Science
Year 8 Newman Class Enters the ASI Big Science Competition
In May, the year 8 Newman class participated in the Australian Science Innovations challenging, Big Science Competition.
The ASI is a provider of innovative science programs, which are aimed at developing science students. The Big Science Competition tests critical thinking and problem solving skills by posing questions related to real-life and contemporary issues.
Overall, the class performed above the average for NSW, Australia and the competition in all strands and sub-strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science.
Whilst this is very pleasing, special mention should be made of the students who achieved outstanding results. They include:
High Distinctions (awarded to 5% of candidates)
Ciara De Andrade
Parisa Mousavi
Distinction (awarded to 10-15% of candidates)
Jaime Gordon
Oditi Shahi
As well as these excellent results, 12 girls achieved Credits (awarded to 25-30% of candidates).
Well done and congratulations.
Mrs Sophia Bournazos and Mrs Angela Schiano.
NCSS Coding Challenge USYD Grok Learning
Year 7 Newman Class joins Physics 12
We participated in the NCSS Challenge, an online programming competition run by the University of Sydney. The competition ran for 5 weeks in Term 3, starting on July 31st, and taught students how to program as they competed.
Congratulations to all students in Mrs Dommel’s science 7 class.
Some highlights are:
Olivia Alvarez Year 7 Perfect Score High Distinction
Cynthia Liong Year 7 Perfect Score High Distinction
Eliza Cantarella Year 7 High Distinction
Jade Tran Year 7 High Distinction
Gabriella Wahib Year 7 High Distinction
Ava Camillos Year 7 Distinction
Scarlett Chandler Year 7 Credit
Charlie Hott Year 7 Credit
Ariella Richards Year 7 Credit
Elizabeth Goutzas Year 7 Merit
Laura Kelly Year 7 Merit
Eliza Lee Year 7 Merit
Ivana Sellaro Year 7 Merit
There are plenty of coding challenges to be had over the break!
Go to https://groklearning.com and start at novice all the way up to expert.
Humanoid Nao visits BCR
Year 7 Newman Class
Brigidine was lucky enough to take advantage of a robotics workshop on Friday September 1 st .
Year 7 and year 12 Physics classes got to attend. The session ran according to the times below:
Introduction (15mins):
NAO talked about its various sensors, showcasing speech recognition, demonstrating balance
and range of motions. The girls got to see NAO dance and two volunteers took NAO for a walk-
in front of the class. The classes also had a conversation exploring the potential for humanoid
robots in which they could help people in society, such as those with disabilities.
Programming (30min):
As a group, they scoped and programmed an application for NAO to work in a service situation,
such as taking coffee orders in a café. The girls then got to test the application and debug any
problems they found. Brigidine liked the social aspect of how Nao could interact with people so
they learned to program a conversation! Nao asked, “Do you love me?” The two options for a
response were predictably “yes’ or “no”. When the response was “yes”, Nao was programmed to
say “I love you too.” When the response was “no”, Nao responded with “Get out”. At the end of
the yes “loop” of programming Nao was programmed to dab!!
All in all it was an intense and rewarding session.
Have a look at the video below.
Nao visits BCR science.mp4
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