The 2022 National Science Week was celebrated at QAHS 15 – 19 August. The week was fun-filled with a range of events to cater for a variety of interests, with the Science Week theme in mind - Glass: More than Meets the Eye.
Chalk Art Competition and a picnic lunch on Monday saw our student artists compete for house points. Every house did amazing chalk-work, however the winning art was by Aqua, with Ventus coming 2nd, Terra 3rd and Ignis 4th. The Brain Break Science Trivia had a number of house teams competing for points as well, including a special appearance from a QAHS staff team, with Terra taking out the win.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Lotti Tajouri, Associate Professor in Molecular Genetics at Bond University officially opened our science week celebrations during our whole-school assembly on Tuesday. His presentation on 'Phones are Heavy Fomites' was eye-opening, to say the least! In attendance were Assistant Regional Director of Education, Ms Bronwyn Johnston and Federal Member for Moncrieff, Hon. Angie Bell, who presented awards to our students. A total of thirty seven high-achieving awards were presented to students, including two High Distinctions in the Big Science Competition, Gold Coast Region Winner in the Titration Competition, twenty eight Silver CREST Awards, two Peter Doherty Awards and the winner of the Surf Lifesaving Community Education program for South-East Queensland.
Tuesday afternoon QAHS hosted our Mini Science Survivor for 28 Year 6 students from seven local primary schools. They engaged in Science Survivor activities including moving sand through a conveyor belt, decoding messages using torch code and sand pit dig to find gems. Two top teams battled for the ultimate survivor, with first prize going to William Duncan SS, second prize to Benowa SS with Ashmore SS, Nerang SS and Bellevue Park SS tied for third.
QAHS students laid back with popcorn and poppers in the Lecture Theatre on Wednesday afternoon to watch some of the award-winning films in the 2022 SCINEMA: International Science Film Festival. The highlight was an Australian film on ‘The Secrets in the Scats’, which analysed faeces of different animals.
Thursday was again another action packed day of Science Week. Year 11 and 12 Group 4 EE students started their afternoon with a subway lunch with EE supervisors, Alumni and Griffith University researchers, before all Year 11 students were introduced to the research process by our CREST Gold Award recipient alumni, Gihansa Vidhanelage and Alex Goldsmith.
Students then moved around and listened in small groups to eleven Griffith University researchers and the QAHS Alumni. Presentations by our researchers ranged in topics from HPLC and MASS SPEC analysis of Spent coffee grounds and their potential biological activity in vitro (Endothelial cell EAhy926 cell line), Examination of the cell surface glycans of the bacterial family, Moraxellaceae, Sex-based differences in illness presentation among Australians with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome to Decoding the Role of Sugar Tags on Proteins in Health and Disease (to name a few).
Year 10 students kicked off their Science Survivor House Challenge while navigating through glass-theme-related activities including Conveyor Belt, Sand Design, Laser Target, Where's Wally, Glass Match, Torch Code, Molecular Model, Stain Glass and Sand Pit Dig. It was an intense competition with Ventus the overall winner of our 2022 Science Survivor challenge.
Of course, what would our events be without DJ Tristan and his entertaining music!
Throughout the week seven Year 10 students competed in the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO) Science Week Hackathon. These students competed in the Years 10 - 12 category made up of eighteen teams. The QAHS team included Alan Jose, Lily Peters, Timofey Craig, Lu Watson, Krishna Patil, Lily Cronly and Shay Brokensha with the mentorship of Ms Jade Psychoulas and were one of the three finalist teams.
Thanks to the contribution of our amazing Science Operation Officers, Administration staff, IT and Library staff, teachers, student volunteers, cleaning staff and of course all our amazing students, we all got a chance to do science a bit differently this science week.
Anir Lal
HOD Science and Enrichment