Students across Western Australia celebrated National Science Week last week, responding to the theme of the week: Glass: More Than Meets the Eye.
Celebrating the many roles glass plays, the theme led from phone screens to optical fibre to glassware in laboratories while encouraging students to investigate how glass could play a part in a sustainable future.
Among the students there were those who crafted science projects about glass to develop their critical thinking, their innovation skills and their scientific knowledge.
According to the organisers, many schools collaborated to showcase their projects, including Newton Moore Senior High School which hosted its annual Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Fair.
Students from local primary schools attended and viewed science experiments, equipment, and investigations and they also took part in activities about F1 car racing, human-powered vehicles, and remote-operated vehicles.
Schools in the Cockburn region attended the Cockburn Central Education Network Science Week showcase at Atwell Primary School.
The event involved a display of student projects about glass science challenges. Students learnt about the design process and developed their scientific thinking while working on their projects.
Principal of Atwell Primary School, Stephen Doherty said the event was an opportunity for students to engage with science and collaborate with neighbouring schools.
“As well as producing their own science projects based around the theme of glass, they were able to see how others interpreted the challenge,” Mr Doherty said.
“They found that in project-based learning there are often multiple approaches and solutions,” he said.
Leonora students, from Pre-primary to Year 6, went to Horan Lake to track animal footprints and explore how they are made using forces.
They also explored how an object’s size and weight affected its movement.
Fremantle College students were challenged to remove fingerprints from glass, simulating the process of removing a print in a crime scene.
