I liked studying 4 sciences (bio, psych, chem, physics) but it certainly can be a high workload. As you may have noticed units 1&2 of bio are a far bit different from unit 3 so hopefully you find that more engaging.
Otherwise, you could try linking biology and psychology more. E.g. how neural communication works relies on principles of diffusion and active transport you learn in bio.
Are you planning on pursuing science after high school?
Congratulations on your achievements!!
Thank you for the kind welcome! :)
Wow, I couldn't imagine studying four sciences! I love science but think I would go insane. And yeah, from looking through the syllabus for each of my subjects Unit 3 & 4 look great! What I am most excited about has to be special relativity and quantum theory in physics - I can't wait! I'm excited, as always, for psychology, and Unit 4 in biology looks super interesting (I love genetics, so I think I will enjoy it). We've also started ethics in religion (woop woop ;D)
I have definitely found overlap between biology and psychology - especially in regard to the nervous system. What was good about it was that psychology went a lot more in depth, so when it came to studying for the Unit 1 & 2 bio exam I didn't have to go over my nervous system notes too much. But wow, I never thought about how neural communication relies on principles of diffusion and active transport - but now that I think of it, that makes sense! That does raise a question however, so if we're talking about signal transmission, when you have neurotransmitters they diffuse across the synapse to the receptors and they may cause ions to be released which travel through the post-synaptic neuron.... It isn't the neurotransmitters themselves that travel through the post-synaptic neuron, its the ions. So what happens when it is an electrical signal? Does that release ions or does it travel through the post-synaptic neuron itself? (If that makes any sense)
I love astrophysics and theoretical physics, and would love to work on something like string theory. I think it would be amazing to find the unified field theory. I understand that the field of theoretical physics can be very very difficult to get into and there isn't a very high demand for it, so I have decided that it would probably be best if I were to go into a career in secondary education. I would like to teach Mathematics and Science to high school students, that way I get to share my passions with students, help students find their own passions, and do what I love everyday.
Thank you so much!! :)
Also, I just wanted to say a big thank you for the lectures at QUT. I was fortunate to attend a psychology lecture and I found it so insightful and interesting. I'm definitely feeling very prepared for Unit 3 and I am ready to flaunt my new-found knowledge to my teacher once school starts back ;D I had some friends who were able to attend the biology lecture Saturday morning (whilst I was wrapped up in the wonders of log laws during the methods lecture) and they loved it. So thanks again for that!
In regards to biology, you can definitely also bring in some genetics into Unit 3. Unit 3 & 4 are taught seperately but ecology and evolution are very very very interconnected. For example, when population sizes get too small one of the things that significantly contributes to an extinction vortex is lack of genetic diversity.
To clear things up about how chemical synapses work I've put together a diagram for you below.
Diagram note: I've represented generic ions as triangles
Content note: The movement of ions (by definition, charged particles) is the electrical signal. In an electrical synapse the ions move directly from the presynaptic neuron to the postsynaptic neuron through protein channels. This makes electrical synapses a bit faster but also a bit less adaptable.
A neuron is usually at about -70 mV (resting potential) and when an action potential is generated this goes up to about 40 mV before crashing down again. These changes in potential occur through the movement of ions (namely sodium and potassium) into and out of the axon in a mexican-wave like format that carries the change in potential forwards from the soma to the axon terminals.
One of our honourary moderators (Aaron) is actually a secondary maths teacher so they might be able to give you some insight into what that field is like.
True, true! I'll definitely keep that in mind.Actually before I forget, GenBank is incredibly relevant to this doptpoint in Unit 3: "analyse data from molecular sequences to infer species evolutionary relatedness"
Oh wow! Thank you so much! This really clears it all up. I don't know why I didn't make the connection between ions and electric charge - I must be a fake physics student haha ;D
Thank you!! :)No worries at all! :)
Actually before I forget, GenBank is incredibly relevant to this doptpoint in Unit 3: "analyse data from molecular sequences to infer species evolutionary relatedness"
It allows you to compare DNA sequences between different species (you can actually see the code), gives you a percentage similarity, and you can get it to generate phylogenetic trees for you + tell you statistical significance. If you do decide to play around with it, try comparing sequences from the same region. It can be a bit overwhelming at first so lmk if you're interested and would like help with it.
