1998 School Magazine

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Girls 6rammar ^^rhool ;!Brisbane 1996

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Faculty of Science

n 1998 the Faculty of Science continued its coinmittnent to enriching the range and quality of educational expert- ences for students. All integral part of curriculum emphasis is to assist students to develop their critical thinking skills as they come to understand more about the world in which they live We aim to integrate and exploit the latest advances in nitonna- tion and hardware technology as a means of stimulating student interest and extending their learning. Because we view science education as a vital investtnent in the future weU-being of our society and believe that diversffication has both personal and social benefits, we aim to give students the opportunity to participate in a variety of school-based and community-based science activities of which a selection is outlined below: TAE^G SCIENCE To 'Itt" COM^N^s Pbysic"I cmd Cbe",, c"I Cb",, ges Expo - What is a physical change? What is a chenxical change? How can you ten if what you are seeing is a physical change, a cheintcal change,

The benefits for both the primary and secondary students were clear. The primary students were extended by having access to facilities and equipment which would not normally be found in a primary school. Confronting new ideas and interpret- ing what they observed offered a challenge to many of them. Furrhemnore, a relaxed introduction to secondary school will hopefully mean that the primary students now view the change from primary to secondary school as a continuation of what they are already doing rather than as a progression towards yet another beginning The Expo was a great learning experience for the Year Ten students as it was an event that they were in control of and responsible for, and it reinforced the implications of the students' perceptions of the tasks which they undertake. The

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students saw the success of the Expo as being con- tingent upon their own behaviour and abilities, as opposed to some other outside force This in turn chal- Ienged each of the students to have a detailed knowl- edge of what was at the occurring experimental sta- tions and to think about the best POS- SIble way of con

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or in fact both? These were the questions asked by the Year Ten BGGS students of Year Six and Seven students from primary schools tinoughout Brisbane when they ran the "Physical and ChenxicalChanges Expo" from Tuesday, 28 Aprilto Friday, I May. Each session ran for one hour, with 10A hosting thirty students from ASPIey State School, TOB hosting thiny students from Ironside Primary School, IOC and 100 hosting sixty students from Ascot State School, TOE and 10F hosting sixty students from Our Lady of the Rosary Kenmore, and 10G and IOH hosting saty students from Payne Road State School. Each session began with a short talk and some demonstrations by two of the Year Ten students illustrating the difference between a physical change and a chemical change, and how to classify observed changes as one or the other. Following this session, the primary students separated into pairs and worked on a rotation of fifteen different experiments. Two YearTen students acted as "experts" for each of the experiments.

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veying this infor- ,:== manon to the prt- 4

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mary school SIu- dents. As well as a lot of interactions