Science{besps}faculties/science{/besps}

The Science Department at Margaret River Senior High School teaches a curriculum that meets the needs of our community while allowing those students who want to study the highest levels of High School science curriculum to do so. Our entire upper school curriculum options (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Human Biology) are taught by experienced and highly respected specialists who all been acknowledged for the outstanding results they have achieved.

Achievements

Over the last few years the Science Department at Margaret River Senior High has demonstrated its excellence by achieving far above expectations (when compared to like schools) in areas such as standardised mandatory tests and year 12 final results.

Some of these achievements are:

• Achieving in the top 10 schools in Biology and Human Biology several times in the statewide Year 12 results,
• Having all sets of year 12 results above state average for a number of years running,
• Consistently scoring above the state average in the Western Australian Monitoring Student Standards over many years. For instance in 2013 29% of MRSHS were in the top 20% of the State but only 7% were in the bottom 20%.

Spaghetti Bridge Records

The Year 12 Physics Spaghetti bridge competition has been running at the school since 1996. It’s aimed at creating a competitive feel in the classroom, while allowing students to apply there theoretical knowledge in a practical setting. The school has seen many aesthetically pleasing and well constructed bridges over the years and many students have carried on to from this school to be Engineers.

The current record holders are Leela Dilkes-Hoffman (2009) whose bridge held 220 times its own mass and Hanah Newstead (2014) whose bridge held a total mass of 41.3Kg.

Waste Wise Management

After successfully winning a BHP grant the school is actively controlling school waste. Through the science department waste quantities are monitored and several recycling initiatives are running. One involves collecting the waste food produced in the school, using worm farms to produce compost and then selling the “worm juice” at the local markets. Through this and the associated waste wise programs students are being made aware of how to reduce and recycle waste.

Year 7 Transition

The MRSHS science faculty has ben working with a group of other regional schools to produce resources suitable to year 7. We have prepared courses in experimentation, Biological Science, Chemical Science, Physical Science and Earth & Space Science and are currently purchasing the necessary resources to teach them.