Volume 27 Issue 5 02 Mar 2018 15 Adar 5778

From the Head of Science

Jennifer Selinger – Head of Science

View from the Kleinlehrer Family Science Building

One of the main ideas of Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, with which the Year 12 class started their year, states that the time measured by an observer is dependent on the relative motion between the observer and the object they are observing. It seems that we have been contradicting this theory, as we appear to have been working close to the speed of light, and yet the time I am observing seems extremely short – the year began, I blinked, and it became Week 5!

Nevertheless, we have already achieved much in Science so far this year, even if it feels as if we have really only just started. Year 7 students are developing their observational and logical thinking skills as the long-suffering ferret Annika is once again discovered to be missing from her cage. It is interesting watching them grapple with the idea that 1 piece of evidence that points towards a suspect doesn’t automatically make them guilty!

Year 8 students are looking for links and developing their ability to reason from cause to effect in the Home among the Mangroves topic. Unfortunately their field trip, designed to allow them to put theory into practice, had to be postponed (we picked the hottest and most humid day possible for the excursion) but they will be looking into the amazing adaptations of mangroves and the animals and plants that make up the ecosystems at Bicentennial Park in the near future.

Disease has been at the forefront of Year 9’s learning this term and they are currently thinking about how Science is portrayed in films and on TV, starting with an analysis of the movie Contagion. Considering information with a critical and analytical mind and recognising when poor Science is being presented are an important part of the development of scientific literacy in our students – the ultimate aim of the 4 years of compulsory High School Science.

Year 10s have been applying themselves to Science in their ‘real-life’ in the topic What Lurks in Your Cupboard. I have it on good authority that there are some Year 10 students who now peer distrustfully at all labels to ensure that the product they are handling is safe and appropriate for the job at hand – our work here is done!

The beginning of the year is always frantic, and it seems to get busier and busier as the years go on (or perhaps I just forget by the end of the year how crazy the beginning seemed). It is always exciting, though, to watch the students’ faces as they address themselves to new challenges, learn new information to add to their understanding of the world and develop new skills. Einstein is reputed to have said: “Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it.” Hopefully this year will be full of amazing Science experiences for all of our students!