10G have spent this week down in the heart of the Catlins exploring this beautiful corner of the South Island. As well has having fun on the many beaches and walks available the focus of the trip was also to complete three academic based projects under the theme of “Compare and Contrast”. This will give the group of boys a tremendous head start as they pursue their academic goals of attaining an Excellence endorsement for NCEA Level 1 in 2017.

The English project titled “Now and Then” involved an 11pm walk to McLeans Falls followed by the same walk 12 hours later in daylight. Comparing the thoughts, smells, sights, feelings and emotions of exactly the same journey but at two very contrasting times is the objective of the descriptive essay the boys will write.

The boys are also undertaking a Statistics project comparing properties of flax bushes at two contrasting locations at Jacks Bay and Slope Point. The two places are only 30km as the crow flies but endure completely different types of weather.

Finally a Science project compares and contrasts rock formations at the world famous Curio Bay. The boys learned from Mr Golder how logs carried by volcanic flows are dumped and turned into rock. Tracking back millions of years in time to explain the geological processes is the aim of the Science project.

10G are a strong, very able, close knit group of young men and very supportive of each other. They have valued the experience to enjoy a core focus of what we do at Otago Boys' High School in a totally different environment. It gives an excellent focus for the very last two weeks of the academic year.

The only down side to the trip is the focus on the last two days of term to meet the deadlines of all three projects. Welcome to NCEA boys! You were a great group to take away and as always with OBHS boys, a huge credit to our school.