Serious Science!

The first ever CCGS Science Expo kicked off with a bowl of liquid nitrogen, a rock hard marshmallow and a dubious reggae scientist who made fire move to music.

Innovation, exploration and the future of human potential all lay in the genius of science. The modern world faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities which can only be fully realised through the ongoing study and application of science.

For CCGS students who will graduate and move into jobs that don’t yet exist or haven’t even begun to be imagined, they will depend upon the scientific skills they learn at school (like problem-solving, communicating, inferring and predicting) to make a difference and find their place in a changing world.

“It’s really important that students come to value science and see that the future lies in scientific discovery,” said Ross Farrelly, CCGS Science Teacher. “It's our job to make students excited about future possibilities so for Science Week 2017, we thought a Science Expo would be a fantastic way to showcase the work students are doing and excite younger students to engage with the sciences through fun workshops and experiments.”

The expo was open to all Year 7 and 8 classes and an additional twelve junior school classes who came through the science labs over the two days of the expo.

“Each year our Year 8 students create some outstanding Science Fair type projects which often only the teacher and the student ever get to see,” said  Ross. “We wanted to show off their work to the broader school community and to the younger students who will also be completing projects like these in the future.”

In addition to the Year 8 projects, Year 6 students participated in workshops with Year 10 Science students and enjoyed some fun experiments with Science teachers which involved freezing various objects in liquid nitrogen and visualising sound waves via a Rubens tube.

“A highlight of the expo was the evening event which had over 100 parents and grandparents turn up to the school to view projects, watch some scientific demonstrations and use the telescopes to view Saturn and Jupiter. An inspirational talk about the importance of science by guest speaker Dr Emma Beckett from the University of Newcastle, was a fantastic way to wrap up the night,” said Ross.

“We’ve had such positive feedback from everyone who was involved and it was an excellent way to shine a light on science and provide some insight about all the opportunities available to students to make an impact on the world,” said Ross.