Awesome to have you here, K.Smithy! So glad you enjoyed the lectures - I did, too! Love the QUT campus.
What's been the roughest part of the Grade 10 > Grade 11 transition, out of interest? You mentioned you had to cram heaps - was it mostly the overwhelming about of content? Or more things like new terminology/processes etc.?
Hope you're having a super day. 🤙
- Nick :)
-snip-
"we are also competing with friends" I that's a deceptive and harmful message
(probably not intentionally, they're stressed & confused too and probably want to motivate you)
Yes, the ATAR ranks students but you'll get more benefits than negatives from collaborating. In Victoria it matters if you're the top, 2nd highest, 3rd.. etc. student in your class (I've searched and found absolutely nothing which suggests that this is the case in qld) and even then it's still beneficial to work together rather than being focused on the competition mindset.
Unfortunately I can't say too much about verbs except that you get used to them with practice. I used to struggle with this a bit in year 10 when I was doing units 1&2 for biology but by the time 3&4 exams rolled around I was pretty comfortable.
I've never heard the term "exam incursion" before. Is this what you call all of your in-school/internal exams?
Do you think guides on "how to do a data test?" etc. would be useful or not so much?
"She actually stated that she wasn't going to teach us" I don't even know how to respond to that situation :( Only thing I can think of is getting feedback from us so you can improve your writing but the teacher refusing to teach..... wow that's very rough.
About stressing - that's pretty relatable. I used to be much more of a perfectionist than I am now and it's definitely helped me to gradually learn to let go. Mostly I want to emphasise that improvement is very much a possibility and the fact that you've already recognised this as an issue and are working on it is a good step in the right direction :)
I'm planning to review the cognitive verbs over the Christmas holidays, so hopefully by next year I'll have them down.Good luck!
My school does exam blocks and exam incursions. Both consist of internal assessment, but for exam blocks you only come to school when you have an exam. With exam incursions you come to school everyday and resume normal classes when you aren't in an exam.At my school we had both too but we just called them all exams. I guess having different terminology might be good so students don't get confused and leave school when they aren't meant to.
That would be amazing!That's great to know! Can't guarantee when exactly I'll get it done but I'll work on it :)
I am definitely going to be making the most of the forums throughout Unit 3 & 4, that's for sure.That's great to hear :)
Probably one of the most important lessons I have learnt form Unit 1 & 2 is the value of making mistakes. I have definitely learnt a lot more from my mistakes than I have from any "perfect" assignments. This has helped me to relax a little bit and I'm hoping next year I won't stress myself out as much :)For some of my year 12 subjects I kept a list of the errors I made when answering questions and it was definitely a useful revision tool. Even if you don't take it that far, learning from mistakes is definitely super important :)
Hey Katelyn! How have things been? ;D
I've also been doing some research for my English assessment, we are doing a persuasive speech and I have chosen climate change as my topic. I am very excited about it!Awesome!! What is your contention specifically? ;D
In non-school work related news, my school had our annual Arts Night on Friday, I got to do some performances which was really fun.That would have been great. Was arts night about visual arts as well or mainly music, drama and dance?
Also, 2 weeks ago my school had speeches for 2020 school captains - I signed up for the positions of school captain and stewardship committee leader. Fingers crossed! :) All the speeches were so good and it was really interesting to see what people in my grade had to say about the life of our college and their visions for 2020.Good on you!! Best of luck. <3 I find that speeches for that sort of thing always are really interesting.
Awesome!! What is your contention specifically? ;D
That would have been great. Was arts night about visual arts as well or mainly music, drama and dance?
//Your speech sounds fascinating. I agree. Australia is such a wealthy country and there is so much that we could do if we really committed.
What instrument do you play? (assuming you're a musician) ;D
Congratulations!! :D
At your school do you have two captains? Did you have to do an interview process as well?
