Jennifer Selinger – Head of Science

View from the Kleinlehrer Family Science Building

That time of year is nearly upon us again – the annual Night of Science and Wonder, affectionately known as NOSAW. The Year 10 students are frantic, nervous, excited or confident, depending on their state of readiness and their comfort with speaking in public. The teachers are apprehensive, eager and worried, depending on their perception of the state of readiness of their students, and I am just intrigued to see what this year’s crop of budding scientists will have in store for us as they present their findings in poster and oral form. If you are also interested to know how this will all turn out, please join us in the Science building on Thursday, 6 April from 4pm – 6pm to see and hear the wonders of Science that our students will present.

X03 is also a hive of activity at the moment as we race to finish our Rube Goldberg machine before vacating the room. We have a complicated carefully crafted system: a match is lit, a bucket falls onto a light switch and turns on the light, at the same time setting off a 16 step device that ultimately turns the light off again. We have spent 6 weeks of lunchtimes and the occasional recess constructing this intricate and carefully balanced device, and all the elements work…separately! At the time of writing we are yet to see the whole machine in action, but we still have hope… It has been a marvellous experience watching my team problem-solve, create, re-create, collaborate, cope with disappointment and frustration and celebrate together when things work. What a wonderful team!

More “making” has been going on in Year 9 as we teach a new version of the electricity topic Sparky. The students began by making a scribbler, a wearable and a racer – learning skills in circuit construction, use of a variety of tools including a needle and thread (not an easy task for a number of students!), problem solving and perseverance. The students will go on to learn about the theory behind their circuits and hopefully will have a chance to apply what they learn to building a sculpture, designing a game or solving some difficult real-life issues.

Constructing a racer

On your marks

The finished racer

Wearables

In other news, we have new NSW Senior Science syllabuses! The re-branded Board of Studies (now called NESA) has provided us with the updated versions, put together after much consultation from various stakeholders. They look exciting. Gone are the specific contexts, allowing much more freedom for teachers to tailor their examples to their students. In are a number of topics that have not been taught for a while, filling the gaps that had been identified in the students’ knowledge of the subjects and allowing for a greater real understanding of the concepts being taught. In as well is a depth study in each subject – a chance for the students to focus on an aspect of the course that has particularly caught their interest and spend some time investigating this in a manner of their choosing. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together in the time provided, but at this stage, at least, the new courses look set to re-invigorate the teaching of Science in the senior years. There will be a number of areas that need extra work from the teachers – topics that we have not taught for years, topics that have NEVER been part of the syllabus. Emanuel has been very generous in providing time for us to work on this and to produce excellent programs that reflect the best in Science teaching and general pedagogy. We are excited for this opportunity to further develop our teaching in our areas of expertise.