Tag Archive | science

Engineering Challenge

Jan30

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Welcome to a brand new year of excitement and creativity in the OC!

Our new class began yesterday with students keen and enthusiastic to participate in their first collaborative engineering challenge – designing and building a newspaper dome. Students utilised maths, science and problem solving skills in order to complete the challenge which involved creating a structure to a specific and complex criteria.

Our photos below showcase the designing and making process as well as some of the exceptional talents of our new OC members. Well done everyone for a great start to the year!

CSIRO Excursion

Nov19

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Today the OC attended an excursion to the CSIRO Energy Centre at Mayfield to visit our class scientist Dr Graeme Puxty and his colleagues Dr Jenny and Dr Kendrick.

The day began with excitement when students got to enter the building through a revolving door and then made their way to the auditorium for a presentation. Dr Graeme explained all about the CSIRO and the role they play in science research and greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect. I was very impressed with our students and the terrific questions they had for the experts as well as how they answered some very challenging scientific questions.

We met Dr Jenny who explained all about the cost of technology and electricity demand. Several students were invited to experiment with Electricity Generation By Technology scenarios using the eFuture website.

Dr Kendrick then told us about next generation photovoltaics and students got to handle some precious metals including a piece of gold worth over $17,000.

We were then invited on a tour through the CSIRO where we got to visit some different labs and watch some science experiments. We also met some engineers, Alex and Will, who took us to visit the solar field of mirrors.

As you can see in the photos below, our students had a fantastic day and I would like to thank Dr Graeme and all his colleagues for their time and inspiration in allowing our students this great opportunity. We look forward to continuing our SiS partnership with Dr Graeme in 2014!

OC Winners

Sep3

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Congratulations to our wonderful OC students who participated in the Newcastle University Science and Engineering Challenge Day at Kahibah Public school today. Students took part in a variety of challenging tasks including bridge building, mini catapult making and testing, electric circuit construction and building a working vehicle. Our clever students once again impressed us with their knowledge and talent and were the winning school of the competition. Well done OC!

MsArmstrong's science and engineerinh album on Photobucket

Education Week Celebrations!

Jul31

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free glitter text and family website at FamilyLobby.com

Thank you to everyone who joined us today to celebrate Education Week with our Science Spectacular! Our Year 5 and 6 students did an amazing job demonstrating their science experiments which included Psylli Slime, Bubble Prints, Sherbet, Volcanic Eruptions and Lava Lamps. After our delicious sausage sizzle lunch, students and parents took part in our engineering challenge task, A Tall Order, where students had 25 minutes to design and build a free standing structure made from spaghetti that could balance a marshmallow on top! Well done to everyone for their terrific efforts today. As you can see in the photos below, a great day was had by all. A huge thank you to the awesome Mrs ‘mad scientist’ Bowman for her organisation of the day and her incredible enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning!

MsArmstrong's science spectacular album on Photobucket

ICAS Competitions

Jul29

Today at our assembly, students who participated in the UNSW Science competition received their certificates and results. Well done to the OC students who took part. The UNSW competitions are always set at a high standard so I was very impressed with the teffiric effort students made. Congratulations to Oliver, Jasmine, Frank, Ethan C and Allan who received a certificate of participation; Chris who achieved a credit and Mitch who excelled achieving a distinction.

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ICAS results for competitions previously completed will also be handed out at our Monday assemblies (12.30pm) as they become available. Parents and caregivers are always more than welcome to attend.

Super Science!

Jun25

Today we received a visit from our class scientist Dr Graeme Puxty. It was a terrific session where students got to participate in two exciting science experiments. The first, called Dehydrating Sugar, involved mixing sugar with sulphuric acid. This process caused the oxygen and hydrogen to be sucked out leaving only carbon behind. We ended up with a huge lump of black coal! The second experiment, Coke Can Crush, involved heating an empty coke can with a teaspoon of water in it on a hotplate. When heated the steam pushed the air out of the can. Dr Graeme then turned the can upside down and put it into a tray of water. The steam condensed creating a vacuum, resulting in the can being crushed. Awesome! A big thanks to Dr Graeme for his time and sharing his expertise with our class.

MsArmstrong's dr graeme t2 album on Photobucket

Meet Dr Graeme

Mar12

Today we had our first visit from our class scientist Dr Graeme Puxty as part of the Scientists in Schools program. Dr Graeme, who works at the CSIRO at Mayfield, talked with students all about the important research and work he does in his position. We learned all about the greenhouse effect and some of the ideas and projects scientists are working on to achieve sustainability. Dr Graeme also showed us a prototype of a very small transparent solar panel that they are developing at the CSIRO. Very cool!

Ethan, Eva, Mitch and Peyton with Dr Graeme Puxty

 

Earthquake Explorers

Mar7

Students have been learning about earthquakes during our science lessons with Miss Staniland. Today we learned about tectonic plates and how the moving plates cause earthquakes. We used balls of playdoh to represent the plates and experimented by moving them in a variety of ways to explore the different types of earthquakes.