2005 School Magazine

Science

Social & Environmental Studies

Success in Science

Hilary Martin (12O) has had a memorable year in Science that culminated in her recent Peter Doherty Outstanding Senior Science Student Award. Having already achieved a Distinction in the Physics Olympiad and a Credit in the Chemistry Olympiad competitions during 2004, Hilary was in Canberra for the National Youth Science Forum at the start of 2005. Hilary was selected as one of the five members of the Australian Team to compete in the 18th International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) in Switzerland this year. The team finished an outstanding fourth in the world. She also competed in the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Chemical Analysis Competition (Titration) and achieved a Certificate of Excellence.

conducted four one-hour missions which involved launching a rocket, orbiting the earth and (safely) landing. At the end of the week we put all of our knowledge and skills to the test in our EDM (Extended Duration Mission), which lasted for six hours. Sadly we had to leave Space Camp and all our new friends to go to Orlando, Florida. We enjoyed a day of shopping at Belz Plaza, trips to the Epcot Centre and Magic Kingdom, both are part of Disneyworld. We also went to the Kennedy Space Centre where we saw the shuttle construction areas and the Discovery shuttle on the launch pad. We left Orlando for Washington DC. Our tour of the city included visits to the Lincoln memorial, international embassies, the White House, the World War II and Vietnam War memorials. While in DC we also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This was a great way to cap off our space and aviation experiences by viewing amazing displays of the planes and rockets that we had been in control of a week before. Everyone involved would undoubtedly agree that the 2005 US Space Trip was a thoroughly memorable and worthwhile experience. We all enjoyed ourselves

A link from the past and a pathway to the future

Space Camp

In the June/July holidays this year, 36 girls embarked on the 2005 US Space Trip, accompanied by Dr Stephens, Ms Monteith and Mrs Arici. We landed in LA exhausted after a 13 hour flight but ready for a day of sightseeing. The next week was spent at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. We were officially on “Space Camp” and had the choice of attending either Aviation Challenge or Advanced Space Academy. Aviation Challenge involved many challenges and learning activities. Those who chose this programme flew FA–18 hornet simulators and went out on patrols to search and rescue. We learnt how to escape a helicopter crashed in water, how to land in a parachute, necessary survival skills, information about various types of aeroplanes and much more. Natalie Davies (11E) was awarded the prestigious “Right Stuff” award for the ‘best and fairest’ student in the programme. Advanced Space Academy was all about space. Participants attended talks on rocketry, space history, space medicine and even went scuba diving to experience what it was like being under micro- gravity. Along with these briefings, we also

2005 marked the 130th anniversary of the foundation of the Schoolwith its emphasis on a liberal education for girls. As this article is being written, news has emerged of a savage and barbaric murder in Iraq of five teachers and a school bus driver through no other motive than racial hatred. Why is it that in a world of technological and digital wonder, brutality is such a part of what we readily accept as our daily dose of bad news? It can be argued that in a world of such extremes, the value positions underlying a broad-based liberal education have never been of greater importance. Professor Bob Lingard and his colleagues from the University of Queensland in a recent book entitled Leading Learning conclude that “leadership in schools is about making hope practical in a world where despair would seem far more convincing”. Bad news and manipulated news appears to be one of the only constants in our daily lives. Such news ranges from murderous terror- laden barbarism to potentially calamitous human- induced altered weather conditions. Locally, our multi-cultural foundations continue to be rocked by a post-September 11 world where the only certainty appears to be uncertainty and the perceived need of our political leaders to jettison some of our hard fought civil liberties in the

purported context of the broader national interest. On a brighter note, bad news has

generated people power on a global level in an attempt to have third world debt retired on a hither to unprecedented scale. The Social and Environmental Studies Faculty treasures the way in which it articulates a broad-based liberal education to our students as a means by which hope can be made practical. Mr B Addison DIRECTOR

immensely and learned a lot from our time at Space Camp and touring the United States. Claire Risby (12B) , Rachel Sanders (12H) & Niti Sheth (11O)

Natalie Davies “Right Stuff”

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School

School Magazine 2005