The forum sounds interesting - do you remember what they said about stem cells and aging? Imo aging is super interesting & even though I don't think that finding applications that can be used to reduce aging should be a high priority, it's certainly a fascinating topic. Sounds like that brain organoids topic ties into psych really well too :)
It's bewildering to think that the year above you will be getting their results in less than a month and that you're almost a 5th of the way through your units 3&4 journey :o . Good luck for awards night :)
1. Last week I found out that I have received the position of school captain for 2020 (this was announced to the whole school yesterday). I'm super grateful for this opportunity, and it was a very pleasant surprise as I didn't think people would actually vote for me. I'm super keen for next year and hope to help make school as enjoyable for everyone as possible.Massive congratulations!! I read your post about the proccess- it sounds really long. That's so exciting!!
2. On Tuesday I went to a public forum about stem cells. It was very interesting. I got to learn all about how stem cells are used in research surrounding blood, skin, the brain (did y'all know there are things called brain organoids which can be used to study diseases such as alzheimers?? How cool is that?!?!), ageing and the heart.That would have been really awesome! Did they talk about the different type of stem cells (embryonic v iPCS)?
Massive congratulations!! I read your post about the proccess- it sounds really long. That's so exciting!!
That would have been really awesome! Did they talk about the different type of stem cells (embryonic v iPCS)?
Today we had our first whole college assembly, I was one of the MCs (along side the other school captain). It went pretty well, I choked up on a few words as I get a little nervous public speaking (even though I enjoy it), but other than that it went swimmingly. At the end of every assembly we play our college song and people get up and sing and do the dance moves that go along with the lyrics - most people join in. Once we get to middle years participation starts to decline, by the time you get to senior years, almost no one is singing or dancing. So, this time, the staff member who organises assemblies pulled the other MC aside and told him to stand in the middle of the stage and get people to participate.... This is where it went a little down hill... He didn't know the words or dances moves, but honestly, good on him for getting up there and trying his best! It was so admirable to see him get out of his comfort zone, in front of ~1400 students and god knows how many staff members...
But it got to the point where I just couldn't see him suffer any longer, so I ran out to the middle of the stage, put on a brave face and tried to do the best I could at being energetic. I didn't know all of the moves, so I just watched the teachers who were teaching the new students (but I pretended I knew what I was doing of course ;D). By the end, we had almost every single student dancing! It was crazy! All of the teachers were laughing at us but that's ok ;D
But administration loved it so now it might be a permanent thing.
Also, I got my English results today.. 25/25!!! FINALLY!!! I DID IT!!! ;D ;D ;D
Wow Katelyn! Good on you for putting yourself out there. I hope that being school captain brings lots more opportunities for fun and laughter this year. Congratulations on a fantastic English score! Hope you really enjoyed your last first week back! ;D
Sounds like you had a fantastic start to school! Good on you for putting yourself out there and working hard to get that fantastic English score! 💙
What are you most excited about this year?
It's fantastic that you've been able to push outside you comfort zone for your personal development :D
Really great to see that you aren't focusing just on your studies and really great work to have some things already in progress!
Looking forward to seeing how this develops & it's great to see you've had a (mostly) great start so far!
Also - your marks so far are incredible & I hope you're really proud of the progress you've made
My parents are not happy, at all, with how my friend and I were treated. It was uncalled for and unprofessional on my teachers part. They want me to talk to the head of mathematics at my school and tell them what has happened. But I am a little nervous about the potential that she will find out that I am the one who spoke to the head of maths about her... I have organised a time next week to ask him some questions I have about maths (because I'm too scared to talk to my own teacher) and my parents are urging me to talk to him then...I hope you are alright! I absolutely agree with your parents here and highly urge that you do talk to the head of maths. This is definitely not the right way to treat students and it's better to get the problem sorted at the start of the year rather than leaving it too late. It probably would be best to go with a friend and talk it out calmly with the head (explain the situation and see what you can do to fix it. Say that you are very uncomfortable and are very worried about your future performance because of it. You could even try going with your parents for support ;D)
If that doesn't work out the next best thing you could do is to request a class change. If in the end, nothing can be done, the one thing you can do is to find another Methods teacher that is willing to help you in your situation.
