Science
Numberr Oney
Under the Sta of Mar
All scientific advances come from people
dreaming of a better world or to push the
boundaries of discovery and exploration.
Faculty
I
n the centuries that have past since
St Marcellin Champagnat first set
up the Marist Order, so as to give an
excellent education to all students,
science has progressed a great deal.
We have gone from dreaming about
landing on the moon to actually arriving
there. From Leonardo de Vinci’s first
drawing of a helicopter, to our present
day machines, and from many diseases
being lethal to the development of vaccines. All advances in science come from
people dreaming about a better world,
which is what we endeavour to achieve
with our students.
The science curriculum has continued to evolve
with this year being the roll out of the level 3
NCEA curriculum. Today’s student has a much
better understanding of the world around them
but as a whole they do not see themselves as
being an integral part of its continued existence.
We have come to a stage in our development
where we see the earth as being part of
our world rather than we being part of the
earth’s ecosystems. It will be imperative that
our current generation of young people become
aware of how fragile our existence on this very
unique planet has become. Our burning of fossil
fuels; the poorly conceived methods of hydrocarbon extraction; pollution of the hydrosphere,
atmosphere and biosphere; exploitation of dwindling fish supplies; monoculture (growing one
crop over very large areas); drought; misuse of
our limited water supplies and much more have
led the earth to a point where we need to accept
responsibility and allow all future generations
to see the blue sky, to smell the sweet scent of
beautiful flowers, to taste the meat of naturally
caught fish, to hear the dawn chorus of our
native birds and to touch the slimy skin of a
frog. There is a very poignant saying from the
American Indians which states: “It is not till
the last tree has been felled, or till the last
river has been poisoned, or the last has fish
being eaten, that will we realise WE CANNOT
EAT MONEY”
The staff and students can justifiably be extremely proud of their achievements in 2013.
Nothing is achieved without hard work, dedica-
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tion, determination and a desire to achieve to
the best of one’s ability. The staff and students
have continually strived to live up to this year’s
Marist pillar which is ”In the way of Mary”.
Mary has continued to look down on our department and allow us to produce quality science
education for our quality students.
“It is not till the last tree
has been felled, or till the
last river has been poisoned, or the last has fish
being eaten, that will we
realise WE CANNOT EAT
MONEY” American Indian Proverb
Farewells.
We sadly said farewell to Lyn Too after 10
years of excellent service to our students, both
inside and outside the classroom. In that time
Lyn has been the mainstay of the chemistry
department, developing resources for the ever
changing curricula, attending numerous professional development days to ensure that her students were always given the correct information,
helping with numerous tutorials outside college
time, developing department wide programmes
and taking a managerial position in many of our
football teams. We wish Lyn all the very best for
her new teaching position at “Rangiora New Life
School”
Leave positions.
In August Anna Langford (chemistry) took
materni ty leave and in October gave birth to
a beautiful baby boy. Our congratulations and
very best wishes go out to Anna, Ben and baby
George Sione. Anna is set to return in October
2014. At the end of the year Jessica Christian
(science/mathematics) left us on maternity
leave and her baby is due in April. We wish Jess
and Matt all the very best for this great day.
Arrivals
We warmly welcome David McVay who arrived
in August in a long tern relieving position in
chemistry. David brings a wealth of experience
from the aeronautic and engineering fields.
2012 NCEA results
We would like to congratulate all successful
students on achieving their NCEA certificates.
Special congratulations go to: Scholarship:
Yuxuan Zhou (Science/physics), Level 3:
Yuxuan Zhou (two excellences and one merit
in chemistry L3) and two excellences and two
merits in biology L3). Level 2: Chris Sims (two
excellences in physics). Level 1: Andy Su and
Ben Van Woerkom both of whom gained three
excellences and Steve Clark who gained two
excellences and one merit.
Extra-curricular programmes
Over the Christmas break (2012) Chris Sims
and David Smith both attended national
science courses. Chris Sims went to Auckland and attended the Science and Technology
forum hosted by Auckland University. It was
organised by Rotary International who managed
to get 100+ students in Auckland for the 10 day
course. (see Chris’s write up). David attended a
Canterbury University course limited to 15 students nationwide. His course had emphasis on
robotics, nanotechnology and engineering. Both
students gained valuable information regarding
university courses and life on campus.
ICAS assessments
This international competition has hundreds of
thousands of entries and this year we had our
share of successful students. The department
would like to thank all the 121 students who
were courageous enough to enter. Special congratulations go to: Distinction (top 10% of NZ)
(6) Yr9; Chenchen Huang, Juan Paolo Lopez,
Matthew Mann, Year 10; Rewiti Ross-Hotene,
Nathaniel Russell, Aidan Watson. Credit (top
25% NZ) (32): Year 7: Oliver Burton, William
Johnson. Year 8: Caleb Carrasco, Gianpaolo
Cigaral, Thomas Mingins, Scott Rozenburg,
Year 9: Finn Anderson, Elisha Day, Ben Ernst,
Sam Kong, Marcus Manning, Michael McLean,
James Missen, Josh Peckston, Elliott Thorn,
Conrad Weatherall, Declan Wilcock. Year 10:
Aidan Almand, Jack Baucke, Nathan Chan,
Bernard Devine, Adam Hebbend, Guy Hogan,
St Bernard’s College 2013