Year 9 Activate

Activate is a new program we are exploring with our Year 9 students this year.  It is an entrepreneurship program that embeds future capabilities of;

• communication and collaboration,
• creativity and innovation,
• critical thinking and problem solving
• and flexibility and adaptability in learning.

Activate culminates in an exciting national pitching competition where the best student-led enterprises can win the funding and support to take their ideas out of the classroom and into the real world. 

Recently our Year 9 students were asked to select a problem they are interested in helping solve and/or about which they wish to raise awareness. As you can imagine, this is not an easy task and many of our students have been in the ‘learning pit’, struggling with coming up with their own solutions to their chosen problems. To try and help students out of the ‘learning pit’ classes completed various activities to gather new insights and solutions.  Some classes wrote their problems in the middle of a piece of paper, created a paper airplane, stood at the front of the room and threw their plane. Students then chose the first plane they saw, picked it up and in five minutes wrote as many solutions to the problem as possible. This was a fun and engaging way to get students interacting with and helping each other. It is always easier to solve someone else’s problem rather than your own!

We look forward the next exciting step in our Activate journey in Term 2.

Ms McIntosh and the Activate team

 Year 9 Humanities

‘What Does it Mean to be Human?’ – Ancient History and Philosophy

This term, in our Humanities elective ‘What Does It Mean to be Human?’, Year 9 students have been studying a hybrid subject combining Ancient History and Philosophy. During this unit, we have been focusing on Ancient Rome and using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to examine and compare how ancient Romans met these needs and compare this with how we meet these needs in modern society.

To further engage our students in their study of Ancient Rome, Mrs Arndt and Mrs Goddaer organised for students to clean and examine a range of genuine Ancient Roman coins. Students have been using the archaeological method of distilled water and toothbrushes to gently clean their coin. We have all really enjoyed uncovering the engravings on these coins and using these primary sources to learn more about the Ancient world we are investigating and how to interrogate primary sources for research.

Ms Arndt

Year 9 History

In History this year, we are studying the period 1750-1918, taking us from the Industrial Revolution to the end of World War 1.  Recently, our students started researching the ‘big change’ or ‘new idea’ from this period that they have chosen to investigate. Students have been enjoying their ‘deep dive’ into their chosen time period and area of focus over the past two weeks.

For their assessment, students will be creating an artefact for our museum exhibit to show towards the end of Term 2. We have already heard many interesting ideas ranging from creating trenches from World War One in Minecraft to creating posters full of information regarding the Women’s Suffragette movement in Australia, to dioramas showing the landing at Gallipoli. 

Unfortunately we had to postpone our museum excursion, but students are incredibly excited to visit the Queensland Museum in Week 2 of next term.  Please remember to return forms for this excursion ASAP so as it is not forgotten. We look forward to seeing our students apply their research skills and creativity next term with this interesting and exciting project. 

Ms McIntosh and the History team

 ‘Youth Justice” 

How young is too young for criminal responsibility? In Australia, the criminal age of responsibility is 10 years old.

After watching a news report on A Current Affair, and the destructive and criminal behaviours of Australian youth, students discussed their opinions about whether young people should be responsible for their actions like adults and whether 10-year olds should be held criminally responsible for their actions.

Through their discussions, students realised that they held conflicting opinions and their critical thinking was put to the test, as was their ability to communicate effectively and collaborate. Some thoughts students shared on this important issue:

• No – children’s brains are not developed enough to make decisions until they are older;
• No – the media influences their actions and they do not fully understand the consequences;
• Yes – they know their behaviours are wrong and they need to learn a lesson, but the punishment should not be the same as adults and needs to help support youth that are in trouble.

It has been very motivating and exciting to listen to these discussions as students embark on investigating an issue within the Youth Justice System. Students will explore one of the key focus areas - Socio-economic status, Remoteness, Out-of-home care or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and how youths in these groups are represented in the youth justice system and community or detention supervision. Students will examine the factors that influence and contribute to youths in these groups ending up in the criminal justice system and propose ways to help them become active and informed citizens to help reduce crime rates.