10-12 News

GTAC Excursion

Our Year 10 Biology class visited the GTAC (Gene Techonlogy Access Centre) on a recent excursion. 

This GTAC event comprises 3 parts:

1. An online course preparing you for your research project at GTAC
2. A visit to GTAC laboratories where our GTAC Scientist Mentors will guide you to generate DNA barcodes for animal or plant tissues of environmental or commercial interest. The DNA generated by your team will be sent to the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) for sequencing.
3. A virtual learning workshop following your lab visit. You will use bioinformatics programs to analyse DNA data sets that include the DNA barcodes generated by your team.

This event exposed our students to topics studied in VCE Biology, such as techniques for manipulating DNA and the concept of ‘molecular homology’.

» Analysing DNA Barcodes to identify and discover species (Years 9&10) – Virtual and at GTAC

Mission to Mars

Our Year 10s went on a Mission to Mars where students work as a team and use their problem-solving skills to successfully complete a geological survey of the Mars surface. Students wear specially-designed spacesuits and act as astronauts, mission controllers and research scientists. Mission Control officers communicate via radio to the astronauts on the surface, and are responsible for their safety and the success of the scientific mission.

• Astronauts collect their equipment, de-pressurise in the airlock, and step out onto the Martian surface to collect real soil and rock samples, drill an ice core, conduct a thermal survey and measure seismic activity.
• After returning to earth, students analyse their samples and undertake further scientific investigations in the laboratory.

https://www.vssec.vic.edu.au/mission-to-mars/

Year 12 Chemistry

Year 12 Chemistry have been learning about Electrolysis. Students this past week have been studying the products formed at electrodes during the electrolysis of various aqueous solutions.