projects demonstrate the individuality and creativity that our VCAL students love to display when meeting their outcomes.
Year 12 VCAL – Hospital Update
The community partnership between Mount St Joseph Girls’ College and the Footscray Hospital is continuing to strengthen, with the Year 12 students making great progress on their beautification project of Ward 3B. The students have just two visits left at the hospital before their big reveal on Tuesday 16 October. Here’s a sneak peak of what the girls have been up to at the hospital ward so far.
Natasha Feore
VCAL Leader
Girls in Physics
On Tuesday 21 August, a group of senior Physics students, including Amber Wilson, Madeline Bateman, Jordan Niu, Angelique Upson and myself, visited Monash University for the Girls In Physics Breakfast.
We were first seated with other girls from schools around Victoria and treated to breakfast before we got to listen to female physicist Dr Ceri Brenner. She passionately told us about her work with the most powerful lasers in the world, and also about the origins of laser technology. Beginning with an idea proposed by Einstein in his 1917 paper about Stimulated Emission of Radiation; from which the acronym laser comes from (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). Dr Brenner explained the many different ways that laser-plasma physics can be used to help begin to try and solve global problems, or as she called them, global challenges; some of which included trying to overcome the imminent global energy deficit by developing more efficient means of electricity generation using high-energy lasers rather than burning fossil fuels. The lasers can also be used to develop imaging technology for medical, nuclear and aerospace inspection, and even to investigate supernova explosions and the death of stars. As Dr Brenner’s talk concluded, she left us with a quote from Einstein, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’
We were then taken on a tour of the Australian Synchrotron, a major research facility that uses accelerator technology to accelerate electrons up to 99.99998% of the speed of light to produce a powerful source of radiation - a million times brighter than the sun. The beam lines that extend out from the 216 metre circumference of the accelerator are used for research involving examining the molecular and atomic details of materials. Materials such as proteins in the human body, or even dinosaur bones to find what their last meal was by investigating the fossilised contents of their stomach.
We definitely learnt a lot and I think it’s fair to say that we gained valuable insight into the work and lives of physicists and researchers alike as they strive to develop innovative technologies and solutions to real world problems. A special thank you to Mr Krishna for organising the trip and giving us this truly incredible experience.
By Madison Hansen, Sen Cameron 2
Debating Excellence
STEM DEBATE
On Sunday 12 August, Elia Pollard, Libby McIntyre and I competed in Melbourne University’s STEM debate competition. We debated science related topics against schools from around Melbourne, and as far away as Kilmore. For round 1, we debated against the topic that ‘Australia should have its own space agency’. We were the negative team against Melbourne High and we won! In Round 2 we competed against Melbourne Grammar School, and the topic was that ‘The government should be allowed to censor the Internet’. Again, we were the negative team but unfortunately we lost that round. Our third and final round was against John Monash Science School debating for ‘The de-extinction of species’. We were lucky enough to win this round but unfortunately, we did not score high enough to proceed into the finals that were held later that day. Although the experience was quite nerve wracking we thoroughly enjoyed meeting fellow students who like to debate, and overall, the experience was very enjoyable.
ABC RADIO - Harry Potter Duel
I was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to debate against Sami Sha as part of the ABC’s young debater segment. On the morning of Thursday 6 September I went to the ABC radio recording studio to pre record the segment. It was an amazing experience and it was really enjoyable to meet the hosts and to debate against a fellow Harry Potter fan. The segment aired on Friday 7 September.
Click HERE to listen to the podcast
By Marie Houlihan, Year 9
