Bottle Rockets – An Interdisciplinary Unit

I visited a Year 7 class earlier this week and the level of collaboration and engagement was incredible. I asked a few students to tell us, in their own words, about their learning:

“Throughout our ‘Space Oddity’ unit, we have been mentally challenged and tested to push the extent of our knowledge. This task requires us to design numerous rockets each consisting of a different bottle, fin shape, fin size, cone and weight to find the most successful rocket. When finding which rocket travels best we needed to do numerous tests for each idea and consider things such as the weather, centre of mass, air resistance, drag and pressure.
Over the course of this interdisciplinary unit, we have developed many valuable skills that can be applied to the situations that will be faced in everyday life. It covers three main subjects:

• We used our knowledge from science to make sure our rocket had a smooth launch.
• We used maths to find out how much weight would be needed to create just the right amount of pressure and to stop the rocket from spinning.
• And we used our skills from design to build the rocket and assemble its pieces efficiently.

Our teachers have provided strong examples of what is expected of us, while also giving us the freedom to pursue knowledge in a friendly and unrestrained environment whilst working independently in a group.
We began the process of designing the ideal rocket by starting off with research. Researching was very useful, as it allowed us to excel from other’s encounters, giving us an idea of where to begin with our experiments. The chain of experiments began with the best bottle shape, and students tested a variety of all shapes and sizes. The next things we experimented with were finding the optimum amount of water, the fin shapes, the cones and the weights.
Developing our understanding has been a major part of this interdisciplinary unit and we have grown in our knowledge of the different components of designing and building a rocket. This has allowed us to experience a range of different learning styles. We have not only learned how to create a rocket, but also how to collaborate in a team environment. The skills that we have gained during this process will remain with us throughout our worldly encounters”.
– Bora, Sophia, Isabella, William – Year 7

2020/21 student leaders

With the Captain’s Announcement event covered in more detail by Rev. Rogers in this week’s newsletter, I would simply like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to our new Year 11 School Captains and Prefects. We are living through difficult times and never has the need for strong role models and leaders been more important. I have complete confidence that our newly unveiled Captains, Vice-Captains and Prefects will quickly establish themselves in their roles, picking up on the strong work undertaken by our outgoing Year 12 Leaders and finding new ways to serve our school community.

‘The Works’ Exhibition

On Thursday, a number of our Year 12 students were busy setting up a vibrant exhibition with a wealth of artistic and creative pieces of work that have been produced as part of their Arts and TAS HSC/DP courses. This year, as with so many other much-loved events on the TIGS calendar, our annual ‘The Works’ Exhibition will run in a modified fashion. This year, the exceptional student work will be showcased in a video package that will be made available to our community in the near future. Whilst nothing can replace the experience of coming together to share in our students’ wonderful works, we do hope that the video will give you a strong sense of the abundance of talent our Year 12 students possess.