Science Day At Santa Maria

Bioluminescence Light Show

There were a number of activities on offer for the girls this week as we celebrated Science Day.

At lunchtime, they were dazzled by the bioluminescence light show presented by the amazing duo of Mr Hanbidge and Mr Tilak. After watching David Attenborough’s ‘Life That Glows’ documentary, our deep ocean activities were based on the chemistry of luminescence. The Mini Ladies in Labcoats had their own very special show after school. 

Here is the link to this spectacular documentary, if you want to learn more about animals that glow in the dark.

Swimming with Great Whites

The girls were also taken on an underwater journey with Mrs Lee, where they were able to swim virtually with Great White Sharks using VR headsets. This was great fun and there were lots of ooos and aahhs coming from the classrooms. 

Origami Sea Animals

Bringing some craft to the underwater theme, the girls enjoyed the opportunity to make an origami turtle, dolphin, shark, angel fish, squid, whale, penguin, or seal courtesy of Sea Shepherd. Here’s the pattern if you’d like to try them at home.  

Sea Monkeys Go Home with Santa Girls: Olivia von Bertouch, Academic Captain

As part of the Science Day activities, the girls were offered the opportunity to enter a brine shrimp (sea monkey) hatching competition. The girls can hatch, keep and train the sea monkeys in their own homes. Brine shrimp are small crustaceans of the class Branchiopoda and genus Artemia and live all over the world in highly saline inland waters. The girls were given shrimp eggs and food, as well as an instruction sheet for their hatching and care.

Over the next 2-3 weeks, the girls will be hatching the egg, having the opportunity to prepare their own saltwater solution and learning how to aerate the water each day to make it suitable for growing their sea monkeys. After the first 24 hours, their new pets should hatch, and they can begin feeding and caring for them. 

The girls will be tracking their progress by taking pictures and videos of the preparation, hatching and care of the sea monkeys, which will be uploaded online for the Science Department as part of the competition.

There will be prizes offered for the fastest hatching, longest-living sea monkey, best-looking set-up, best record-keeping, and finally the best-trained sea monkey. That’s right… you can train sea monkeys! The girls will have fun training them by turning off the lights in the room and shining a thin beam at the container. As the sea monkeys are attracted to light, the girls can get creative and see who can train their pet the best. There will be lots of prizes on offer and we look forward to seeing the sea monkeys grow and develop, and even perform a trick or two.

What A Term! So Many Opportunities – Jennifer Oaten

As I look back on the past nine weeks, I am so grateful for who we are as a community and what we have achieved. Through the dedication of our staff and the enthusiasm of our students, we have established new connections, immersed ourselves in opportunities and worked through challenges.

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