Mooroolbark College has been a great supporter of ASELL for Schools in Victoria over the past 3 years: hosting their third workshop on 27 October 2017. Many thanks to Amanda Peters, Deb Curceiv and the staff a Mooroolbark for their ongoing support. The honeycomb structure activity was again trialled.  Students and teachers were also challenged to investigate and create an animation of the process by which normal cells become cancerous. The activity developed out of the work of Professor Leigh Ackland (Deakin University) who spoke about her work as a research scientist.

On 17 October 2017, the ASELL team journeyed to Shepparton where McGuire College hosted a workshop for teachers from north central Victoria. Activities trialled included investigation of the strength of honeycomb structures and the effect of temperature on viscosity.

On 17 August an ASELL for Schools workshop was hosted by Copperfield College in Sydenham. Activities included an investigation of conditions for corrosion and an electronic freezer alarm.

Mercy College Camperdown played host to a workshop for teachers from schools in south western Victoria. Teachers and students once again studied motion using the power of smartphones.  This time the focus was on gravitational acceleration and bungee jumping Barbie (and friends).  Teachers and students also tensile tested plastics from supermarket bags

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Teddy and friends experienced a few more crashes at Emmaus College on 21 June.  Teachers and students also investigated the problem of matching sports shoe sole material to playing surface in a new inquiry activity called If the Shoe Fits. The workshop was extremely well attended with nearly 30 teachers and 25 students.

At Oberon High School students and teachers used the power of iPads and smartphones to measure velocity and study how Newton’s Laws of Motion operate in motor vehicle accidents.  Teddy bears were used to simulate the impact of a vehicle as it comes to sudden stop.  Students and teachers experimented with crumple zones and ‘seat belts’.  Videoing impacts with a smart phone and using timers students were able to see the effects of collisions on the passenger teddies. 

On 24 May Kai Dettbarn and the staff at Gippsland Grammar School Sale  hosted an ASELL for Schools workshop in which we trialed the use of the old Come-back-Can activity.  This activity was introduced to ASELL by the ASELL Team from the University of New England Armidale.  The activity was first published in Popular Science Magazine exactly 100 years ago.

The staff and students at Mary Mackillop Catholic Regional College in Leongatha generously hosted the first ASELL for Schools Workshop held in Gippsland.  Students and teachers from a number of schools from surrounding towns  enjoyed a wonderful day together exploring science inquiry activities.

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At the workshop teachers and students engaged in a newly developed LLA using indicator species to determine the quality of water samples.

Many thanks to Dianna Molloy for her work in organising the day.

A great workshop was recently held at Kambrya College, Berwick.  The teachers reported finding the day valuable PD. The students said it was a ‘fun day’.

Activities included tensile strength testing of supermarket bag plastics.  Testing found some bags to be weak with little elasticity, while others only broke after stretching to six times their length under considerable load.  Students built battery powered propeller driven cars from simple materials later using them to investigate the effects of placing batteries in parallel and series. 
    

Following three workshops in quicks succession at the end of 2016 at Mooroolbark SC, Auburn HS and North Geelong SC, there is already a number of workshops confirmed for 2017 with a few more in the pipeline.  The first workshop will be at Kambrya College in Berwick on Friday 24 February. Among the workshops planned for 2017 are several at regional Victorian schools.