Science News

Happy National Science Week everyone! From the 12th to the 20th of August its time to don your lab coats and safety goggles and get to the labs. Well ok, even if you don’t want to, our year 7’s certainly have been. Over the last couple of weeks, they have been experimenting with the different states of matter. One way they’ve been doing this is by looking at silly putty. Hmm, is that a solid or a liquid? Observing the change in matter has also been a hot topic amongst them by observing the sudden explosions of popcorn. This is starting to sound more like food tech now!

Moving away from the food classrooms hopefully and the year 8’s have been investigating cells and body systems. First it was the rat dissection which I’m sure everyone went crazy over, but then a whole sheep lung? I was lucky enough to have a sneak peek at it and I can safely say it took my breath away. 

The year 9’s haven’t been conducting experiments on bad jokes but instead some of them have been looking deeper into nuclear physics. It’s impressive to see the curriculum line up with the current movie releases. They’ve been kept busy reading the periodic table and researching all about nuclear fission and fusion. It’s safe to say Mr. D’silva will have some knowledgeable physics classes lined up. 

It’s hard to keep up with the year 10’s at the moment. What aren’t they doing? Of course, they started looking at the blood spatter experiments at the start of the term, because who doesn’t want to do forensics. But with the options of psychology, chemistry, physics and biology, they’ve got all the bases covered. Focusing quickly on biology, they have started to understand genetics and DNA, so don’t be alarmed if they come home asking about their Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother. 

Continuing with the genetic trend, the Year 11’s have begun their deep dive into DNA and what alleles lead to what genotypes and phenotypes. I think it’s best to ask them about it. Moving to the physics class and it's been full steam ahead into motion with the next stop being acceleration and velocity. I think it's time for me to decelerate with these jokes.

Finally, to year 12 as they enter some of their last areas of study. This comes as no surprise to anyone but it's getting busier and busier but at least the biology classes were able to join the bandwagon and do some genetics too. They’ve been learning all about population dynamics and what events lead to the separation of gene pools.

Nobody can believe we are already halfway through term 3, but at least the scientists here at Heathmont are putting in all the hard work to make the time fly by! 

Happy science week everybody!

Anthony Westerveld,

Year 11 and CSIRO coffee runner. 

Popping Corn With Mr Hunter 

In Mr. Hunter's Year 7 Science class, the students had a fascinating experiment involving popcorn and a Bunsen burner flame. They heated up the popcorn kernels and observed an interesting phenomenon. As the heat caused the liquid inside the kernels to turn into gas, the popcorn popped and expanded. It was quite intriguing to witness this transformation. Additionally, they noticed that as the gas escaped, the mass of the popcorn decreased. It was an engaging and informative experiment that shed light on the science behind popcorn popping.   Who knew science experiments could also be delicious?  

Elephant Toothpaste with Mr Hunt

A timeless crowd favourite...