St. Emilie's Catholic Primary School

Our Year 4 students experience a ‘virtual incursion’

March 31, 2020
Kerrie Cogger
· Classroom News · Science · Uncategorized · Year 4 · Year 4 Blue · Year 4 Gold

Our Year 4 students were invited to join Cecily from Earth Science WA to learn more about soils through a ‘virtual incursion’. Mrs Cogger received an invite from Cecily through Microsoft Teams and the call went through at 9am on Thursday. Our Year 4 students were all seated and excited to try this new way of learning.

Cecily conducted the incursion via the big screen in MPR and Mrs Cogger did all the ‘hands on’ work.

Here is Cecily telling us about ‘soil profiles’ and Aiden giving his answer.

Soil profile

The students had to take turns to walk up to the microphone on Mrs Cogger’s Mac to share their answer.

In this clip Cecily explains to the students how to use a hand lens.

How to use a hand lens

Here are a few photos of the students using the hand lenses.

Examining the four different soil samples

How to examine the soil samples

The students had to use a baton and identify whether the soil was fine, medium or coarse.

At the conclusion of the incursion the students used antibacterial wipes to clean all the equipment and prepare the kit for collection by Cecily.

We would like to thank Cecily for offering this alternative to a face to face incursion. It was a huge success. The students loved it and were engaged with the topic on soils. Our IT tools worked perfectly to support this new way of learning. We can see this being a wonderful opportunity for learning about our Earth in remote and regional WA.

Water education opportunity

We are pleased to announce that St Emilie’s Catholic Primary School has been selected to be involved with the Golder Associates ‘Schools Water Education Program’.

The following materials and equipment will be donated and offered by Golder:

1 x YSI Water Quality Meter (measures pH, EC, TDS, temp, dissolved oxygen)
1 x Surface Water Sampler (extendable length)
A visit from two Golder scientists/water engineers
A presentation on lakes/wetlands, their importance to the environment and threats facing these water bodies
A guided lesson on using the provided equipment and a job hazard/controls identification process
Ongoing support with data interpretation over at least a 12 month period

This will be a wonderful opportunity for our students as we will be monitoring the water quality at Cromarty Gardens Reserve and sharing our findings with the local community.

We look forward to sharing more with you about this journey.

Wondering about water

February 16, 2020
Kerrie Cogger
· waterwise · Year 2 · Year 2 Blue · Year 2 Gold

The Year 2 students used their five senses to investigate the properties of a cup of water this week. They touched, smelt, listened, tasted and looked at water through a variety of hands on activities.

Here are a few photos of students using some of their investigative skills!

Recycling at St Emilie’s

February 2, 2020
Kerrie Cogger
· Classroom News · For Families · Kindy · News · Pre-Primary · Science · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Just a reminder to all families, that our Year 6 Environmental Committee offer the following recycling services to our school community.

Greenbatch

Greenbatch Foundation partners with schools allowing students to collect their old PET plastic bottles through recycling, providing PET which is used in research and development for 3D printer filament. By recycling through Greenbatch we can save plastic from entering landfills, oceans and waste incinerators.

As from Term 3, our green and purple Greenbatch bins will return to the undercover area on Wednesday mornings. You are very welcome and encouraged to bring in your HDPE 2 and PET 1 plastics. PET plastic is the type found in drink bottles and food packaging such as strawberry punnets or peanut butter jars, and has the number 1 inside the recycling symbol.

Battery Recycling

We will also continue to offer our battery collection. The yellow battery bin will be placed out in the undercover area on Wednesday morning along with the Greenbatch bins. Please bring along your unwanted batteries and place them in the bin. Once the bin is 3/4 full we contact the City of Gosnells and the batteries are taken away for recycling.

If you bring your batteries or plastics to school on any other day you will find yellow battery bin in the undercover area and the purple Greenbatch bins parked up by Learning Hub.

Thank you for your continuing support and to our students for their efforts at contributing towards the health of the planet by conducting these recycling projects.

Year 6 Science Inquiry Presentations

This week our Science Inquiry Group presented their projects to an audience of invited guests.

Throughout terms 2, 3 and 4 students have worked in partners to design, build and test an air racer vehicle. It’s been a very challenging project but well worth the effort. The learning and problem solving opportunities have been exceptional.

Each team presented a powerpoint to share their learning and the challenges that they encountered.

Then the students set up their own race track. We didn’t wish to take the parents to the basketball court in this current heat wave. So the students set up their own racetrack by putting the table together.

Mrs Cogger is very proud of the group and their achievements. Well done and keep up your enthusiasm for Science projects at high school.

Water Fun Day 2019

December 13, 2019
Kerrie Cogger
· Kindy · News · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Our annual end of year Water Fun Afternoon was held yesterday. We set up 12 stations of water fun play for our students and they spent about 45 minutes moving from station to station.

Here are a few photos of today’s fun!!

Super soakers

Slip and slide

Party pools

Dry, dry wet game

Wet hat relay

Octopus tag

Wet sponge relay

A big thank you to Mr Cogger for setting up all the stations for our children – it was a wonderful way to finish off what has been another great year!

