On the 7th of March, The Year 11 and 12 students travelled out to the Campaspe River in Elmore to complete their Group Four Project, which is a compulsory part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum. This is a student-driven project, where students from across the different sciences are required to collaborate to create and conduct experiments. During our project, students from the four science groups (Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science) worked together to complete different science investigations. Over the day, there were three different experiments completed.
For Biology, the environment was surveyed through quadrants along three different transit lines to study the different organisms that could be found. The Chemistry experiment studied the pH levels of the soil along each of the three transit lines. The Physics task studied the velocity of the river water – the theory being that the middle of the river would have the fastest velocity. Through these investigations, students could see how all the sciences are interconnected. If the chemistry experiment showed a high Ph level, there would not be much plant life in the biology experiment. The same can be said for the physics experiments, if the river is fast flowing, then there would not be much plant or animal life near the river’s edge. Even computer science can be connected through the processing of the data.
The Group Four Project complements the IB Learner Profile as it encourages students to learn how to work as part of a team, and helps them to become inquirers and more knowledgeable in their area of science. Students had to communicate clearly with each other, and many students became risk-takers, as the Physics task required some tree-climbing!
Through partaking in this project, students found a new appreciation for the real-world applications of the sciences they are studying at school. The Year 12 Biology students are currently studying Ecology, so this project was particularly relevant to their education.
