PLC SYDNEY'S BIANNUAL MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 WINTER 2016 ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE REACH AND EXTENSION IN MATHEMATICS DRAMA STUDENTS ENGAGE WITH AUSTRALIAN PLAYWRITING MASTERS CONTENTS | ISSUE 3 WINTER 2016 1 From the Principal 16 USA Science Tour STEM stands for ‘Science, Technology, 19 Oarsome staff rowers 2 Engineering and Mathematics’ Earth and Environmental Science Drama students engage with Australian 20 4 playwriting masters In Profile: Litiana Field, Sienna Cai, 22 Junior School Badminton Resilience: Managing life’s ups and 5 downs and learning to keep a balance 26 Sensational Science in Singapore 5 Theology and Philosophy in Year 9 27 FUEL ignites with a blast in 2016! 6 STEM: Engaging the next generation 28 All the world’s a stage Music: The guru of jazz and Japanese Reflecting on Ba Vi, Vietnam 7 drummers 30 8 Reach and extension in Mathematics 31 Supporting Allowah 10 Year 11 Camp 32 Adelaide Perry donation Divers join the cast of Most Extreme Rube Goldberg machines 33 11 in Year 5 Science Alien Earth Fairy tales collide in a modern ALUMNI 12 musical twist From the Archives… Marie Byles: 34 14 60 seconds with… Mrs Sarah Waller Many lives in one Where are they now… 15 60 seconds with… Ms Stephanie Cannon 36 Samantha Pennington, Tegan Miller, Kristie Boyle PLC Sydney acknowledges the Wangal people, of the Dharug dialect, on whose land the College resides, and pays respect to Elders both past and present. FROM THE PRINCIPAL 1 'PROJECT ZERO' IS A TEACHING AND LEARNING FRAMEWORK EMANATING FROM THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION. They run many programs: I recently attended the course At PLC Sydney 'The Croydon' is a marvellous example on Educational Design - examining all aspects of school of depth of learning and joy and engagement. Students development including classroom architecture. study the arts in depth and are wonderfully creative in their learning at the same time. If I could sum up the emphasis of the Harvard course in two words, they would be 'creativity' and 'engagement'. Now that the Gateway Project is underway, College The 'Project Zero' team are on a mission in USA to move Council has set as a goal the gradual renewal of the away from the 1950s industrial model of education to one regular classrooms in the Freda Whitlam Courtyard. based on studio learning. Thus the new classrooms they The goal is to renew the spaces so that they foster both are envisaging are more like art studios than the classrooms academic thoroughness and student creativity. We are you and I most likely inhabited. asking: What does the best possible STEM room look like? What qualities does the best possible English room have? I am also continuing to work closely with Cambridge How do we set up our rooms so that each student thrives University on the development of their 'Theology and in each subject? Of course architecture is only one aspect - Philosophy' program. Alongside our significant emphasis but an important one. on STEM (see the articles on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics evident in this publication), The answer of course emerges from the educational we are working on really developing student understanding program. That program is already in operation. We will of epistemology (how we 'know' - including the claims communicate further on the future of PLC Sydney in the of Faith, Reason and Logic). This process symbolises our months and years ahead. We need to continually report commitment to teaching critical thinking to whole persons, on how we are progressing now. In these pages you will and to the growth of curiosity and academic rigor. catch glimpses of our educational offering - of students who are flourishing as we balance rigor and engagement Sadly, schools have sometimes seen engagement and now. I hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I do. rigor as polarities. It need not be so. Schools throughout the centuries have shifted between an emphasis on process Dr Paul Burgis (like the Harvard initiative) and an emphasis on content Principal (like the Cambridge course). The trick is to hold them both as significant. I would argue that the ability to hold these two in tension is a mark of a very good school. To illustrate the point I refer to the Arts. The excellent Music program has teachers who are committed to teaching each student to develop musicality and skill on an individual basis AND to teach them to perform in small and large ensembles. They need individual discipline (rigor) and the joy of performing - working in a team (engagement). OUR MAGAZINE TEAM EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Mrs Nicole Paull Dr Paul Burgis, Ms Joanna Maxwell, Emma Parker, Mrs Fiona Hendriks, Litiana Mrs Kate Wheatley, Ms Belinda Martins, Field, Sienna Cai, Mr Colin Smith, Joanne COVER Mr Phil Harper, Mathilde Scholepple, Emily Ge, Kianna Lui, Yolanda Qiao, Ms Virginia