The laboratories have been dark for the last couple of weeks as Year 8 classes have been exploring light. This is a great Physics topic, with students investigating angles of incidence, reflection and refraction. Students were given a creative challenge using our set of CYI cubes. They had to capture the primary and secondary colours of light using filters, and some great artistic effects were observed.
The Year 7 classes have been noisy, with students doing an investigation of sound. They have been using water-filled test tubes and a pitch detector called Fine Tuner on their phones. Results were analysed and graphed giving them valuable experience in scientific investigations.
As part of the 15th Innovation Challenge, our BrainSTEM team from Year 9 presented to a packed house at Swinburne University of Technology on Thursday 24 November.
The emphasis of the BrainSTEM program is experiencing the processes of innovation in STEM, so the journey the team took was as important as their product.
They explored the link between levels of social media use and wellbeing impacts on students from Years 7 to 11. Through surveying, the group found some interesting findings: Year 8s tend to underestimate the time they spend on social media and Year 11s tend to overestimate. Most students surveyed reported daily social media use in the high to extreme range, which is more than three hours daily. The higher the levels of daily social media use, the greater the number of behaviours such as wanting to buy or buying beauty products, clothing, beauty treatments, diet foods, diet programs, following social media influencers and clicking through online advertising. To respond to the problem, our BrainSTEM team designed stickers to be added to phones to remind students to stop scrolling and start living.
Susan Long
Science Learning Leader