All I can say is that when you do talk to the head of maths, try and express that you want to stay anonymous, and hopefully since she yelled at other students she won't know where the complaint came from.
So good luck, and I hope you have a better week!
It sounds to me like there are things happening outside of the class that have resulted in your teacher being highly stressed and more easily interpreting your comment in a mocking tone or as criticism rather than as a genuine question. You shouldn't have been the recipient of that and if you're now finding it hard to engage in your class this is something that absolutely should be addressed. Not only do I think that action should be taken on this for the sake of your learning but also for your wellbeing so it's not something you are continually ruminating on whenever maths comes up.
If you frame your discussion around trying to resolve the difficulty you're now facing in your learning, then it seems very highly unlikely to me that it would be interpreted as being about hatred towards your teacher.
Best of luck!
I had a similar sort of issue with my Methods teacher last year also, at almost an identical time. Just before our first Methods SAC (around first week of March), I got very ill, and missed a whole week of classes as well as a few SACs (including Methods). The day I got back (Friday) was two days after the Methods SAC was run, and that morning in Period 0 my Methods teacher approached me and told me I was going to do it Period 1 & 2 in the back of the room during our Methods class while she was teaching so she could keep a watch on me. Knowing our standard protocol at school (as of last year) was to do it the following Tuesday, I was puzzled, but additionally so considering I had already gone to our VCE coordinator about my SAC buildup and had already organised a time on the Tuesday morning before school. When I told my teacher this, she wasn't rapt, to say the least, but she begrudgingly accepted it.
However, I'm glad I didn't because that teacher and I patched things up and it ended up being one of the more enjoyable classes I had come Semester 2! I would suggest talking to that teacher, even if you don't feel comfortable doing it alone. Maybe find them at a lunchtime or even at the end of a class. Nobody wants to be the one to call out irregular practice (I did cop some flak whenever a delay in marking SACs due to an absentee came up...), but ultimately everyone respects you for campaigning for consistency for all your peers. If you talk it through with your teacher and show that it was a misunderstanding, I'm sure she'll be sympathetic. If not, I'd definitely recommend going to the higher power.
Hey,
Hope things have gone better for you over this week :)
I'm not familiar with that particular award, but definitely agree on the "no harm in applying" sentiment! Hope it goes well - keep us updated irrespective of whether or not you make the application. :)
Thanks Nick! I'll definitely keep y'all posted, at this stage it looks like I will be applying. I should hopefully submit my application within the next few days :)
I already have one reference (my psychology teacher) and tomorrow my bio teacher (who is also my school's learning enrichment coordinator) will fill out a form with his details. He also offered to help me write my 1000 word statement about why I should be a recipient (which is awesome because i don't know what I'm doing! ;D)
I'm definitely trying to get out of my comfort zone this year. There is a quote by Trevor Noah that I like to remind myself of a lot, and it goes: We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most." I would have a lot of regret in my life if I didn't get out of my comfort zone from time to time; I think if I don't apply for this I will regret it down the line.
On a similar note something I heard in uni is that if you're never failing or receiving "no" as an answer you aren't pushing yourself to your potential.
I'm not familiar with the award but regardless of whether the award recognises it, you're an excellent science student from what I've seen :D
It's normal for mock results to be a bit underwhelming especially in short answer when you have the content but not the experience in knowing what to say to get the marks so don't stress if your results leave you a bit of room to grow. Good luck, I'm sure you'll get there :)
I didn't really celebrate my 18th because I was so caught up on it being 1 month until methods; I hope that you still have a good day despite your focus on preparation!
I hope your study schedule includes plenty of breaks and best of luck! If you tune into the psych lecture on Tuesday you'll hear from me then; best of luck for rest of this stretch until exams :)
How have your last few weeks been, K.Smithy? :)
My ATAR took a lot of hits last month - 6 to be exact. I was going in very hopeful, I thought that I had a good shot at getting an ATAR around the mid 90's. I very much doubt it now. I botched pretty much every exam... Goodbye hopes and dreams
Hey Katelyn!
I've loved reading your journal throughout the year and I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on your amazing results and on the offer! That's a great achievement!
Looking forward to reading your uni journal!!