Year 9 and 10 Agriculture Module

Year 9/10 Agricultural Students have completed the research project on "Introduced Pests in New Zealand" and we are currently learning about Soil and how to prepare it for Farming. We are investigating different types of equipment and processes that are used on farms in preparing soil for growing crops and pasture. They have learnt that preparation of the land greatly improves the possibility of a good harvest and having ample feed cut and baled, or pasture for stock to eat through the dryer and colder months of Winter and Spring.

Senior Science 

In Year 11 Science students have been learning about Mechanics and are completing an assessment where they are carrying out a practical investigation in Physics - this involves doing an experiment, analysing the data and producing a scientific report. In Year 12 Biology students are completing an achievement standard where they are investigating biological materials at the microscopic level. This involves preparing and viewing slides under the microscope and making accurate biological drawings.

In Year 12 Chemistry students have been enjoying carrying out test- tube oxidation and reduction reactions.

Mr Bird’s “Car Science” has got off to a great start this year and we have looked at the different components of a car, the electrical side of cars, different historical milestones and we are now looking at the forces and physics involved with cars. We have also conducted experiments, these include testing for reaction time, experimenting with paper helicopters, calculating speed for different measured times, and torque related experiments. We plan look into the physics in a bit more detail as well as possible future technology and the use of microbits.

Mr Bird’s “ Meet the elements” module has started well this year. We have looked at the atomic structure and research has been conducted on the first twenty elements as a class. Experiments have included burning magnesium with oxygen and doing an impressive pop test with hydrogen, we have also looked in detail at word equations associated with chemical reactions. Next we will learn how to write chemical equations and do more Chemistry experiments