Did you see the Supermoon?

On Monday, 28th of September at around 3am the point of greatest eclipse occurred! This is when the Earth, Sun and Moon are almost exactly in line and the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.
If you were up early this morning (which I am sure you were) you may have just seen the "blood moon" up in the skies.

If you would like to learn more about the Supermoon Total Eclipse check out this article by National Geographic: Rare Super Blood Moon Total Eclipse 

Below is a photo of the moon my friend captured all the way from Canada. Doesn't look blood orange but still pretty:)

Become a balancing expert!

Hey! For those of you trying to figure out the secret behind balancing chemical equations here is a video that I hope will help. It's a slow,  simplified breakdown of how to balance.

Please let me know - was this video useful?

PS To get some more practice balancing equations try the interactive sites below. After all this if you are not an expert I'll be surprised but…... then come find me.

Now practice, practice, practice. 
The more equations you do the better you will get:)

Balancing Act!

Balancing test

KhanAcademy

Plucking in Mr. Carter's class!

Last Friday, the year 10's were discussing breathing and gas exchange. They got to see first hand how lungs expand and contract. I hear there was also some heart dissection going on? What did you guys learn? Tell us please:)

Bellow is a footage and some photos from Mr. Carter's plucking lesson.

It's a bloody mess! 

VIEWR DISCRETION IS ADVISED

(for those that really can't handle :P)

DNA!

This week in Science lessons we extracted DNA from green peas. Take a close look at the photo below, those floating white, stringy bits - that's DNA extracted from the nuclei found inside the cells of a bunch of green peas.
Well done to all the year 9 girls for working swiftly and with such high level of maturity to complete this multistep practical. We had to work fast and it took us a while but in the end we got some DNA:)
You all should be proud, you got some serious prac skills girls!

Potassium & Bananas

Last week, in year 11 Chemistry class we saw how incredibly reactive potassium is when we dropped a tiny piece of this metal in water. Did you know that our bodies require a certain level of potassium to keep our blood pressure on point, to control our sugar levels, to keep our heart rate steady and to ensure proper cell function? If about two thirds of our bodies are water and potassium is such a reactive metal, how much potassium is safe to consume? In other words, how many bananas are we allowed to eat in a day?
Read on…

Can eating more than six bananas at once kill you? 

- BBC report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34225517

Art and Science of Sound

Who thought we couldn't see sound?! This is cool.

Click on the link CYMATICS to watch directly from the website and scrawl down for behind the scenes explaining how the experiments were done.