CRC students and staff celebrated Science Week with many activities and competitions held throughout the week.

OOBLECK

Students got involved making Oobleck with Mrs Stewart. Oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid. That is, it acts like a liquid when being poured, but like a solid when a force is acting on it. You can grab it and then it will ooze out of your hands. Make enough Oobleck and you can even walk on it! 

Try making some this weekend:
Mix 2 cups of cornstarch to 1 cup of water into a bowl. Mix the cornstarch and water until your oobleck is formed. Tip: If you would like to color your oobleck, add your food coloring to your water and then mix with the cornstarch.

NASA and MELBOURNE ZOO VIRTUAL TOURS 

Students had the opportunity to take virtual tours of the zoo and the International Space Station at lunchtime.  

SCAVENGER HUNT

INTERESTING FACTS COMPETITION

Congratulations go to Tommy Pham (8OR), Roger Louis (7SN) and Sierra Lynch (7SN) for their contributions to the Interesting Facts Competition.

THE ZOMBIE ANT (Tommy Pham)

Did you know, Cordyceps is a parasitic fungus that is able to create zombie ants? These fungi spread exceedingly fast, releasing up to 30,000 spores! If a spore manages to reach an ant, it attaches to the ant's skin, allowing for parasites to infiltrate the ant's body. After a couple of minutes, the ant falls while going spastic until it "dies". The parasite has now taken control of the ant due to flooding chemicals into the ant's brain. The parasite controls the ant and heads to a perfect place where the fungus will break through the ant and reproduce!

NEUTRON STARS:  (Roger Louis)

A neutron star is the remnants of a massive star that has run out of fuel. The dying star explodes in a supernova while its core collapses in on itself due to gravity, forming a super-dense neutron star. Typical neutron stars have a mass of up to three solar masses, which is crammed into a sphere with a radius of approximately ten kilometers – resulting in some of the densest matter in the known universe. This means that a teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.

WHERE DOES MOST OF OUR OXYGEN COME FROM? (Sierra Lynch)

20% of the Earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon Rainforest!

Covering 5.5 million square kilometres, the Amazon rainforest cycles a significant proportion of the Earth’s oxygen, absorbing large quantities of carbon dioxide at the same time.  

MARINE AND AQUATIC ANIMALS VISITED STUDENTS AT HOME

Some of the questions asked by the students:

Do you think they are on the way to being endangered in the future or do you think that the population can only get better from here?  (Kelvin)

Do they prefer fish rather than any other animal because of its narrow mouth? (Jimmy)

How would they normally hunt down their food?  (Kayla)

Is it possible to train a crocodile not to bite humans?  (Evan)

How long can they go without eating?  (Kayden)

...AND THE WINNER IS....

Science Championships 2020