Tag: science

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Yorkies Win Kwantlen Science Challenge

IMG_6202XOn Saturday, November 28, Grade 11 and 12 students participated in the Kwantlen Science Challenge, placing first out of 30 Senior teams.

The Kwantlen Science Challenge is a day-long competition for high school students from Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The competition consists of five, one-hour long practical laboratory activities in Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Geology, Engineering Design, Mathematics, and Physics. The activities are designed to be educational and entertaining. There is also a Jeopardy round that includes questions in all sciences and maths, and a design project that the students build prior to the competition.

12308287_1093033057374139_5900184903511387123_nIn the Biology activity, the girls were assigned two tasks: finding “Patient Zero” and determining what type of vaccine would be most effective in combatting a new virus. In this scenario, the girls were delegates at a WHO (World Health Organization) conference who must try to determine how to handle the spread of a virus that has “caused” a pandemic. Working in their group, the girls are  offered pieces of information to determine which combination of components in a vaccine would be the most effective. York House received one of the few perfect scores in this challenge.

12246983_1093033047374140_1452275010782136047_nFor the Physics challenge, the YHS team had access to a lab that had a pellet gun mounted in a holder. They had to fire the gun (safely) into a gelatinous substance and calculate the speed of the pellets in motion, factoring in variables such as the velocity of the pellets while in gel, drag force, viscosity and more. York House was one of the few teams to complete this challenge.

In Jeopardy, there were two rounds, each with different categories varying from “Made in Canada” to “Nuclear Physics”. Our first team consisted mainly of Grade 11s, who managed to put us in a slight lead. The Grade 12s carried us into the second round. However, it was a tight battle with Collingwood right up until the final question and unfortunately, the final points were awarded to Collingwood.

Kwantlen 2015 2Our total points put us over the 2000 benchmark and scored us with one of the highest point totals of all the teams.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Kendra, team captains, and team members Gaby, Michelle, Ariana, Fraser, Melissa, Angel and Kira!

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Earth Science 11: Omniglobe Experience

EarthScience7On November 4th, Mrs. Dombroski’s Earth Science 11 class embarked on a field trip to the Pacific Museum of Earth. We were guided through the interactive Omniglobe Experience by Anna, a Masters student at the University of British Columbia, who specializes in the geology of Mars.

EarthScience1The Omniglobe is a spherical interactive display, that mimics the earth and all of it’s processes, as well as visualizing the geological history of the earth that we know today. It is the only one of its kind in Canada and our Earth Science class was fortunate to have this opportunity to experience it. As a class, our favourite visualization was the animation of the earth and the changes it has undergone in its 4.6 billion year lifespan. We all thoroughly enjoyed this particular portion of the presentation as seeing it from three-dimensional perspective, we could develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the Earth’s geological development. All of the images of the earth were of superb quality, and generated an incredibly realistic representation.

As well as the Omniglobe, the Pacific Museum of Earth included fascinating fossils and a wonderful collection of rocks and gemstones, which came in every color under the sun and were the rarest kind! In summation, our exciting field trip to UBC was educational, interesting, and certainly a whole lot of fun! As a class, we would all certainly recommend this trip to any science class. We hope to return soon, to learn more, and to further augment our Earth Science knowledge.

Earth Science Class 2015/16