Year Seven
Term One
Life in year 7
The first term of 2016 has gone fast. We’ve done so many things in various topics that have been interesting. In English, we have been reading the book Holes and when we finished reading it, we got to watch the movie. Our teachers are Laura, Sam and Michael. In Humanities, we have been learning about Ancient China, Rome, Greece and Egypt. Our teachers are Cam, Dane and Laura. In Maths, we have been learning about various topics from subtracting negative numbers to Cartesian planes. Our teachers are Helen, Jose and Moe. Our Home Group teachers are Shannon, Dani, Paul, Laura, Craig and Vanessa. For the first term we had the choice of trying out for sport. The sports for this term were volleyball-girls and boys, cricket-boys and baseball-boys. We also had the choice of running for SRC and the year level voted for Ryan and myself to represent them. This year we are the biggest year 7 group ever. That meant that some of us had to share lockers, but in the end it was worth it as we got new big lockers. This term we had a lot of fun and we have made some new friends.
-Nicolette B 7A
Term Two
What Year 7 has been up to in Term 2….
Science Expo
On Tuesday 14th June, year 5-9 Science students participated in The Lakes’ first Science Expo celebration of learning evening. It was a great success with many investigations on display and lots of friends and family members along to support. This is a quote from one happy Year 7 Science student:
“For my assessment, I tested what effect bicarbonate of soda has on different liquids. I tested vinegar, milk, Cola and water. It was fun! When mixed with the vinegar, it fizzed everywhere. The milk, Cola and water did nothing but it was still interesting to test different conditions. I enjoyed the Expo Evening when I demonstrated my experiment in front of parents because everyone clapped and laughed and had a good time!”
Athletics Carnival
“On Athletics Day this term, students from Year 7 at The Lakes participated in lots of events and they also collaborated with others to show team spirit whilst cheering on their peers. Students made a great effort to appear dressed in their House colours. Overall, the winner of the House Cup was Beachley, with everyone else still going home from a fun and enjoyable day.”
-Tinese and Danielle, 7A
Camp
50 students from year 7 eagerly travelled to the Yarra Ranges to attend the Forest Edge Camp this term for 3 days. The students were met with a scene of tranquillity where they were able to enjoy nature at its best whilst participating in activities such as the flying fox, ropes course, hut building and bush walks. The students were able to build on their teamwork and social skills by stepping out of their comfort zones, making many lifelong friendships and bonds. Thanks to all of our teachers who made the camp possible!
THE SOMA CUBE PROJECT
During Term 2, Year 7 students worked enthusiastically on their Soma Cube Project. The project involved many different aspects of geometry including three dimensional thinking, isometric drawing using both digital technologies and manual drawing, and of course the fun part, hands on modelling and building of their own Soma Cube.
Our students also learnt about the history of the Soma Cube and why this amazing puzzle is so famous. The Soma Cube was invented by Piet Hein in 1936 in Denmark. He was listening to a lecture on quantum physics when the speaker talked about slicing up space into cubes.
Hein then thought about all the irregular shapes that could be formed by combining no more than four cubes, all the same size and joined at their faces. In his head he figured out what these would be and that it would take 27 cubes to build them all. From there he showed that the pieces could form a 3x3x3 cube.
Not only does this project sharpen students’ visual perception and spatial thinking skills which are very useful attributes for a mathematician, but our Year 7 students also enjoyed challenging each other as they eagerly competed to see who could assemble the Soma Cube the quickest. There are at least 200 distinct solutions to this task, with some students able to assemble the Soma Cube in record time of 12 seconds, even with their eyes closed!
Term Three
Year 7 Food Class
Term Four
It’s been a busy term 4 for Year 7. The Science students worked hard to complete their investigation projects and were proud to display them at the popular and well received Science Fair Evening. We were so proud of the standard of projects and communication the Year 7’s shared with our community members.
A few words from our students…
The year 7 Fast Track team have had an amazing term, participating in Spin Fit for three weeks, doing exercise on the exercise bikes. In our Thursday morning sessions, we went to YMCA for high intensity classes and yoga. We also had a trip to the Victorian Institute of Sport. We do gym sessions on a Monday afternoon where we have our own gym program.
By Jack & Clayton, 7B
On Thursday 1st December, 35 year 7’s went to the school Swimming Carnival. I came 1st in Freestyle, 2nd in Breaststroke, 2nd in the relay and 4th in backstroke. The day was very exciting for all teams and the Year 7’s did really well.
By Bradley, 7A
The Production of 2016 was a huge success. There were three main cast members from Year 7 (Haylee K, Jaden L and Nicky P), Nicolette B on backstage and five dancers (Emily G 7A, Lilli F, Kaitlin K, Phoebe P and Natasha E). We had a great time getting to know students from other year levels and hang out with them!
By Jaden, 7A
