9RA's Science Blog

Open Night

2008-08-26T16:02:00.003+12:00

On August 6 Freyberg High School had its Open Night, welcoming prospective Year 9 students. As part of the night three keen 9RA students helped out. Kea, Tayla & Madoka all helped to make a great night. Cheers you three!

Science Fair

2008-08-05T16:10:00.004+12:00

Courtney Walker

The school science fair was held on Wednesday 30th July and 9RA had a number of projects entered. Well done to these 9RA students
LIVING WORLD: Courtney Walker (1st) Areth Dunlop (3rd), Sue-Ellen Mehlhopt and Hannah Day (Highly Commended)
MATERIAL WORLD: Stacey Gunn (1st) Kathryn Drew (2nd) and Madoka Yamauchi (Highly Commended)
PHYSICAL WORLD: Lizzie Frith (Highly Commended)

The Manawatu Fair will be held on the 22nd August, but we are still awaiting confirmation of our allocation before being able to finalise who is going through.

Stacey Gunn

Arbor Day Planting

2008-07-01T13:44:00.003+12:00

It was a beautiful June Sunday afternoon when we joined the Pit Park crew to plant out our Trees for Survival seedlings at the Arbor Day Planting. Numbers from 9RA were lower than anticipated, but Hannah and Tayla joined Mr Steed and some other Freyberg staff and families to plant the trees on the Tweed Street bank of the Pit. The Pit is undergoing further development over the next couple of years, including wetland area development. If you haven't been down there yet, its worth checking out. Another planting will be held on 20th July.

The first planting

2008-05-29T11:11:00.007+12:00

On Wednesday after school a group of students stayed behind to prepare the ground for today's (Thursday) planting. The ground was pretty hard to turn but we all got stuck and and got in well turned over. Addition of a few bags of compost made for a nice soil ready for planting.

Then today we gathered the plants that had been donated (thanks Colin MacPhersons, Oderings & Palmers) along with a number of plants we had grown up from seedlings in our Trees for Survival Unit. With the skies blue above us and the sun on our backs we planned and planted out our garden, transforming a once barren plot, to a beautiful native garden.

We can now look forward to the big Arbor Day planting on Sunday the 15th June when we will plant more of the Trees for Survival plants at Pit Park.

The Coke & Mentos Explosion - Revealed

2008-05-22T13:45:00.004+12:00

With CREST projects underway I have attached a link to a useful You Tube clip showing how the Mythbusters team explored the main ingredients behind the Coke & Mentos fountain. They make great use of controlling their variables, so it is well worth a look.

Myth Busters

A particularly interesting topic

2008-05-21T10:16:00.003+12:00

We have started into term 2 by looking at the "particularly" interesting topic on the Nature of Matter. We have been discussing the arrangement of particles in solids, liquids and gases and how this affects their properties. We have then extended these basic concepts to discuss expansion, contraction, diffusion, pressure and changing states. The picture above shows one of the experiments we did looking at diffusion of colour (from pebbles) in water.

Testing plants for photosynthesis

2008-04-16T20:49:00.003+12:00

As one of experiments this week we were looking at what would happen to geranium leaves if we put a piece of tin foil across and blocked the sun getting to the leaf. After a week we tested the leaf for the presence of starch (stained black by iodine). You can see a couple of amazing results where the foil prevented the leaf from carrying out photosynthesis and storing the products as starch...pretty convincing experiment!

Growing peanuts

2008-04-14T16:15:00.005+12:00

A couple of years ago I remember seeing a peanut plant and I was like, peanuts, in NZ? Yes, they grow well. So, 9RA decided to see if this was true and a couple of weeks ago I went to the supermarket, bought some standard untreated peanuts and we planted them out. Now, we have some lovely wee plants poking their shoots forth and growing happily.

Measuring up our plot

2008-04-09T20:00:00.000+12:00

As part of our plants & animals unit and as a way to improve our school environment 9RA have adopted a small patch of dirt to turn into a native garden. We will use some plants from the plant unit but we have just written to a number of nurseries to see if they would be able to donate a couple of native shrubs. We eagerly await their responses...

Work with native seedlings

2008-04-09T19:40:00.001+12:00

As part of our topic on plants & animals, we have been involved in pricking out some young seedlings to grow in our plant unit. The unit is part of the Trees for Survival Program. As a school we are connected with the Pit Park Project and are growing out native trees to plant over in the park. Our next planting will be this winter and I am hoping 9RA will be involved in this venture.