Year 8 News – 4 May 2023

Term 2 has commenced with many students looking refreshed and eager to engage in learning activities.

Later in the term, each Year 8 Advocate group will be attending the Bendigo Tech School for a day to work on ‘Digital Storytelling’.

The term has started with new topics in many subjects. Below is a summary of some – more subjects to follow next edition.

Veritas: Students of Year 8 Veritas will be studying the topic ‘Do we shape the land or does the land shape us?’ In this geographically based unit, students investigate how landforms and landscapes are formed, the impact these have on the human race socially, culturally and spiritually, and how humans interact with the world around them. Students explore the seven geographical concepts (SPICESS), and apply them to the interconnection of places, people and the environment. The students get an opportunity to make a model of a chosen landmark, and these are displayed at a class exhibition later in the term.

Mathematics: Students are working on rational number skills including fractions, decimals and percentages. Through class activities and the Essential Assessment platform activities they are exploring rational and irrational numbers in more depth.  Later in the term students will investigate circles’ features and the relationship between them, circumference, diameter, radius, chords, area.

Indonesian: Term 2, students will be studying the topic of ‘Makanan’ (‘Food’).  We are currently learning the vocabulary associated with various types of food. We are also forming sentences – in written and verbal form – about likes, dislikes and preferences regarding food. all in the Indonesian language.  Culturally, Year 8 Indonesian students will also learn about the special and unique foods from different locations of Indonesia.

Product Design Textiles: In Textiles this term students will be investigating the traditional clothing of a culture and designing an outfit inspired by their research. Students will also be learning to hand stitch and utilising these skills to create a felt character.

Product Design Resistant Materials: This skills-based subject has a focus on designed solutions using a variety of materials. Year 8 students produce models incorporating plastic, flat metal bar and timber using a range of hand tools and machinery.  An emphasis is placed on workshop safety and materials knowledge throughout each lesson to ensure that correct tools and processes are applied to student models.

STEAM: Students have been learning about Chemistry and have completed a variety of theoretical and practical tasks to explore physical and chemical changes, acids and bases and the difference between elements, compounds and mixtures.  For the remainder of the term, students will focus on Earth Sciences where they will explore renewable and non-renewable energies and investigate how the land around us is formed. They will follow the Engineering Design Process to design, model and 3D print their own wind turbine blades which they will then test to evaluate their effectiveness at generating electricity.

Mrs Jan Lake & Mrs Hannah Johnston, Year Level Learning Leaders – Year 8