The Science Faculty has embraced the opportunity to work in the Science laboratories again and explore many aspects of Science through experimental investigations. The Faculty would like to welcome Ms Esther Latimour from the Mathematics Department. Ms Latimour is an experienced Psychology teacher who is sharing her expertise with staff and students.

Exciton Science Solar Cell Challenge

In November 2020, all Year 8 students participated in the Exciton Science Solar Cell Challenge. The challenge was to generate electricity from light by creating their own dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC). Students were required to record their data, take photos of the process and create a digital poster of the process and results obtained.

Congratulations to Zenan (Amy) Chen, Annie Seymour, Ellie Loupasakis, Jixuan (Jennifer) Gao, Flora Cutchey, Sophia Holdenson, Olivia Monkman-Straub, Qiyue (Carol) Chen and Qing Chun (Joanna) Yang who submitted their digital poster and received a certificate from Exciton. Thank you to Zenan (Amy) Chen for the photos taken during the process.

National Youth Science Forum 2021

Ruby Moir, STEM Captain, was a successful applicant to the National Youth Science Forum held annually at ANU. This year, due to COVID-19, the NYSF program was conducted online.

In mid-December, NYSF students received a Science pack with selected items to get us excited for the program. This included a t-shirt, Lego, pH indicator paper, jellybeans, seeds and more.

Nevertheless, the NYSF provided its attendees with a deep immersion into the world of STEM with a morning, lunch and evening session. Each session was directed by the “staffies” who were all NYSF alumni. Ruby’s favourite lecture was the live tour of the CERN Atlas Large Hadron Collider (LHC). During this lecture, Dr Stephen Goldfur tuned in from 100m underground to present a tiny fraction of this massive experiment and explained his role in the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Ruby will share her experience at the Science Week Assembly later in the year.