National Science Week Festivities

AUGUST 22nd

WEEK 6

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2013

COMING EVENTS

WEEK 7—AUGUST 26

WEEK A

THURSDAY AUGUST 29

Motivational Media

FRIDAY AUGUST 30

Aboriginal Education

Morning Tea

WEEK 8—SEPTEMBER 2

WEEK B

Year 11 Exams will take place during weeks

8 and 9

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3

Oz Tag Years 7 and 8

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4

Adidas Around the

World Run

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5

CHS Athletics

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6

CHS Athletics

On Wednesday 14th August, Years 5 and 6 primary school students from Kariong, Somersby, Kulnura, Peats Ridge, Central Mangrove and Spencer joined with Kariong Mountains High School to celebrate a century of Australian science.

This was a massive day, with students participating in 5 areas of excellence in Australian science. The five areas studied were:

Biology – focusing on the work of Australian scientist Dr Elizabeth Blackburn and her work on Telomeres (the ends of chromosomes much like the hard plastic on the end of shoe laces), students explored DNA and extracted DNA from split peas.

Astro-Physics – focusing on the work of engineer and astronaut Andy Thomas, students explored the concept of Isaac Newton’s 3rd law of Motion – “For every action there is an equal and opposite

reaction”. This involved them exploring 3 types of rockets – Balloon, Vinegar and Bio-Carbonate of Soda and solid fuel rockets. The first group of students were delighted to see the rocket shoot straight up nearly 100m. The rocket now, though, sits proudly 18m off the ground in the highest tree at the back of the oval: a lasting testament to Science Week 2013!

Robotics and Electronics – students celebrated the

National Science Week Festivities Cont...

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success of the CSIRO and Australian universities in the field of robotics and electronics. They constructed interesting jewellery pieces using LEDs (they can now tell you what that means) and erasers.

Geology and Chemistry – students studied rocks and minerals and investigated how acid erodes marble – particularly impacting on priceless marble statues in Europe. They focused on the work of Sir Douglas Mawson, his discovery of the mineral davidite and his explorations of Antarctica.

Biology – focusing on the work of Sir Howard Florey and the development of penicillin from mould, students were shown how to use a microscope and used this valuable instrument to examine yeast in the process of budding.

The sessions were led by our absolutely amazing Year 11 senior science students who taught the lessons to the students and helped them engage with the activities. They did an amazing job.

The students involved were: Hayley Campbell, Grace Austin, Zoe Papadatos and Tahlia Skinner teaching micro-organisms; Erik Tults, Bradley Rodrick, Thalia Habkouk and Jesse Wells teaching Astro-Physics; Monique Turner and Koji Yajima teaching electronics and robotics; Brooke Westwood and Emily

Dart teaching Geology and Chemistry and Matilda Eder, Christina Bell, Natasha Loiterton and Bradley Partridge teaching about DNA.

The students were supported by their teachers Mr Cartner, Mr Wood, Mr Ruth, Ms Rogers, Ms Milne and Dr Brooker.

There were also 62 students from Years 7-10 assigned to

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Spencer Primary School producing a poster on mould, including a real piece of mouldy bread

the Year 11 physics students presenting their models of house wiring structures. These were absolutely fantastic and

the 7Bi Bioscience class presenting their work on the Clever Climate Energy Saver project, showing us how we can adopt sustainable energy practices.

The Years 7-11 students demonstrated various pieces of scientific equipment, including the ever popular Van de Graff generator.

The evening was well attended and showcased the wonderful world of science to our families.

Finally the science faculty hosted a staff morning tea on Friday, featuring the Year 11 students competing in a Brain Break Quiz. I won’t

publish who won as I’m sure the winners will advertise their success (sorry team Eder, but you did very well).

It has been a wonderful week in science and we look forward to finding out and planning for

next year’s theme.

Brad demonstrating the hair-raising experience of the Van de Graff generator!

chaperone the primary school students and assist them with the activities. They did a wonderful job.

Big thanks also goes out to Mrs Connolly and her team in the canteen who catered for an extra 300 students on the day and did a wonderful job providing science treats such as Space Dogs.

The day culminated in the Science Expo, showcasing the projects produced by primary and the high school students. Featured exhibits included:

Kariong Primary School’s robotics display featuring a robotic arm, a walking robotic insect and a hydrogen fuel cell car

Somersby Primary School with a wonderful space display and some terrific presentations featuring Andy Thomas

National Science Week Festivities Cont...

AUGUST 22nd WEEK 6

TERM 3 2013

“The kids were amazing.”

“I was totally entertained throughout the concert.”

“It was not what I expected at a school per-formance......I was genuinely entertained.”

