Science

SCIENCE IS MORE THAN SMASHING POTATOES

By Abby Verrenkamp

Walking into a science class as a year 9 lead me into a different world. I had no knowledge of science apart from the gibberish my older sisters had told me. I was fascinated instantly with the chemical and biological world around me, and now five years later I still am. My interest in science has led me to a Science based University degree, all thanks to my experiences at Pukekohe High School.

As a year 13, I chose to take Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. In Biology, we had a practical/ trip planned for each external topic. For plants and animals, we went to a bird breeding ground along the Beachland’s coast, for speciation we went to the Auckland Zoo, Unfortunately, the Zoo trip got cancelled due to Covid 19. Our last topic was about Human evolution, and one of the practical’s we got to do was hit spoons against potatoes in order to make palaeolithic tools – basically tools that our ancestors used. It made a huge mess but was definitely worth it.

In Chemistry, the more knowledge we gained, the more dangerous chemicals we handled. With our latest topic, we mixed organic molecules together to make nylon. We then stretched this nylon between everyone in the class to see how long we could get a single stand; I think my class got it to 10m before breaking! We also go to make esters; esters are chemicals responsible for artificial flavours like banana fruit bursts. We could identify them by their smells, and made flavours like banana, orange, and raspberry.

Now leaving as a year 13, and looking back, I wouldn’t have changed anything for the world. All the hard work, stress and tears was worth it. This year has been challenging to say the least, and next year is going to be even more so, but it’s all a part of the adventure. If you’re looking at taking a senior science I would 100% recommend because you never know… it could change your life.