National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology. The school theme for National Science Week 2021 is Food: Different by Design.

Our Primary teachers and students embraced the theme and enjoyed many exciting and fun activities in class and on campus to promote Science.

The students in Year 1 designed healthy salads and created them with fresh produce from the Trandos family farm. The students learnt about the different types of vegetables and how they are grown and then created wonderful rainbow salads which they enjoyed eating very much!

Linked to their HaSS studies on Early World Explorers and the Spice Trade, the Year 4 students discovered tea! They made their own tea blends with spices and leaves from early days and learnt about infusion and the tea brewing process. Integrating Science and Writing, they took a stroll down Elf Road. To entice the students and engage them in this text, a display of delectable sweets, ‘scarlet strawberries like gleaming embers, and bowls of fresh fruit’, complete with a chocolate fountain was set up! The children enjoyed learning about the heating and melting process and of course, testing their cacao creation by sampling it!

In Year 3, the focus was on food production. One of our parents, Mr Trandos visited the Year 3s and taught them all about his tomato farm and the process of planting seeds to grow into tomato plants. The students used fresh tomatoes to cook tomato relish to bottle. Being creative, the Year 3s designed and created stickers for their homemade tomato relish bottles. What a great week of learning!

A few year three students shared their thoughts on their learning during Science Week:

"I liked National Science Week because we got to learn all about tomatoes and to see them." Sophie

Sienna said: "I enjoyed making and bottling the tomato relish because we got to try some on crackers."

"What I thought was amazing was that we got to make tomato relish and learn lots about tomatoes." Harper

"We learnt that Tomberries are the smallest tomato." Chelsea

"Tomato seeds grow in melted rock strands." Jade

"I learnt that the best temperature to grow tomatoes is between 22 – 26 degrees." Sophie

Our young Kindergarten students were so excited when they discovered the healthy fruit and milk smoothies they made on Tuesday, changed to a different dairy food overnight. After they stored the smoothie liquid in the freezer overnight, the liquid turned into a solid – they made ice cream!

Can you imagine the fun they had 'selling' their ice creams in their shop! It was a great day for learning in Kindy.

To finish off a wonderful week of discoveries and learning during Science Week, Farmer Damian and his dairy cow Amelie, joined us on campus. The Dairy Incursion covered the production of milk starting from the feed dairy cows eat, to the eventual milk product. The best part was students and staff trying their hands at milking a cow!

Why do we love Science? Science develops problem solving, critical thinking and best of all, curiosity. Go be curious and discover the wonderful world out there.

Christina Roodt

Primary Teaching and Learning Leader