This semester, our Year 6 students have been busy in STEM, re-purposing old equipment to build fan-driven cars. The hands-on activity required students to call upon a breadth of skills, including collaboration, critical thinking, planning, creativity and working technical skills. Through re-purposing old equipment, students completed the following four tasks: Task 1: Salvage usable parts from [...]
During week 5, SMGS Year 7 students attended a cross-curricular field study in conjunction with their Term 3 Science study of ecology and ecosystems and Geography study of water. An integral component of both of these subjects is developing skills for collecting data in the field. To nurture these skills, the students investigated the [...]
As part of the 2020 National Science Week Activities, students had the opportunity to participate in the STANSW Young Scientist Paper Plane Competition. SMGS had a number of students make the made the minimum cut-offs for the airtime and distance categories. Year 6 student, Will May placed 7th in the airtime category! The leaderboards can [...]
Science Week was jam-packed full of excitement! The theme this year was Deep Blue. Year 6 engaged in the engineering process, creating prototypes that could clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Students planned and built, tested and modified their designs to meet the engineering brief. Yr 6 pics Class 2/3 further explored Antarctica and [...]
Year 12 Chemistry undertake a study of organic chemistry as the third unit of the syllabus. This is the branch of chemistry dealing with compounds mainly made of carbon and hydrogen, and sometimes with oxygen or nitrogen, many of which are commonly used in the household. For example, methylated spirits is a combination of the simple alcohols [...]
On 11 March 2020, Snowy Mountains Grammar School was proud to launch its Environment Education Seminar series. Partnering with the Upper Snowy Landcare Network, the student-led SMGS Environment Committee was delighted to welcome Dr Charles Massy to talk about Regenerative Agriculture. Dr Massy has managed his family’s grazing property, Severn Park, for forty-five years [...]
Our Year 7 STEM class started their day off with an exciting challenge - to construct a downhill skier that will race another skier down a ski ramp. The objective was to design one that reduces friction and reaches the bottom the fastest. Sounds pretty simple right? So what's the catch? To build their skiers, [...]
The combined subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) provide a chance for students to foster skills to prepare them for a rapidly changing world. With the development of innovative programs at SMGS, and to provide an enrichment opportunity for our students, we have initiated a Junior School STEM enrichment program. A small [...]
Year 7 Science students have had the opportunity get hands-on, as they assess the local conditions for the establishment of an Alpine Tree Frog colony. The students, who are currently studying ecology, conducted a range of water and soil quality tests around the banks of Lake Jindabyne. Three locations were assessed for their suitability [...]
This term in Science, Stage 2 have been exploring the Living World and have investigated a range of life cycles, including frogs, butterflies, cicadas, the life of a tomato and the importance of bees in helping fruit and flowers to grow through the process of pollination. To deepen their understanding of how pollination works, we [...]
