SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Brain Bee Challenge The Brain Bee Challenge is a world-renowned competition for Year 11 students to learn about the brain and its functions, neuroscience research, to find out about careers in neuroscience and to dispel misconceptions about neurological and mental illnesses. The New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge, launched in 2007, is the regional competition of the Australian competition. There are four rounds to the International Brain Bee Challenge. Round 1 is the online quiz, Round 2 is the regional finals, Round 3 is the national finals and Round 4 is the international finals, which are held in the United States. For the past six years Diocesan has entered approximately 20 students for the first round of the competition and this year was no exception. Round 1 was held during Brain Awareness Week in March. Students studied through Education Perfect along with regular lunchtime sessions with one of the biology teachers. They then completed an online quiz that determined their knowledge and understanding of the structure and function of the brain. This online quiz was
Year 7 Success at EPro8 In September, three teams from Diocesan represented the School at the EPro8 Challenge. This is a threehour engineering and problem-solving race in which teams of four compete against each other as they work their
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DIO TODAY
The Brain Bee team Back row, left to right: Shania Kumar, Charlotte Hulme, Lara Johns, Natalie Kirke. Front row, left to right: Sarah Young, Kate Wellington, Jessica Marshall, Priscilla Huang.
hosted on the Education Perfect testing platform. At this stage the students were competing against students from all other secondary schools across the North Island. Students who perform highly in the first round are selected to attend the regional finals, which are hosted by the University of Auckland Medical School. This event was held at the end of Term 2, allowing time for the students to study a neuroscience book on which they are questioned. The day itself is very exciting and involves the students’ participation in two rounds of live questioning to determine who will become the state/ regional champion, along with activities
way through a number of challenges. Every year over 10,000 students from 900 schools from throughout New Zealand take part. Congratulations to our Dio girls for their performance on the night. The final placements were first place to the Dio Electrics, second place to the Dio Donkeys and seventh place to the Rainbow Crusaders. This means that the Dio Electrics go on to represent Diocesan at the semi-finals in Term 4. The Dio Electrics team Yeshvi Kamdar, Alice Chambers, Ivy Barrington and Lutie Spencer.
to educate them about neuroscience and associated research. These activities include laboratory tours, demonstrations, lectures, experiments and the opportunity to speak to researchers. There is also a team competition on the day where schools compete against each other to win prizes for their school. This year the following girls were selected for the regional finals: Lara Johns, Jessica Marshall, Charlotte Hulme, Natalie Kirke, Shania Kumar, Sarah Young, Priscilla Huang and Kate Wellington. All the girls performed exceptionally well on the day, with particular mention going to Lara Johns who came second in the individual competition.
