NEW RADIO STATION STARTING @ BEPS!

Students become shock jocks?

Local Excursion to 3RRR

Next Thursday 24 November we will be taking a small group of students round the corner to Radio Station 3RRR, to see how they operate and learn about operating the panel and other cool things.

WHY? Because we’re setting up a BEPS Radio Station right here at school. Students from across the Learning Communities will be participating eventually, but the 456’s are getting things started.

This project has been inspired and is being facilitated by Jacinta Parsons, who works at RRR and is a parent at the school. She will be conducting an explanatory tour our the station and their studios, to help kids get our studio up and running.

Jacinta has also sourced most of the equipment we need and will initiate the training of the kids in using the panel, recording, “radio voice” and all the other skills they’ll need.

As this is a local excursion, at no cost, we do not need parent permission. This notice is just to keep you informed as per our normal protocol.

JUST KEEPING YOU IN THE LOOP

Foley Neuroscience Centre at The Austin

Last Tuesday a small, yet dedicated group of young science buffs fought the foul weather to make their way to the Foley Neuroscience Centre at the Austin to participate in a science experience designed by the Neuroscience lab team. Students participated in a range of activities designed to teach them more about the mysteries of how the human brain works. They also conducted an experiment to extract DNA from a strawberry. Finally, they visited the Radiology unit and were given a guided tour by one of the Radiologists at the hospital. 

Students who participated in the program are now enthusiastically designing student-led workshops to share their new skills and knowledge with other students in our Learning Community. Special thanks to Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins for working with the Foley team to arrange the visit. 

Mathematics Update

This term students have been attending Maths Toolboxes in five distinct groups. These are organised, broadly, around the students' point of need. For example, one group is working on measurement
 of area, perimeter and angle, while another has concentrated on "number sense" with games of Multo and Addo, alternative forms of multiplication, and attention to place value.

There's a great display in one corner of the West Wing of student work about ratio, percentage and fractions - they learnt about this through investigating the effect of varying the proportion of syrup in cordial drinks!
The photo here shows a student with a sphinx, made by tesselating smaller sphinx shapes. It's a wonderful, rich, open ended investigation that only present the tip of the iceberg for on-going mathematical learning. This link to the Mathematics Task Centre will lead you further into the mysteries of the sphinx, and this link to The Changing Shape of Geometry might tempt you to explore start "working like a mathematician" yourself.
(both links should open in new windows)

Awesome Camp!

Yeah! 

Fun at camp - sun, salt air in our hair, splashing and chasing on the beach, finding shells, non-stop activities, healthy food, staying up half the night, red faces, disco dancing. What school should be all the time, non?

We'd hope to post more photos and videos - the Giant Swing, the soccer games, the incredibly messy rooms BEFORE cabin inspection - but time moves on and we're back into full swing at school.