“these young musicians were so disciplined and professional in their approach.”

“So much positive energy.”

Another aspect of the evening was the behind the scenes activity. It is impossible to stage a successful performance without a dedicated stage and technical crew. A small group of students worked tirelessly behind the scenes to set up lighting

RAVE REVIEWS.........

Well..........the comments say it all! Our elective music students delivered the most amazing performances on Wednesday 7th August to a very appreciative audience who were completely captivated by the talent on display. The evening program included an interesting variety of styles ranging from hard rock to classical. Students played solo items on their instruments, sang and played guitar and performed in duos and bands. Two of our students, Brendan Gaskin and Kallen Farley, performed their original songs.

The successful performances we heard on Wednesday night don’t just happen without much hard work and self discipline. To their credit, the students who performed have been in rehearsal for weeks; learning their parts, then polishing and refining their performances. Along the way they have played for each other and critiqued each other’s performances under the guidance of Ms Burrows .

For many of the students it was their debut performance, so beneath the confident persona presented on the evening, they were dealing with the raw nerves of being in front of a live audience. They all used the strategies they had focused on in class to help them deal with nerves. An important aspect of performing live is to appear confident no matter what happens because most of the time the audience will not even notice if something goes wrong.

Many of their excited comments afterwards were:

.......”That was so much fun.”.......”I was so nervous my legs were shaking.”.........”I was so nervous I couldn't breathe.”..........”I made a mistake but no one knew and I picked it up again when the riff started.”.........”that was awesome...I loved the applause.”....... “I didn’t want it to be over.”

RAVE REVIEWS.........

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2013

and sound. Andrew Ghisoni and Nathan Carraro deserve a round of applause for their efforts in this area. Both these boys deliver at a standard, that with further experience, should enable them to pursue a career in the industry post school.

Jordan Bleiker was our MC for the show as well as a performer; her public speaking skills were very polished and she kept the evening running smoothly, improvising very well during set up times.

Congratulations to all of our amazing performers and crew listed below.

Year 11

Brendan Gaskin

Natasha Loiterton

Bradley Partridge

Koji Yajima

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 10

Jordan Bleiker

Taylah Buchanan

Luke Carnevale

Adam Elias

Andrew Ghisoni

Josh Sachse

Jake Williams

Year 9

Jake Bright

Teigan Ezzy

Kallen Farley

Brandon Hackney

Katrina Hadley

Elaine Lamb-Rundle

Francis Pearce

Amelia Shearer

Jake Williams

RAVE REVIEWS.........

AUGUST 22nd

WEEK 6

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2013

STAGE CREW 

Sound Andrew Ghisoni

Lighting Nathan Carraro

Stage Manager Ainsley Murphy

Stage Crew

Adam Elias

Luke Carnevale

Josh Sachse

Jake Williams

Xanthia Hamblin

Kallen Farley

Francis Pearce

Adam Elias

Andrew Ghisoni

Brendan Gaskin

Josh Sachse

Luke Carnevale

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James Peters started racing Speedway Karts at the age of seven. At first he raced with the Australian Karting Association (AKA) and through five years of racing with two speedway kart clubs in New South Wales he not only won many heats but also won numerous feature races.

Whilst with the AKA James placed 2nd in his prospective Class Championships three years in a row, however his proudest achievement back then was receiving the ‘Driver’s Driver’ Award, which is a Peer Group award, for three consecutive years.

In 2011 James and his team left the AKA to join the Speedway Karting Association of Australasia (SKAA), which has clubs in most Australian States and Territories. For the last three years James has been racing as far north as Brisbane and Gatton in Queensland, as far south as Melbourne and as far west as Mildura.

His best achievements to date have been a top ten finish in the Australian Title at Northgate in Brisbane last December and a 2nd place in the New South Wales Title at Moruya in June this year. At the conclusion of the 2012/2013 season in June, James was the winner of the Junior Class Championship and he is also the current Club Champion in his club this year.

The 2013/2014 season will bring new challenges for the team as James will not only be racing the kart this year but he is also going to race his Ford Escort in the Junior Sedan category at several race tracks, hopefully starting at Cullen Bullen on the 28th of September.

SPOTLIGHT ON: JAMES PETERS

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2013

 

The quotes below are well known and support this view: Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb , reportedly told his colleagues: "Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something I was able to incorporate into the next attempt". Benjamin Franklin, the US statesman and scientist, reportedly once said: "I haven't failed; I have had 10,000 ideas that didn't work".

Therefore, next time, your child is trying something new – resist the impulse to jump in and help straight away, step back and allow the trial and error process to thrive. You might be quite surprised at what is achieved!

