Our secondary da Vinci Club have been working through the term with various projects. For those with a nuance for STEM, the students have been constructing and testing mini satellites utilising our RASCubes and conducting investigations linked to the ‘Launchbox Project’ by Fleet Space.

Developing skills and understanding in areas of aerospace enhances the student’s science, technology and mathematics processes as well as gaining possible career pathways which are now opening in the Australian space sector. A number of these students will be continuing project work in this area moving into next term.

For our students who appreciate the Humanities and enjoy story writing, Mr Matthys and Mrs Parker took these students through the requirements of the 2025 Hilarie Lindsay Short Story Competition for Australian school students. The students were each required to write a short story of up to 2500 words, using a theme of their choice. Winners will be announced at the end of October. We wish the best to our two competition entrants Madison Stanyer and Lucy Trinidad.

For the students who would like to test their artistic science skills, Miss Lombardini over several weeks ran a visual art and chemistry rotation linked to the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s International Chemistry and Art competition for school students.

Students were required to create a 2D artwork highlighting, ‘what chemistry means to me?’. The students produced attention grabbing visuals in A4 through an original piece of work by sketching, drawing and painting in addition to a sound explanation outlining the piece. The students have been having a lot of fun exploring related concepts and mixing substances to observe what happens next. A large group of dedicated students are involved with this project, and we look forward to successful outcomes after they submit their entries during the school holidays.

Mark Gargano

Secondary da Vinci Club Coordinator

The Year 7 students had an amazing experience recently at the Scitech Centre. To begin, students were exposed to the vast cosmos and the origins of the universe in the Planetarium. The night sky was projected above on the giant dome ceiling so that students could see the many constellations, including the 12 zodiac constellations. The students were then taken on a journey through the Milky Way Galaxy followed by exploration of the many other galaxies in our universe.

Students were given time to explore the many exciting interactive displays including exploration of a possible Mars settlement, and a very popular interactive activity demonstrating centripetal force. Students could explore different planets using a giant globe to project the surfaces of each planet. This linked well with our recent science topic investigating the Solar system.

The students were then involved with a ‘Sky’s the Limit’ workshop where they had to collaborate, design and test aircraft wing prototypes using an iterative process. The students had access to woodworking machinery to create their designs and then competed in a challenge to see which group had the most effective design, which allowed the aeroplane to go the greatest distance.

This free-of-charge ‘Future Makers’ excursion was provided to our school by the schools pathway program with the National Defence Industry Skills Office.

Overall, the students had an incredible day, with a lot of practical work to support the scientific theory.

Morag Lancaster and Steve Rigney

Year 7 Science Teachers