During the Tall Poppies Alternative Camp Week, the students participated in a fun and innovative Science Day.

The first task combined both physics and engineering and involved using a variety of materials to carefully and precisely construct a working hydraulic arm. It was fantastic to see how collaboratively the students were working together and the excitement on their faces when they successfully completed this task - the students were able to use the syringes to instruct the arm to pick up and move an empty can!

The afternoon was full of fun and exciting Chemistry, where the students mixed and made ‘Slime with a twist’. The method and ingredients were given to the students without exposing the ‘twist’. Once the slime was made, they then learnt that their slime was in fact colour changing slime - by simply increasing or decreasing the temperature resulted in the slime changing colours. The students loved this addition to their slime and had a lot of fun using the warm water and ice cubes to transform between the different colours.

Here is what a few of the students had to say about Science Day:

It was very fun, we explored/made something very challenging and just gave it a go - Amy Walters, Year 7

The best part of today was making slime that goes blue when it is hot, pink when it is cold and purple when it is just right - Cara Bernhard, Year 7

I found it really cool because I have never seen colour changing slime - Brooke McKernon, Year 7

I learnt how to communicate properly and figure out how to make the hydraulic arm together. Zurich, Year 8

We were very surprised that it even worked and I am very interested in how the arm is able to move. Pippa, Year 8

I really enjoyed making the hydraulic arm, I have tried lots of things like this at home and they never work, so I was really surprised it worked! It was exciting to see how to make it move different ways. Logan, Year 7

It was a fantastic day, lots of hands on learning and many smiles from the students.