If you are interested in finding out more about the brain and learning, I will be giving a presentation on ‘The Learning Brain” at the next P&C meeting.

Anne Vine

Principal

I recently attended an international ACER conference on ‘How the Brain Learns’. One of the sessions I attended discussed the value of making errors and I would like to share some of the knowledge that I gained.

Sometimes we try to protect our children from making mistakes by limiting their opportunities for safe risk taking, helping too much with a class or homework task or being too prescriptive in the strategies we suggest they should use to navigate a myriad of everyday challenges. In our efforts to be supportive, we are forgetting a fundamental fact about how our brain, and hence learning, takes place.

“Errors play a critical role in the establishment and maintenance of neural networks and, consequently, in building expertise” (Pegg, J 2013). The brain appears to be organised to respond to errors as a mechanism for learning.

Learning from mistakes is how we are challenged to do things differently and hence try new approaches to solving problems. Rather than being seen as failures, these attempts should be seen as developing and strengthening the capacity of the brain to take on more complex ideas and gain deeper understanding of the task at hand.

Message From the Principal: The importance of making errors

AUGUST 22nd

WEEK 6

TERM 3 2013

Great News! Our school now has a mobile phone app. What’s that you may ask, it is a little application that sits on your phone and gives you instant access to our school information when you click on it, 24/7. The app is going to give parents the ability to instantly access newsletters without going to the website, or to send in a sick note while you stand outside the school because you forgot to write a paper note! We will be sharing many of the other features with you over the coming weeks, but for now download it to your smartphone by going to ei-ther the Apple App Store or Android Google Play Market and search for our school name. Once you have found it press install or download.

KMHS Mobile Phone App

  AUGUST 22nd WEEK 6

TERM 3

2013

CANTEEN NEWS

NEXT FORTNIGHT’S ROSTER 

26/08/2013 27/08/2013 28/08/2013 29/08/2013 30/08/2013

Rosie N Carolyn B NEED HELP Maria S Sharon P

Hillary M

ANITA ANITA ANITA

2/09/2013 3/09/2013 4/09/2013 5/09/2013 6/09/2013

Tracey W NEED HELP Beth S NEED HELP Julia H

Vicki D

ANITA ANITA ANITA

GARDEN FESTIVAL September 28th & 29th

Kariong Mountains High School

The P&C will be opening the canteen as a fundraiser

with all profits going towards a cola for the school

But

We need volunteers to help serve in the canteen between

9am to 12noon and 12noon to 4pm

P&C NEWS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED- We are running the canteen for a Garden Festival being held at

the school Saturday September 28 and Sunday September 29 and need volunteers. Please contact Marie in the canteen even if you can just spare an hour or two.

LAST CHANCE!! Entertainment Books – only a few left: Cost $60 with $12 going to the P&C. Books are available now from the school office. Books can be ordered and paid for online at www.entertainmentbooks.com.au/orderbooks/381s61 

 

UNIFORM – Thank you to everyone who has sent in feedback about the uniform. We are still reviewing it so please continue to send feedback to kmhs.tenders@yahoo.com.au 

P & C Meeting: Monday September 9

7pm-8:30pm C Block

TEAM LEE BENEFIT NIGHT TICKETS NOW SELLING   

      

Date : Saturday, 7 September 2013  Venue : Gosford RSL  Time : 6pm ‐ 12mn Cost : $70 per person 

   

Includes : Three course Meal and a fun filled night of entertainment with lots of great prizes to auction or win.  

     

Please call Jeanette on 0497374527 or email teamleekariong@gmail.com to book a table for ten. 

   

Get in quick to secure your seat to support Lee and spread the word and save lives !!!!!!! If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact myself on the above number. Thank you again for your support Yours sincerely Jeanette Holst TEAM LEE 

Voluntary Director Vacancy- Youthconnections.com.au

Youthconnections.com.au is expanding its diverse board of directors. An exciting opportunity exists for a voluntary director with a strong industry and financial management background.

Youthconnections.com.au is a regional youth organisation providing a range of ser-vices and programs aimed at supporting young people to remain engaged in educa-tion and training and to support their pathways to employment. Youthconnec-tions.com.au’s mission statement is ‘Leading communities in creating environments where young people can achieve purposeful futures’.

Youthconnections.com.au board of directors meet quarterly at our Green Central site in Kariong. Board members may also be required to attend presentations and formalities, cele-brations, events and ceremonies on behalf of Youthconnections.com.au

An Expression of Interest (EOI) detailing related skills and experience are invited. EOI to be sent to maggie@youthconnections.com.au or phone (02) 4346 1111

APPLICATIONS CLOSE 5PM FRIDAY 30th AUGUST 2013