2014 School Magazine

AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE OLYMPIAD COMPETITION

CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD JOSEPHINE AUER (11B) Over the course of Terms II and III, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Australian Science Chemistry Olympiad with a number of other Year 11 girls. The course involved one to two training sessions per week, aimed at preparing us for the two-hour exam that was to be held in the middle of Term III. Whilst we were all initially a little shocked by the long list of largely foreign topics to be covered, we quickly progressed, following notes from the tutorials and consolidating our knowledge with practice questions from past exams. Although many of the subject areas were unfamiliar to us, the course provided us with a challenging extension to our PHYSICS OLYMPIAD The first step in attempting to represent Australia at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) or the Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) starts with success in school examinations. Top students were invited to attend additional physics training over many weeks in order to sit the National Qualifying Examination of the Australian Physics Olympiad in August. After this examination, the top twenty-four students in Australia are invited to attend the Scholar Training School

to be held in Canberra in January 2015. At the School, the scholars cover the whole first year university Physics course. The top students then receive additional training to qualify to be part of the Australian team at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) or the Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO). Eleven Year 11 students attended the training and sat the National Qualifying Examination and the results will be released after publication of this Magazine , but I am pleased to share that Shiye Su (11R) has already been invited to attend the Scholar Training School. ■ Year 11 coursework and an invaluable insight into many of the topics we will cover in Year 12. Furthermore, it allowed us to fine-tune our skills and reinforce many of the basic concepts we have covered in Chemistry during our time at Girls Grammar. By the time of the exam, we all felt extremely satisfied with the new knowledge we had acquired and proud that we had managed to cover so much. The paper itself was extremely challenging and once again provided us with an insight into the demanding exams we will face in our later studies. Reflecting on the experience now, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to extend myself in this challenging way and in particular for the out-of-class tutorials offered by Mrs Ross. I’m sure all of the girls who participated would agree that the programme was a very rewarding adjunct to our Chemistry studies. ■

BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD JACINTA MACGINLEY (11B), JOSEPHINE WILSON (11L), CAITLIN WILLIAMSON (11R) AND ZOE MCDONALD (11B) Senior Olympiad Training is an extension opportunity for selected Year 11 students. It involves a series of sessions before school to prepare students for the very challenging national qualifying exams held in August. In Biology Olympiad training sessions we covered the many topics studied in both Year 11 and 12 Biology. This was a very rewarding experience that has been, and will continue to be, beneficial to our studies in senior Biology. We definitely recommend the Olympiad programme to potential participants in Year 10. ■

Year 11 Biology Olympiad students completing the National Qualifying exam.

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