QAHS celebrated National Science Week from 12-16 August with a variety of events. Despite the wet weather, the week was fun-filled with a range of events to cater for a variety of interests, with the Science Week theme in mind – Species Survival: More than just sustainability.
The sausage sizzle lunch on Monday was an excellent start to the week. Student artists also competed for house points in the painting competition letting their creative juices flow, with the winning art awarded to Ignis, with Terra coming 2nd and Aqua 3rd. The Brain Break Science Trivia after school on Monday was very popular with many teams competing.
Students undertook some amazing sports science fitness testing during lunch break on Tuesday, supported by three alumni now with Griffith Sports College (Mia Bergh, Hannah Provenzano and Josh Milmoe). In the afternoon our Science Officers and Year 11 STEM Mentors ran a Mini Science Survivor for Year 6 students from four of our Primary Partnership schools. They engaged in science survivor activities and the two top teams battled for ultimate survivor, with 1st prize going to Bellevue Park State School, 2nd prize to Benowa State School (team 1) and 3rd to Biggera Waters State School. Year 10 science students displayed their Biology projects in the science fair outside the Refectory after school and the new E-Sport Spectacular event, held at the same time inside the Refectory, was popular.
"On Tuesday, several STEM Mentors and I volunteered to help run the Junior Science Survivor in celebration of National Science Week. It was a great afternoon and a really rewarding experience. I think we were all initially shocked at the immense enthusiasm all the teams brought, but seeing the Year 6s' competitiveness and love for science as they advanced through a series of science related challenges was really inspiring. I think this event helped me understand the immense impact that we can have when shaping the future generations' love for science, and it was fulfilling to see the direct impact of my support. Overall, I really enjoyed helping in this event, and I look forward to seeing how next year's National Science Week will be even better."
Isabella Zhai: Year 11 Student
Pop-up science experiments using STEM Boxes from Australian National University were run by STEM Mentors during lunch time on Wednesday. Dragon dancers in the background set up the celebrations mood. Keynote speaker, Dr. Terry O'Dwyer, Senior Scientist, New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage officially opened our science week celebrations during our whole-school assembly on Tuesday. His presentation on 'Conservation Science: Identifying and Ameliorating Impacts on Threatened Species'" and especially on his work on eradicating rodents on Lord Howe Island was thought-provoking and motivating to our future Conservation Biologists. In attendance was Dr. Andrew Pearson, Program Director – Bachelor of Medical Science at Griffith University, who helped Mrs Rebgetz present awards to our students, 54 Silver CREST Awards were presented. Our Peter Doherty Award recipients (Allegra Nutley & Elizabeth Lee) and 11 Gold CREST Award recipients (Jacky Lawler, Ardale Teng, Rick Hu, Bianca Uccellini, Connor Jones, Dante Pellegrino, Tyler Cook, Aya Dunn, Kobe Bi, Beau Zhang & Conan Kaizuka) were also recognised, with these awards to be presented during our Academy Awards next term.
Thursday was again a very busy day of the Science Week. Year 12 Group 4 EE students started their afternoon with lunch with EE supervisors, alumni and university and industry researchers. Year 11 students then moved around and listened in small groups to 34 presenters from Griffith University, Bond Uni, Gold Coast University Hospital, BioSpine, GC Public Health Unit, University of Queensland and QAHS alumni. Presentations by our researchers ranged in topics from Bringing Big Dreams to Life, Bionics for Humans: Engineering Applied to Rehabilitation, Tiny plastics, big problems: unmasking the threats to our species survival, Pathways to Medicine, Paradigms and principles guiding science & innovation towards ensuring the survival and thriving of different species in an ever-changing world, What's in your genes? Unravelling the genome for personalised medicine and precision healthcare, Brain targeting using Extracellular Vesicles (EVs), The impact of neck strength and other biomechanical factors on concussion risk in professional football (to name a few). , Nya Piamrojanaphat, Song Qi Loh, Thien Tran, Gihansa Vidhanelage, Garlok Lu, Alex Goldsmith, Sara Alaei, Kelly Zhou, Gauri Bhandari, Mia Bergh, Anze Maric and support by Hugo Chan & Samir Palekar.
Year 11 students were introduced to the scientific research process by thirteen QAHS alumni who joined in our National Science Week events for the 3-hour sessions in science Internal Assessment and Extended Essay. Hugo Chan, Samir Palekar, Song Qi Loh, Mia Bergh and Gauri Bhandari from Class of 2023, Thien Tran, Nya Piamrojanaphat and Anze Maric from Class of 2022, Garlok Lu from Class of 2021 and Alex Goldsmith, Sara Alaei and Kelly Zhou from Class of 2020 shared their experiences and expert tips to around 160 Year 11 students who are embarking on their IA and EE journeys. Eleven of these alumni had been awarded CSIRO's Gold CREST awards, which required over 100 hours of involvement in a novel research investigation. Gihansa Vidhanelage (Class of 2020) addressed all the Year 11's in the lecture theatre on Friday, emphasising on her EE research journey which led to a Gold CREST award and publication in the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
The QA community thanks these alumni for their valuable contribution to the development of our new lot of researchers.
Year 10 students kicked off their Science Survivor House Challenge while navigating through sustainability-theme-related activities. Ms Trudy Newlove and her SOO team (Dr. Heike Mack, Mrs Montana Bennett and Mr Jake Peebles) put together these new innovative activities in this QAHS signature program we call Science Survivor. Well done to TERRA on taking out the win!
Our DJ's, Mena, Apollo and Nafisa entertained us with a collection of music during lunch breaks.
Mr Sidney Hooker from Science-on-the-Go team of Griffith University conducted a science show during lunch break today. There was a lot of controlled explosions and smoke from dry ice and liquid nitrogen filled up the corridor.
I am extremely proud of how our community came together to make this the best Science Week celebrations ever. Thank you to everyone for your participation and contribution.
Anir Lal
HOD Science