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Middle School Hub
Be the change you want to see in the world - Ghandi
The year 5 students from Mrs Hepworth and Mrs Bellette’s classes took part in the year 5 Showcase this week. It was a chance to share their learning over the last two terms with other classes in the school and also with parents and family members. It was a valuable and rewarding experience with the students being able to get authentic feedback and ideas for their future learning goals.
Thank you to all the students, staff and families who generously came and supported the students.
In Science last week Mrs Hepworth’s and Mrs Bellette’s Year 5 classes investigated the properties and nature of light. This included light travelling in straight lines from a source and how it interacts with different materials, how light can form shadows and be refracted or absorbed and how light can manipulate what we see.
The students worked their way around 8 stations and tried different experiments to see how light can reflect, refract and absorb. There were lots of ‘lightbulb’ moments (pun intended) as the groups read about and discovered the scientific reasons this happens.
Students were asked to investigate how light travels in a straight line by recreating a digital experiment
Use mirrors to manipulate light to appear in a different position than the line from the torch (reflection)
Make the tallest and shortest shadow and record where the source of light is in relation to the popstick.
Use a glass of water to change the direction the arrow is facing (refraction)
Investigate how our brain can mix the signals when looking at reflections (optical illusions)
Use light to manipulate colour
Use a prism to create a rainbow
and investigate how light travelling through different translucent substances can change the way we view the object
These experiments were also a great opportunity for the students to use scientific skills in investigation, note taking, prediction and questioning, team work, clarifying ideas using experiments and use scientific vocabulary to discuss and explain phenomenon .
Please click on the link to view our latest Middle School newsletter.
As part of the Middle School Unit inquiry this term, students have been looking at world or community problems and thinking about possible solutions to help overcome them. We have been following the “6 Ds” for this process which asks students to Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver and Debrief the problem they chose to investigate.
We have seen some creative and powerful ideas coming from these sessions. One group was investigating the problem of water pollution. As part of their solution they chose to write a blog post to educate others about the issue. I’m sure they would love a comment or two on what they wrote!
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water often caused by humans. We would like to help this and hopefully you can help too.
About one garbage truck of plastic gets into the ocean per minute. One million sea birds are killed each year by plastics and one hundred thousand marine mammals are also killed each year.
At least 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. That’s similar to emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute.
There is more micro-plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way
The eight most common types of garbage found in the ocean are:
Plastic bottles
Plastic bags
Cigarettes
Food wrappers
Plastic utensils
Straws
Beverage cans
Paper bags.
If you would like to help water pollution here are some things you can do:
Run the dishwasher and washing machine only when you have a full load
Do not flush pills liquid or powder medication down the toilet
Have separate bins for recycling and waste
Recycle all things recycle able
Use a minimum amount of dishwashing liquid
Thank you for reading, and remember if you ever see rubbish on the ground, please pick it up!
Matilda R, Lauren A, Lara N, Zoe S, Ivy V-D
Here is some information regarding the Ignite Program at Aberfoyle Park High School for 2019.
Please find here a copy of our first middle school newsletter: term 1 newsletter
Acquaintance night will take place on Tuesday 13th February, with a free BBQ starting up at 5pm. Classes will be open from 5:30-7:00pm with a whole middle school information session (years 5-7) at 6pm in the Middle School Unit. This will be followed by a an informal class visit. We look forward to meeting you and sharing our plans for an exciting and engaging year. It is not compulsory for the students to attend but they can if you wish, provided they are supervised.
Today we began our middle school inquiry sessions. Students discussed the skills needed for authentic inquiry before brainstorming in group, global and community issues. This will lead onto personalised inquiry investigations.
On Thursday and Friday this week (8th and 9th Feb) we will be having team bonding sessions for our year 5-7 students. In the past this has been a very successful way for students to meet new people across the unit and become more comfortable within their environment. The activities will start on Thursday afternoon with students organising and getting to know their teams and the team colour, before the activities begin on Friday. On Friday, students can come to school dressed in their team colour if they wish (please remember our sun- smart policy – no singlet tops, wear sunscreen and bring hats and drink bottles).
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