Around the College
iFarm - Mr. Stephen Ross-Bryant
Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College is the proud recipient of a fully computerised interactive agricultural science research station called iFarm which will enable STEM learning in agricultural studies at the College as well as other cross-curricular subjects such as geography, biology, humanities, and food tech, etc.
The iFarm is entirely designed, developed and manufactured in Tamworth in New South with all plastic panels produced with recycled plastics. Designers Steve and Kate Mansur developed the iFarm concept to help students learn about agriculture, science, maths and technology in a more exciting and engaging way.
Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College is fortunate to be one of only just over 50 schools across Australia to receive an iFarm, and the only school in Gippsland to receive one. The iFarm project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as part of the Educating Kids About Agriculture: iFarm program.
Year 10 Maths Tutoring - Ms. Lisa Hogan
Year 9 Humanities - Ms Joanna Jacobs
Learning about civics and citizenships by roleplaying making a bill - No Homework Bill!
ASX Schools Sharemarket Game - Mrs Julia Leslie
Game 1 News
Our ‘MacKillop Top ASX Trader’ was Taj Norwood from the Year 10 Money and Markets class. Taj traded under the syndicate name ‘Da Bad Boyz Admin’. Not only was Taj our school’s highest-performing syndicate in the ASX Schools Sharemarket Game, but he also ranked third in Victoria and 13th nationally with a portfolio value of $61,919.02 at the end of the ten weeks of trading. Taj competed against 23,948 other syndicates nationally and 6,638 syndicates in Victoria. This was an amazing effort! The average syndicate value at the end of the game was $50,054.06. Congratulations Taj!
Congratulations also to Will Patton (Year 11), Amelia Gromotka (Year 10) and Alexis McGuire (Year 10). Will came second at Mary MacKillop College with a portfolio value of $53,463.62. Amelia and Alexis’ syndicate ‘AMAG’ came third with a portfolio value of $52,648.10. Well done!
Game 2
The ASX Schools Sharemarket Game 2 trading will commence on August 17th and conclude on October 26th. Registrations are now open. Please email Mrs. Leslie to register. Participants receive a virtual $50,000 to invest over a 10-week period, in over 300 companies listed on the ASX. The prices they buy and sell at are the same prices as in the live market. This is as close to real-life share trading as you can get.
Syndicate major prizes – 1st $600, 2nd $500 and 3rd $400
Syndicate state prize – 1st $400
The MacKillop ASX Traders’ winning syndicate will also receive a great prize.
Year 11 Economics speaks with BETA - Mrs Julia Leslie
Year 11 Economics students enjoyed a most informative session with members of the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA). The wonders of technology allowed us to speak with two young BETA members who work in Canberra, Ruisi and Nic, via Microsoft Teams. Interestingly, Ruisi is an economist and Nic’s background is in psychology. Our students were able to interact and ask questions. They had been studying Behavioural Economics, so this was a great opportunity to link economic theory to real-life experience.
BETA is the Australian Government’s central unit for applying behavioural insights to public policy in order to improve the lives of Australians. It brings together research from economics, psychology and behavioural science to design and test the application of behavioural insights to policy.
Ruisi and Nic focused their presentation on one of their projects about cyber security based on the following:
That if the Australian population was aware of cybersecurity risks relating to smart devices, would their buying decisions change. BETA was looking at the problem of asymmetric information needing to be addressed as at present producers have more information than consumers. Therefore, it can be assumed that there is currently an overallocation of resources to smart devices. BETA examined types of labelling on smart devices that could better inform consumers about possible cyber security issues relating to smart devices and the potential impacts on the market for these devices of such labels.
Sarah Ellery-Burke’s reflection:
‘When the BETA team came to talk to us, I found it interesting that they pay people to participate in the surveys so that they get a range of different people to partake. I also found it engaging that it was younger people talking about their personal experiences along with a presentation as a visual aid to help us to understand different concepts.’
Bradley Buttigieg’s reflection:
‘The presentation was insightful and easy to understand. The real-life examples were helpful.’
