Science and Wonder
Jennifer Selinger – Head of Science
View From the Kleinlehrer Family Science Building
Annually, the halls of the Kleinleher Family Science Building ring with the sounds of excited Year 10 students explaining Science at the tops of their voices to the streams of parents who indulgently stand and listen to the babble. The Night of Science and Wonder usually runs from 4.00 pm until 6.00 pm and draws quite a crowd. This year things were a little different. With much less time to prepare and an audience that consisted mostly of other members of Year 10, you might think that the 2020 Morning of Science and Wonder might have been a bit flat and uninspiring. If this was your prediction, your observations on the day would have proved you wrong!
Despite needing to rely more on the Internet than their own first-hand research, and despite a task compacted from about a month’s worth of homework to two weeks of in-class time, the Year 10s pulled off an amazing display. It was a testament to the resilience of our students. Their depth of understanding and ability to write a formal report of their experiment may have suffered, but their willingness to set up and produce something of quality to share with others was admirable.
Ice skating, the effect of lying on your pupils, a plethora of sports-based questions, drink flavours and your expectations, shock absorbers and tennis racquets, whether listening to western music affects your ability in a gun duel, change blindness and its weird effects – as usual the topics spanned a huge range of interests. The students could all speak eloquently about their projects and the presentation of some of the projects suggests a bright future for the students in the field of design.
The students were very grateful to Mr Case, Mr Majsay and Mr Watt who dropped in to view the displays and listen to the students present. They were excited to share their expertise with the world outside the Science faculty and appreciated the time that was shared with them. I was also impressed with their willingness to listen to students from other classes and giving their friends a chance to share their accomplishments.
Watching the product of the few weeks of hard work, I was reminded of how capable our students are and how well they step up when a deadline looms. They should be very proud of the display they produced.
