UQ Science Ambassadors Journal 2014 All Hallows’ SchoolSarah-Jane O’Brien, Sophia Kim, Georga Krasniewicz and Elizabeth Blazek.

With assistance from Mr. Scott Adamson and Ms. Marilyn Love.

IntroductionWhen offered to be the UQ Science Ambassadors at All Hallows’ School in 2014, the four of us leapt at the chance. As avid science students, we relished the opportunity to promote the subject within the school community and help our fellow students to appreciate it as much as us. Over the year, with the help of our teachers, Mr. Adamson and Ms. Love, we worked diligently to raise awareness of science through the following initiatives.

Fortnightly MeetingsEvery fortnight throughout the year, we met with our supervising teachers, Mr. Adamson and Ms. Love to discuss our progress and also plan ideas for future initiatives. At these 25-minute meetings, we would work through a set agenda, conduct brainstorming sessions and even share a pun or two.

Promoting ScienceAdvertising the annual science competitions was one of our major roles this year as UQ Science Ambassadors. In order to do this, each ambassador was allocated two of the school houses and tasked with issuing large posters with a list of the competitions and key dates to each homeroom. Reminders about the competitions were also included in the school’s daily notices and sent to the students’ emails. Some of the competitions that were advertised included:

Australian Brain Bee Challenge Big Science Competition (Rio Tinto) Australian National Chemistry Quiz Science Poetry Competition

Science Photography Competition

Scientist of the Week PowerPointsIn order to promote science within the school and inspire our fellow students, we decided to display some of the significant work of current scientists in Australia. We created several PowerPoints that each focused on a particular scientist, their credentials and their specialist branch of science, and displayed these on large screens around the school for all to see. We hope that the students gained inspiration from these influential scientists and learnt more about how scientific studies are applied in the real world.

Inspiration Quotes on Classroom WallsAnother major initiative this year was the installation of inspirational quotes on the walls of our science laboratories. Whilst a considerable amount of organization was required to put this plan into motion, we feel that the final products have given the students

something extra to reflect on and think about during class. The vinyl decals, which are located on the back walls of the laboratories in large font, have been very well received by students and teachers. The quotes are as follows:

“Never neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening” – Alexander Fleming. “The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still

ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do” – Galileo Galilei.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” – Albert Einstein.

“Love to wonder…that is the seed of science” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science” –

Leonardo da Vinci.

UQ Science Engineering ChallengeEarly in the year, thirty Year 10 students were selected to participate in the UQ Science and Engineering Challenge. This day saw the girls compete in teams against several other schools in many different activities that required cooperation and determination to be successful. They had a lot to live up to following the successes of the All Hallows’ teams in the previous year! All in all, the girls performed very well and hopefully gained valuable insights about this branch of science throughout the day.

QUT Power of Engineering DayIn June, a group of our Year 9 and 10 students attended the QUT Power of Engineering Day. The girls thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to spend a day at the QUT engineering labs. The event taught the girls that they have the power to achieve anything in their careers and also gave them the opportunity to experience first-hand what a career in the science field would be like. This was achieved through two workshops in engineering labs and hearing from other successful women working in the engineering field. The students who were lucky enough to attend this day came away feeling inspired and ready to get involved in their science classes when they returned to school.

Frontiers in Science USA TripIn the Term 2 holidays, a group of Year 11 and 12 students as well as some of the science staff were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the Frontiers in Science Physics Tour. The group flew to New York, Washington D.C. and Orlando, and each student was able to share their expertise at a certain site or in an activity with the rest of their peers. During the trip, the students visited many well-known attractions, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, the Kennedy Space Centre, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The girls were ecstatic about the opportunity and showed great enthusiasm when learning and exploring all of the venues visited on this science-focused tour. The following pictures highlight some of the memorable moments of the trip.

Introduction to All Hallows’ Day Science DemonstrationsAt our annual Introduction to All Hallows' Day, the Science Department was determined to display a range of interesting and engaging science experiments and demonstrations for everyone to see when they visited our laboratories. The younger children were able to experiment using digital microscopes and even the visiting parents enjoyed watching how magical fur made glass rods bend water!

Countdown to Science WeekIn the lead up to the annual Science Week, we issued one scientific fact in the school’s daily notices every day that related to the particular day number of the countdown. For instance, the fact on the seventh day until Science Week was, “there are seven NASA space shuttles – Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour, Pathfinder and Enterprise.” The purpose of this countdown was to raise awareness for the upcoming Science Week activities, as well as encourage the students to think about and be interested in science. We feel that the system worked incredibly well in promoting Science Week as we often heard the students sharing and discussing the facts that we had revealed.

Science Week QuizTo motivate the students to be involved in Science Week, a science quiz was prepared and distributed to each homeroom in the senior school and the classes in the middle school. The homerooms with the most correct answers received prizes, and also some newfound knowledge about hair follicles and wavelengths! Copies of the quizzes are displayed on the following page.

Science Week DemonstrationsThis year's Science Week was met with great anticipation! As the Science Ambassadors, we put our heads together with the science staff to create an exciting list of activities that would promote science throughout this special week. We celebrated National Science Week at All Hallows' School from Monday 18th to Friday 29th August and this year's theme – “Food for Our Future: Science Feeding the World” – was inspired by the International Year for Family Farming. The week kicked off with our annual science quiz that was distributed to all of the home groups, and at lunchtime, we held activities that included exploding Mentos and coke, film canister rockets and floating boats set up for all of the girls to play with. In the following few days, many girls attended Science Club where making lip balm and slime was on the agenda. In the second week, another set of activities were carried out on our school terrace. These activities included tarpaulin folding, making spaghetti towers, exploding hydrogen (the loud bangs even frightened the girls on the other side of the school) and making elephant's toothpaste. One of our science staff members even brought in their pet snake Ozzie for everyone to see. The climax of all of our events was on Wednesday 27 th August when at lunchtime, a mini petting farm was set up on our school's grass area. All of the girls who came were able to cuddle chicks and ducklings, and the excitement had everyone posing for photos with the cute, fluffy animals in their hands. Overall, we think that Science Week was a huge success and certainly promoted science within the school.

Science ClubConducting thrilling experiments, making slime and even concocting your own lip balm…sounds fun doesn’t it? Well, what if we told you that at All Hallows’ we have a science club that completes these activities and more every Tuesday lunchtime. Our science club was open to all ages this year and has hopefully taught the students that science isn’t just about shiny toys, white clothing and sweet goggles!

Middle School Science Fair

Our annual Middle School Science Fair took place on the 23rd of October this year. It was such a phenomenal day for everyone, whether the students were participating or just observing what others had created. Seeing so many girls involved in and getting excited about science made us incredibly happy. Our Year 5s conducted scientific demonstrations, such as “how do glow sticks work?” The Year 6s focused on scientific models – some of the topics included solar panels and the human heart. And finally, our Year 7s conducted scientific experiments, with topics along the lines of “how clean is our school?” and “what fruit sets in jelly?” Overall, it was a fantastic day for all who were involved, and was fantastic in rising the profile of science as being fun and an incredibly informative subject.

ConclusionAs you can hopefully see, we have worked very hard this year to actively promote and raise awareness of science within our school. We have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to engage our fellow students, and we wish to thank our teachers, Mr. Adamson and Ms. Love, as well as UQ, for their assistance along the way.