Science

The year began much like any other but unexpectedly, a change in staffing took place at the end of term one with the departure of Mr Gavin Swan, one of our senior human biology staff. Mr Swan accepted a teaching position in England. He will probably indulge in a few county cricket matches having represented Western Australian in cricket as a bowler. I thank him for his contribution to the College over the past eight years and welcome Mrs Brigitte Savy-Walsh from Aranmore Catholic College, and hope that her stay will be professionally rewarding and enjoyable. The implementation of curriculum framework into Year Nine and refinements to the Year Eight course, have dominated staff time this year. This student-needs based approach to learning will assist our boys to engage their science work in a broader context by placing more emphasis on values, process skills and scientific literacy, rather than knowledge per se. The implementation is a long-term effort, which will eventually alter the learning approach in Years Eleven and Twelve in the form of new courses of study. Planning continues to be a major feature of discussions at departmental meetings. Another curriculum feature was the introduction of aquascience to Year Ten Course two students studying biology. They learnt how to take care of small fish in aquaria and search for evidence of transmitted genetic characteristics in the fish offspring. Weare constantly trying to improve the quality of learning and in this respect Foxtel science documentaries have proved to be popular with students. However, to introduce more flexibility and convenience to teachers and students, we have implemented a new video digitising system that allows us to enhance online student courses of study at Trinity. Wehave digitised video programs at Trinity and stored them on the college server so that teachers are now able to access them. This allows the presentation of videos onto the large projection screens in the science labs via the teacher’s laptop. There are many editing, storing and production advantages associated with such a system. I extend my thanks to Classroom Video from Victoria in assisting Trinity to be the first school in WAto operate such a system in classrooms. Astronomically, it has been a very busy year. The observatory is now able to be operated remotely via the internet, two YearTen astronomy option students, Michael Maynard and Joshua Bauer, were almost the first in the world to discover a supernova (exploding star) in a distant galaxy as part of a routine telescope project. Also, Trinity hosted the 2003 Astrofest (unfortunately on the hottest evening of the year) – the

largest gathering of amateur astronomers in WA, the Mars Public Night in association with the Astronomical Society of WA, observing evenings for the Trinity community, and the International Mars Conference in association with the Mars Society of Australia. The conference was noteworthy for the calibre of Russian and Australian space scientists who visited the college. Again, our students have strived for, and in some Mr Ray Priskich cases achieved, excellence in extracurricular scientificHead of Science pursuits. Students have been involved in the National Chemistry Quiz, UWA Engineering Camp, Siemens Science Experience and Murdoch University Science & Engineering Summer School. In addition, students had their learning experience enriched by excursions to the Perth Zoo, Star Swamp, UWA Geology Museum and Dryandra/Stirling Range. This last field trip is for YearEleven biology students, and continues to be a highlight of the course thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Mr Tim Blake. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Sabah Biology Trip to Malaysia this year due to the combined concerns of SARS and the threat of terrorism. With much achieved this year, and the strong prospects of even more work necessary next year, be assured, that the science staff are doing their utmost to deliver a standard of science education that is very high. On behalf of the department, I wish you all God’s blessings and a prosperous year to come.

Ray Priskich

Head of Science

Academic