Year 9

Science and Engineering Challenge

On Wednesday 27 July, 12 students from Y 9 were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to attend the Science and Engineering Competition, which was run by the University of Newcastle. We started the day by taking the bus to Ravenswood School for Girls. When we got there, we entered an auditorium to be briefed and meet the other schools. After a short explanation of what the day would entail, we moved to separate parts of the school to begin our first task. My group’s first task was called Turbine, where we were being hired to build a new water turbine for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme. We were given 45 minutes, a ruler, 3 Styrofoam plates, 4 meters of masking tape, and a handful of paddle pop sticks to construct our turbine. After the 45 minutes, our turbine achieved one of the better scores, registering 327 rotations per minute in the testing chamber. The test was registered by an electromagnet within the main axel and counted how many times it rotated in a 20 second time period. After a quick lunch, we moved to our second task, ‘Electracity’.  In ‘Electracity’, we had 1 ½ hours to work through 10 scenarios on a board. The objective of each scenario was slightly different; however, the primary goal was to power as many buildings in the city as possible in the least cost efficient way. There were 5 different types of wires, each with different prices, resistance levels and lengths. After ‘Electracity’, where my group completed each scenario successfully within the given time, we moved back to the auditorium. After coming back to the auditorium, we watched the bridge testing, where the group that had worked on building bridges over the whole day tested their durability and strength using a cart loaded with steel slabs. Finally, the scores were announced; Redlands came 4^th in the competition with a couple of wins in the challenges – there were 7 challenges over the day, with the biggest of which was the bridge task.

Written by Angus McInnes.

ElectriCITY – Angus McInnis, Hugo Baird and Jesse Forrest

Helter Skelter Shelter – Megan Kirkpatrick, Andrew Marcourt, Keira Attard

Other attendees:

Krishna Gupta, Liam Petersen, Hiro Phillips, Jessica lee, Lachlan Green, Kosta Mangos.

2022 ICAS Science Competition

The 2022 ICAS Science competition will take place on Tuesday 23 August in school. Entry for students in Years 7-10 is voluntary. This year parents will sign up and pay for students directly in the ICAS shop. This needs to be completed before Monday 1 August. The cost of the test is $19.25. Please see the access details below.

Access details for parents

Key Dates

Week 3- Thursday 4th Aug- Winter Sport Photographs

Week 5- Science Week

Week 6- Wednesday 24th August, Yr 3-12 Visual Arts Exhibition (Redlands Hall) 

Week 9- Thursday 15th September, House Spirit Fair

Week 10- Thursday 22nd September Last day Term 3.

Ms Lisa Vale
Yr 9 Advisor
9968 9837
lvale@redlands.nsw.edu.au