Chemistry comes to St Emilie’s

This week we had a wonderful opportunity at St Emilie’s. Sandra Lavery (Jack Tarandetti’s auntie) came to St Emilie’s to present chemistry workshops to the students in Years 3, 5 and 6. Sandra is a chemistry teacher at Lynwood Senior High School and she was keen to share her passionate about chemistry with he St Emilie’s students.

The students enjoyed several experiments. Here are some photos to show the experiences offered to students on Thursday.

The students got to shake this bottle and see the colour change from blue to ‘colourless’. Mrs Cogger learned something new. In chemistry liquids are never called ‘clear’. The correct term is ‘colourless’.

Sandra brought along a transportable bunsen burner. The Year 6 students can look forward to using bunsen burners at high school next year.

Jack T was Sandra’s lab technician for the sessions. He did a great job. he especially enjoyed helping out with the investigation involving a ‘flame’.

Sandra demonstrated that by heating a particular chemical in its liquid form it could be changed to a solid.

Sandra added zinc to a conical flask and another chemical and we watched it bubble. Then she placed a balloon tightly over the opening of the conical flask and trapped that was being produced.

Sandra showed us the magic of ‘elephants toothpaste’. One of the ingredients is hydrogen peroxide.

We recorded our observations and learning throughout the workshop.

Sandra used a string to ‘slice’ through an ice cube. Then she demonstrated the three states of matter by melting the ice cube and allowing the water vapour to inflate the balloon.

One of the students favourite investigations was when the egg was ‘sucked’ into the conical flask.

Sandra set up all her chemistry equipment and show the students how to create carbon dioxide. She ‘trapped’ the gas and used it to put out burning tea light candles.

To finish off her chemistry extravaganza show Sandra seta taper candle flame to a balloon filled with hydrogen gas. And the students were delighted to see the balloon explode!

Mrs Cogger interviewed some of the students on Friday morning and prepared this short iMovie about our chemistry with Sandra. Please click the link below to view the imovie.

Chemistry extravaganza

Mrs Cogger and the students would like to thank Sandra for providing this wonderful opportunity for the students.

Vivienne and learning about recycling at the MRF

November 28, 2019
Kerrie Cogger
· Classroom News · Science · Uncategorized · Year 1 · Year 1 Blue · Year 1 Gold · Year 2 · Year 2 Blue · Year 2 Gold · Year 3 · Year 3 Blue · Year 3 Gold · Year 4 · Year 4 Blue · Year 4 Gold · Year 5 · Year 5 Blue · Year 5 Gold · Year 6 · Year 6 Blue · Year 6 Gold

Vivienne returned to St Emilie’s this week to talk to the students about what happens at the Materials Recovery Facility once all the recyclables have been collected from our homes.

The students learned about the whole process from the moment the truck is emptied onto the tipping floor until the materials are ready baled and ready for collection.

All the students played a sequencing game to demonstrate and show how the materials are recovered.

We enjoyed our visits with Vivienne and we wish her all the best as she spreads the message about recycling and the waste message.

St Emilie’s student wins Chevron Focus Environment Photography Competition

November 20, 2019
Kerrie Cogger
· Classroom News · Science · Year 4 · Year 4 Blue · Year 4 Gold

Congratulations to Maria Gourley in 4G for her winning photo entry in the Chevron Focus Environment Competition.

Maria placed 3rd in the Years 3-6 category Focus on: WA’s habitats and ecosystems.

There were more than 100 entries from schools across WA. Both Year 4 classes entered the competition this year. Mrs Cogger took the students to the school bushland in Term 3 after giving the students a presentation about photography and how to capture a ‘good’ photo.

Maria’s photo will appear in The West Australian newspaper this week. Mrs Cogger’s father gets the newspaper each day and he has been alerted to look out for it!

Maria receives a $100 gift card and a certificate and St Emilie’s school has received $250. Mrs Cogger will add this money to her Science budget.

Here is Maria’s wining photo and caption.

Title: Bark and blossoming plants. Caption: ‘Among the bark, there are plants beginning to grow and bloom. All thanks to the source of sunlight’.

Cleanaway visit with Vivienne

This week we invited Vivienne back to St Emilie’s to talk to the students about waste management. Vivienne is the Education Officer for Cleanaway and she is one of our favourite visitors. We look forward to seeing her every couple of years. Cleanaway is the company that collects all the waste throughout the City of Gosnells. It is also National Recycling Week so it is important to think about our future and make plans on how to better manage our waste.

The students learned about what we should place in our General Waste and Recycling Waste bins by playing several team games.

The students learned about Waste Free lunches and how to choose products that require less packaging.

Vivienne showed the students how you can save money by buying a large 1kg block of cheese that has only one wrapper compared to a pack of 10 cheese sticks.

The students in Year 4, 5 and 6 learned about how long it takes different materials to decompose.

The students also learned about the 3 R’s hierarchy model. We should be doing MORE Reducing and sending less to landfill.

Each student will bring home a survey. Please complete the survey with your child. This will help inform Cleanaway about their waste management services and assist them to make future changes. Each students who returns the survey will receive a pop out cardboard rubbish truck and go in a draw to win a mini wheelie bin.

I hope the students have been sharing all their new knowledge about waste management and are assisting you to make changes. A few changes have already been put into place at the Cogger household!