Seacliff Primary’s 2020 National Science Week
This week, all students at Seacliff Primary have been enjoying hands-on workshops presented by Mobile Science Education. Receptions to Year 2s have experienced a 90-minute session called ‘How Pushes and Pulls Work’ while Year 3s to 7s have been involved in ‘Our Physical Forces’.
Next Tuesday, Receptions to Year 2s will see a science show entitled ‘Light Fantastic’. The blurb for this informs us that students will be introduced to the universe’s strangest form of energy and its ultimate speed limit. They will explore the reflection and refraction of light and diffraction gratings, find out how colours are made by emission and absorption and discover what Newton got wrong in his assertions about the spectrum.
Year 3s to 7s will attend ‘The STEM Show – The Big Blue’. This will be very relevant for our location beside the sea and will be related to the science explorations that certain students have recently initiated about the effects of plastics on the ocean. Included in the show will be investigations and facts presented in an exciting way about ocean physics, tides, pressure, light, aquaculture, the impacts of plastic, tidal and wave energy and offshore winds.
All events are tied in with National Science Week, which officially runs from August 18th to 23rd.
Seaciff Primary also has around forty students entering the Oliphant Science Awards. The entries for those in the final round are due to be delivered to the Teacher Prep room beside the staffroom on Monday, the 17th of August. (See the front office staff first). The necessary ID forms and cover sheets will then be attached before delivery.
Other multi-class events related to Science Week include Tree Planting in the Dunes and training and field investigations at Oaklands Wetlands led by Natural Resource Management, (Rooms 6, 17 and 18).
Some classes will also experience additional classroom based science activities, as part of the Science Week celebrations.
Our earlier plans to host parent scientists running sessions in our school were halted by COVID-19 restrictions. Thanks to those parents who had earlier offered to assist. Hopefully, we’ll be able to offer this opportunity next year.
We hope that the experiences outlined here are building on to the students’ enthusiasm and skills in science and to their capacity to take independent action in relation to Sustainability.
Check on social media for community-based science activities to be held during National Science Week.