Nielsen, Dianne Balkizas, Edwina Hobson, Shearer, Emma Liu, Jade Lin, Ruby Watters, Year 3 students Tia-Lee Phuong, Chloe Jamieson-Grigg, Louisa Williamson, Christina Bouletos, Simona Lattuca, Hannah Thomson and Charlotte Taplin Sandra Magro, Mrs Brooke Thomson, Stephanie Chew, Mrs Edwina Soh, participating in a Peer Support session Mrs Heather Clark, Mrs Sarah Waller, Nicole Sung, Laura Sweeting, Zoe Jewell, (see page 5 for more information). Ms Stephanie Cannon, Ms Jenny Clarke, Ms Jo Knight, Charlotte Somboli, Ms Debby Alexandra Caddy, Natalie Lambropoulos, Cramer, Samantha Pennington, Kristie Boyle Eleanor Lawton-Wade, Mrs Jo McGrouther, and Tegan Miller. ISSUE 3 / WINTER 2016 2 STEM STANDS FOR ‘SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS’ The renewed focus on these disciplines in our nation signals a recognition of their power to assist us to think about both philosophical and practical issues. Mathematicians strive to be precise. Scientists use mathematics to develop a strong methodology for describing the 'real world' accurately. Engineering is the art of building things that last. Mathematics is one of the primary ways in which modern technologically based culture understands itself and the world around it. For example, the digital revolution and the advent of the computer. New technologies are reshaping the world. All of these stand on a math foundation in our culture and helps to define our community. Our students need to be able to think and to develop skills in these areas. PLC Sydney has a very strong education in STEM subjects. This reputation has been earned because of the deliberate way in which we have approached their integration. Currently Australia is ranked 19th in the world according to the PISA scores, which claim to compare the quality of education between cities and nations. Much of what we regard as STEM education is an important element in this ranking. Currently, Shanghai is first: Finland is eleventh. Interestingly, if the independent schools of NSW were given a single rank (that is all of the large schools like PLC Sydney and Trinity, as well as all of the small Christian and Islamic and Steiner schools) they would rank fifth. If PLC Sydney was placed on the same scale it would rank very close to first. PLC SYDNEY / CAMPHORA How do we assist young women to gain capacity and confidence in STEM 3 subjects? These are some of our strategies. We: • Employ a specialist Science teacher (Mrs Annie Martin) to • Partner with scientists. We are partnering with Taronga teach alongside our regular teachers in the Junior School Zoo in creating a hospital in our Junior School for the long-necked turtle and in preparing our programs so that • Employ a specialist Technology and Robotics teacher we can help to develop the populations of rare insects. (Ms Belinda Martins) to teach alongside the regular teacher in the Junior School • Hold fun clubs. We have clubs in Robotics, Environmental Science and General Science. • Have exceptional leaders and teachers in these subjects across the College • Hold high level clubs. We have a Titration Club. Each year students excel in this area. • Engage in a significant number of extension and enrichment programs. Recently a local independent girls’ school was • Achieve excellence in examinations. A PLC Sydney student very pleased to have a student selected for the National came first in HSC Chemistry in 2013. Our results are well Youth Science Forum (an annual event that really extends above state average on a consistent basis. able science students). In 2015 we had seven students • Hold awards nights in STEM subjects selected. Consistently we have more students in enrichment and extension courses. • Offer overseas trips in STEM subjects. In 2016 a Science Tour went to the Grand Canyon, a Hawaiian volcano, the • Have a Mathematician-in-Residence, Dr Lloyd Dawe museums of Washington DC and to a meteorite crater; and (previously Professor of Mathematics Education at Sydney the 2014 Mathematics Tour extended international links. University) who guides the thinking of students • Engage in thinking in the connections between Heads of • Accelerate students who are able in Mathematics so that Faculties. Thus our Philosophy and Theology class comment they can extend their understanding in their middle years on STEM related matters. • Offer Cambridge International courses as electives in Years • Hold an annual Mathematics Week – full of challenging 9–10. In STEM subjects we offerPhysical Sciences. In 2017 activities that looks at maths with an outlook on the world it is likely we will add Physics and Chemistry and Technology. • Assist students with learning needs in the specific use • Offer the first year University of NSWComputer Science of English by having an ESL teacher support one Science course to Year 11 class in Year 10 • Emphasise scientific research. Our Year 10 program is • Provide specialist assistance in Mathematics for those who exceptional.