Maths and Science week at ISBe began with a very colourful start as class 6 taught class 5 about indicators and colour changes. The students from class 6, dressed in their lab coats and glasses showed how acids and bases neutralise each other. Their dictation and presentation skills were amazing. Class 5 loved to see all of the colour changes in the chemicals and some of them even used the equipment that morning!
Class 8 were up in the afternoon with an in-depth lesson about the human body and different organ systems. Class 4 learned a lot from the older middle school group and had so many questions for them! Class 8 made sure their lesson was very interactive with their activities. At the end of their presentation, a cahoot was prepared and all of class 4, even Ms Mac, took part!
Finally, to finish up Monday, class 7 had prepared a chemistry lesson for the younger class 3. In this lesson, class 3 learned about different types of mixtures and the properties of some materials. Some of the fundamental chemistry principles like solvents, solutes and solutes were taught by a very confident class 7. To cap off the lesson, students from class 3 donned the lab coats and goggles before attempting to separate mixtures of water, salt, sand and iron shavings. Each group were supervised by teachers and students from class 7 and they had a lot of fun experimenting!
The remainder of the week consisted of teams from class 6 to class 10 preparing for Friday’s Mars Event curated spectacularly by Mr Matt. The planning and preparation involved did not go unrewarded as the entire day was so much fun for the high school students and staff.
For the Friday, students were using their time in maths and science to create their own contraption using very simple materials. This ranged from vehicles, to rocket ships to Martian domes! The amount of effort and collaboration between the high school students at ISBe was a joy to witness. Some of the final creations were amazing… some may have fizzled out…
During one event judged by Mr Matt, the self-propelled land vehicle was an event where students had to created a small vehicle using only cardboard, rubber bands, weights and other things they might find in a classroom. As well as competing for which vehicle travelled furthest, stylings and attention to detail were also very important here! Unicorns artist Ksenija from class 9 made a beautiful looking vehicle which really stood out!
Another vehicle event judged by Ms Poole was more intricate. Students were to create Martian rovers and were allowed to use electronics or other means for propulsion. A team of 3 from class 6, Swayam, Aadya and Naitik, invented a marvellous vehicle that was battery operated using a remote control! Class 8 also produced some ingenious designs with their three-wheeled roved that operated using batteries, motors and switches!
Moving on to the rocket ships judged by Mr Kiernan, 3 teams entered their designs for the competition. First up were Nathan, Nayonika and Samarth from class 6 with a truly unique and crafty design that used the force of Mr Kiernan’s body weight to propel the rocket upwards. By taking a large bottle and creating some air-tight piping with card and tape, the group produced a very formidable result of 6 metres. The other two rockets used the same principles of building up air pressure inside inverted soft-drink bottles using a bicycle pump and some card wings for stability. The students from class 10 even made their own launch pad. The first rocket to be launched reached a height of 8 metres and the final one soaring to 10! Ultimately, credit must be given to the ingenuity and creativeness to those students from class 6, they only had one chance of the rocket reaching Mars with no practice attempts and it surprised everyone, even themselves!
Finally, the Martian habitat competition judged by Ms Katie was the last event of the day. The designs by students were really good, very colourful and quite large! Points were given to teams for the height, width, stability and decoration of these Martian domes. A small but incredibly stable dome created by students from class 7 received a lot off praise from students and teachers alike. A team of students from class 9 had designed a fascinating structure by only using triangular patterned cardboard. It had the potential to blow all of the competition away but time management was their unfortunate downfall…
Overall, Maths and Science week at ISBe was one of the most exciting times so far! Mr Matt deserves a lot of praise for his hard work and the students do too! They amount of collaboration
and creativity was so impressive to witness. A very high-standard has been set for all future science weeks! We’re already looking forward to next year!