Careers News
Optional Talks for Senior Students
In the last fortnight talks on gaps years, Early Entry schemes, scholarships and adjustment factors have been held and attended by Year 12 students. They received a lot of information and were shown what to consider and where to find information to help them with the many decisions they will be making this year.
Taking Opportunities and Reaping the Rewards
Recently we have had several students taking advantages of events and activities to broaden horizons and enrich their lives and learning.
Last week Year 12 student, Katie Swain, spent a week at Taronga Zoo on Work Experience. She applied last year when it was mentioned in the morning notices. Her application was successful and she spent the week working with primates, giraffes and meerkats. Katie says her week was “amazing”.
During the recent January holidays several students also participated in activities to further their learning and skills.
Alanna Noonan in Year 12 travelled to Sydney in January to attend the National Computer Science School (NCSS). It is a ten day summer school for senior students. NCSS brings together talented young people from around Australia for an intensive course of computer programming and website development in the School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney and was full of wonderful opportunities.
Another student who successfully took up an opportunity that was offered to Year 12 last year was Claire Annis-Brown who saw an announcement about the Sir Adrian Solomons Law Bursary and applied.
Last week both Mrs Louise Vella, Claire's Legal Studies teacher, and I attended the presentation of the bursary and award at Everingham Solomons along with her parents and partnerships of the law firm. We wish Claire well as she commences her combined Law course at the University of Newcastle this year.
Joseph Melville now in Year 9 attended the ConocoPhilips Science Experience held at UNE in Armidale. He has written this account of his experience and even featured on the television news story about the event:
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to participate in the ConocoPhilips Science Experience. It is a 3-day camp full of science-based activities. There were 30 students from Years 9 - 11 and coming from as far as Brisbane and Melbourne.
One of the activities we participated in was going to a SMART Farm. SMART Farm stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound agricultural farming techniques. When we were there, we were shown an array of different devices used on a farm including automated tractors, cattle and sheep trackers, and drones. We also had the chance to code a path for a set of drones and some of that footage appeared on Prime7 News.
Another activity we did was DNA and Forensic techniques. That involved looking at your DNA under a microscope and writing notes and getting them fingerprint tested. We also went into a room where we got to see our DNA under an ultra UV light.
A third activity we did was School of Ants. We placed a scotch finger biscuit, frankfurt, and cotton ball that had been soaked in some sugar water near some ants. We left this there for 20 minutes. While we were waiting we collected some different ants. We drowned them in ethanol and looked at them under a microscope. We did this to examine and classify the ants. After the 20 minutes was up, we returned to the first experiment. We estimated how many ants were on each food item and collected them in a plastic bag. About half an hour after the ants were put in the bag, we were asked why we thought the ants had started to slow down. Some of the reasons people came up with were they were sick of the bag, they were losing oxygen, or the quote of the camp, “they had accepted their fate.”
Overall, the science camp was a great experience. I learned a lot about lots of different sciences and how they contribute to the world today.
Mrs Susan Barrett
Careers Adviser
mcccareers@arm.catholic.edu.au