Archive for the 'Primary and High School Events' Category

Approximately 250 year 7 to 10 students from right across northern New South Wales, from Coffs Harbour to Boggabilla, passed through the 1st year chemistry laboratories as part of ‘Science in the Bush’ on August 20th, beginning what we hope will be a life-long involvement with liquid nitrogen, the nylon rope trick, dendritic silver crystals and poly(vinyl alcohol) slime. Each group spent about 45 minutes on the hands-on activities, which added up  to a very full day for technical staff Fran McDonald and Andrew Wallace and the four enthusiastic Honours students who acted as demonstrators on the day.  Science in the Bush is held at UNE annually as part of National Science Week and is targetted at secondary students in the crucial years where it has been reported that most young people lose interest in science. Every year has had a large contribution from Chemistry, but this was the first year we used the larger laboratory to host our activity, giving many more students a chance to work with real chemicals in a real laboratory environment.

The Nyholm Youth Lecture is an annual event, supported by the NSW Branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and has the aim of ‘bring chemistry to life’ for year 10 high school students. This years lecture is titled ‘Chemical are good for you’ and will be presented by Dr Peter Rutledge of the University of Sydney. Much of the lecture will directly address aspects of the science curriculum and includes practical demonstrations. The lecture will be given at 2pm on Wednesday July 1 in the Lewis Lecture Theatre. A small fee of $2 per student is required to cover the costs of chemicals. For further inquires please contact Dr Peter Lye (02) 6773 3018 or Peter.Lye@une.edu.au

UNE hosted over 250 HSC students from Armidale and regional high schools over two days, June 15 and 16, to participate in HSC review activities in the key areas of chemistry, physics, biology and Mathematics. UNE Chemistry presented 5 sessions over the two days with the focus on sulfate analysis of lawn fertilizers and heavy metal, lead, analysis of paint using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. UNE Chemistry with the help of O’Connor Catholic College Chemistry Teacher Regina Menz also ran the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Titration Competition. This years competition saw a record number of teams participating. The overall winning team was from The Armidale School, congratulations to TAS all those that particpated!

Chemistry at UNE will be involved in HSC Booster activities again this year . The Booster days will be Monday June 15 and Tuesday June 16.

Chemistry will be running two different sessions:

1. Atomic absorption spectroscopy, the analysis of lead contamination, and sulfate analysis using gravimetric and titrimetric techniques. (3 sessions per day with a maximum of 24 students per session)

2. Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) titration competition (1 session per day, teams of 3 students)

UNE once again hosted the Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge which was held over two days.

Tuesday March 31 saw over 200 year 5 to 6 primary school students from Armidale based primary schools, Ben Venue, Armidale City, Sandon, Martins Gully, TAS, PLC, St Johns and St Marys, participate in the Discovery Day. The Discovery Day  involves teams from each school working on activities such as building and testing a bridge, constructing and flying an airship, constructing and driving a hover craft and constructing and testing a Mars explorer vehicle.

Wednesday April 1 saw over 200 year 9 and 10 students from regional high schools, PLC, NEGS, O’Connor, Uralla Central, Walcha Central, Inverell, MacIntyre and Holy Trinity, participate in the Highlands Challenge. The Challenge involves teams working on the same activities as in the Discovery Day with one important  difference, it is competitive. All activities have a scoring component with the result being a overall winning school. This year O’Connor Catholic College was the winning school, for the second year in a row. Well done O’Connor. They will travel to Newcastle in August, during Science Week, to represent our region at the Super Challenge. If they are successful at the Super Challenge they could be invited to the Grand Challenge to be held in Bendigo in October.

Congratulations to all students who attended this year events, we look forward to seeing some of you again next year.

Tentative dates for the 2010 are, Discovery Day Tuesday March 23 and the Challenge Wednesday March 24.