Science News

International Chemistry Quiz

Thank you to all of the students that recently participated in the Big Science Competition! The next Science competition on our VSC calendar is the Chemistry Quiz. 

The aims of the Chemistry Quiz are to promote and encourage an awareness of the nature and relevance of chemistry amongst secondary school students. Questions will be based on the fundamental aspects of chemistry as well as questions involving its application in modern society.

The Quiz consists of 30 multiple choice questions to be answered in one hour and this year we will conduct the quiz online.  Four age division categories will be offered:·        Junior Years 7-8 (ages 12 - 14)·        Intermediate Years 9-10 (ages 14 - 16)·       Senior Year 11 (ages 16 - 17)What to do next:1. Complete this Microsoft Form (link below) by Wednesday 25th May. Please note that by registering you are committing to paying the $5 entry fee (the cost of administration by the organisers).2. Wait for further information on Compass! A Compass event will be set up which will require you to pay your entry fee and parent permission to participate in the event. The cost of the event will need to be paid via the Compass Payment Portal by Monday 6th June so that the correct number of papers can be ordered from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.3. The competition will run on Friday 5th of August – room details and time to be confirmed closer to the event.

Registration link: https://forms.office.com/r/xtQzANEG8q

Year 7 Science – STEM filtration and Cosmodome incursion

Our Year 7’s have been busy! After studying chemistry this term, each class was given a scenario task – they were out in the Australian bush and needed to filter some dirty water, but, they could only use an empty soft drink bottle, the contents in their backpack and in their surrounding environment to clean their water. The end results were magnificent! Students applied the idea of design thinking to work through their problem – this involved brainstorming ideas, creating models and working as a team to complete a water filtration system. Some of the end results can be seen below.

Now that the Chemistry topic is done, Year 7 will be moving onto studying Earth and Space Science. At Year 7 this involves examining predictable phenomena on Earth, including seasons and eclipses. To get the classes going and to introduce the topic we had a visit from the Cosmodome – this allowed students to experience the night skies right here at Vermont Secondary College!

Year 10 Environmental Science

One of the assessment tasks for our Environmental Science class is to create a Bottle Biosphere. Each group designed and created a model of an ecosystem in a plastic bottle! They investigated the role of abiotic and biotic factors and took recordings of the organisms in their biospheres to study changes in the health, size and behaviour of the living organisms within their mini ecosystems.