Loud bangs, animal dissections and nitrogen clouds, oh my! As Newington celebrates National Science Week in style, science scholars from Years 9 and 10 are getting their brains into gear ahead of the upcoming NSW championships for the 2025 Science and Engineering Challenge.

Don’t be alarmed by those periodic loud explosions across campus – it’s National Science Week, so bangs, blasts and dynamic demonstrations are par for the course. With this year’s event themed ‘Decoding the Universe’, students from Years 7 to 10 at Newington have spent the week celebrating all things science with a revolving schedule of activities such as an Owltopsy with ‘Professor Hootson’, Baker’s Blast Off, Devil Dunn’s Toothpaste Terror, Magnesium Mayhem with Mr A, and Battaglia’s Boom, Go Go Gunpowder.  

There was also a coding ‘escape room’ where Year 7 students and their parents (who were visiting for an open classroom event)  teamed up with the goal of ‘decoding the universe’ more quickly than those around them; and an impressive liquid nitrogen demonstration that raised the roof at this week’s assembly along with the tumultuous cheering and applause that followed. 

At our Lindfield Preparatory (K–6) campus, students participated in a forensic science incursion, where they were given the opportunity to act as detectives by analysing evidence to solve a case; while students from Wyvern House (K–6) will be attending a Science Show hosted by our Year 10 students. 

Miss Smriti Mediratta, Head of Science, says it’s all in aid of igniting and nurturing a passion for science. 

‘The goal is to keep increasing the scope of our Science Week activities every year and get the maximum number of students involved.  

‘We should all love science because it helps us understand how the world works, sparks our curiosity, and leads to amazing discoveries and innovations that improve our lives. Science allows us to contribute to solving important problems, learn new things, and be part of a community that values knowledge and progress,’ she says. 

‘A Newington, science transforms curiosity into discovery, empowering students to become innovative and creative thinkers and problem-solvers in a supportive and dynamic learning environment.’ 

And it’s also an incredibly popular subject at the College. Approximately 80 per cent of Year 10 students go onto to study at least one science subject in their senior years, with 70 Year 9 students selecting Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) Physics as an elective this year. 

‘This is great because students are only able to pick three electives in Year 9, and Science is already one of their core compulsory subjects. So the fact that our students are voluntarily signing up for yet more science is a very positive sign,’ explains Miss Mediratta. 

Newington also offers multiple opportunities for enrichment across Science. Competitions include the Junior Science Olympiad and Australian Science Olympiads (covering Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Earth and Environmental Science). In Years 7 to 10, extension classes participate in the Science ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) Exam, as well as the Big Science Competition, and 32 students from across Years 9 and 10 compete by invitation in the Science and Engineering Challenge.  

Kicking off in Term 1 this year, the Science and Engineering Challenge is a nationwide STEM outreach program presented by the University of Newcastle. Our Year 9 and 10 science whizzes completed eight challenges, including Job Juggle (which involved solving a series of scheduling problems by arranging coloured tiles on a board) and Electracity (working out the most efficient pathways to provide the lowest-cost electricity to a city). 

‘The eight-day challenge is point-based, with 200 being the maximum number of points each team can accumulate. To win, teams must place first not just on the day that they compete but also have the highest score of all the teams in their region,’ explains Miss Mediratta. 

Newington students won their first session and placed first overall in NSW. On 26 August our teams will head to Newcastle University to participate in the NSW championships, where activities are more difficult and randomly allocated on the day. 

‘Our students have performed really well so far and we’re looking forward to seeing how they go at the state level,’ says Miss Mediratta. 

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For more information about learning and teaching at Newington, visit: https://www.newington.nsw.edu.au/learning-and-teaching/stanmore-secondary-learning-and-teaching/