Brandon McCaughey Year 9?Tawa College student
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Connor Hale received a highly commended award for his?project titled: "Common?garden plants; do any have an antibacterial effect?" at the recent Wellington NIWA science fair. ?He is very?happy about receiving it,? says Tawa College head of science Laura Boyd. She accompanied 29 students to the regional science fair with 17 exhibitions put up for inspection in-front of the NIWA judges. Connor investigated the antibacterial quality of certain plants by grinding them up and placing them in an agar plate brimming with bacteria. Around two or three of the plants were successful as anti-bacterial agents, says Mrs Boyd. Each student spent around five minutes speaking with the NIWA judges and Mrs Boyd was thrilled to see them so enthusiastic about their projects. ?It was great to see them expressing interest in their projects, the kids really enjoyed it. ?It takes a heap of work to bring the projects together, to get the ball rolling you need around four class lessons,? she says. After the first scientific ideas are dream up the students come up with their own methods of inquiry. As part of the new government?s education curriculum Tawa College is developing an inquiry based learning model to implement next year. ?We are aiming for next year to include social studies much more with science and other subjects. ?At the moment we are brainstorming ways of doing this ? it?s going to take a lot of work,? says Mrs Boyd. She says the strength of ?teaching the same subject across the topics is that students can see them in different contexts?. Onslow College PERHAPS SEPERATE ARTICLE ON CHINA TRIP Onslow college science items of news ? China trip 2 Onslow students were in China for the International Young Physics Tournament at the start of the term. The team is made up of 5 students selected New Zealand wide and returned with a silver medal. 3 Year 10 students will be participating in the Climate Change youth forum in September.?
