At Orana we want our students to experience science and maths as much as possible. This is especially the case in science where we want students to develop their observational skills and to ask questions about what they see. Students are given many opportunities to conduct and observe experiments. They are not told which scientific phenomenon they will observe, instead they are encouraged to watch, ask questions and through this process, draw conclusions.
Recently Year 8 have been collecting data to see the efficiency of conversion of GPE (gravitational potential energy) to KE (kinetic energy) using a ball rolling down a ramp. They measured the height of the ball when released from the top of the ramp and the speed of the ball once it left the ramp over 2m.
In the Year 8 Main Lesson, students have been studying the chemistry of food. One activity they do is baking bread. This allows them to see the action of yeast and fermentation in a real-life situation. As an extra bonus, they get to eat delicious bread too.
The participation continues into Senior College. Year 11 have been learning about the history of Canberra from a surveying perspective. During this Main Lesson the students were given a simple surveying task that allowed them to experience a very small taste of the challenges that would have been experienced by surveyors working in a pre-digital age. Hopefully giving them some perspective of the enormity of the task that Charles Scrivener and his colleagues achieved.
Emily Nowlan – Maths and Science Coordinator
