NEWS

Are you looking to join the Marymede Community in 2020 or 2021?

Applications for our two major intakes (Prep and Year 7) are now open.

• Prep 2020 applications will close on May 24, 2019.
• Year 7, 2021 applications will close on August 23, 2019.
• Applications for Year 7 2020 are now closed. If you are interested in enrolment for this intake please contact the College.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact us via 9407-9000 or via email at registrar@marymede.vic.edu.au

Exciting times lie ahead for Year 7 Marymede students Marc Lando, Leo Karakatsanis and Christian Nicolaou, all of whom have recently been selected to represent Marymede Catholic College as the first ever Australian team to compete at World Educational Robot Competition held in Shanghai, China.

The World Educational Robot Competition (known as WER) is an international robot contest for teenagers from 4 to 18. Annually, more than 500,000 contestants from 50 countries participate in WER contests.

Our students, whom have been generously sponsored by Centrecom, Sunshine to attend the competition, are looking forward to their exciting opportunity in the land of the Red Dragon. “I’m really looking forward to the experience and spending time with my robotics teammates but also the atmosphere of the whole event which is going to be huge” says Christian.

Our students will work as a team of 3 using robots made by Abilix – a world-leading educational robotics company - to design, build and program a robot to navigate a game mat and solve tasks around the 2018 theme “Information Era”. The boys have developed their Team Name ‘Robo Roos’ and logo, and have been working together in their lunchtime Robotics Club developing their abilities in robot design and programming as well as teamwork and innovation.

Digital Technologies at Marymede Catholic College has gone from strength to strength in the past 3 years thanks to the dedication and commitment of Staff member Ms. Kylie Buttigieg who continues to work on new and innovative programs and opportunities for our students.

Ms. Buttigieg said that these three boys were the ideal candidates to lead Team Marymede in Shanghai due to their longstanding commitment to Robotics Club and the keen enthusiasm and energy they brought to the program. Leo claimed that what he liked most about coding was "solving problems and progressing through different stages of problem solving through using technology”, whilst Marc has always had a keen interest in digital technologies: “I remember starting to code around 4 years ago because I just had this fascination with computing and robots”.

This year’s contest is just the beginning for Marymede, who will host the Australian leg of the WER here on College grounds in 2019 – with Ms. Buttigieg’s Robotics Crew already training for next year’s event.

The Robo Roos will depart for Shanghai, China on December 13 for the two-day competition. We wish them all the very best in their endeavours and acknowledge the support of Centrecom, Sunshine for their sponsorship.

The Robo Roos will depart for Shanghai, China on December 13 for the two-day competition. We wish them all the very best in their endeavours and acknowledge the support of Centrecom, Sunshine for their sponsorship.

VICTORIAN SCIENCE TALENT SEARCH SUCCESS
A Reflection – By Kaitlyn Moss

In early May, our 7X (Year 7 Enhanced Learning Stream) class were invited to enter the ‘Victorian Science Talent Search’, a competition that aims for students of all ages to be involved with, and enjoy, science. 

Participants were required to select a task from a range of different categories, based around the theme ‘Game Changers and Change Makers’. 
Chloe and Shantal (my classmates) presented a scientific photographic explanation of meat preservation using salt water whilst my project partner Sienna and I entered a board game – targeting environmentally friendly and affordable transportation fueling substitutions.

Recently, Sienna and I were informed that our entry was successful and were to be awarded a Minor Bursary Prize. On October 29, we visited LaTrobe University to display our prize-winning game and to see what our competitors created. Every single one was amazing, with some being made from lego mechanics and others having additional affects such as sound and lights.  

Presenting our game to the public and other schools was enjoyable as we were able to teach them about fuel and how expensive it really is If only all our teachers taught in game form! 

At the conclusion of the day, the awards ceremony took place. We waited for what felt like ages before we were signaled to stand in a line to collect our prize, a bursary cheque and medallion. 

We had a fantastic time and definitely would not hesitate to take part in the future.  

Kaitlyn Moss 7X

Towards the end of 2017 Marymede Catholic College commenced our journey towards implementing meaningful solar generation across our growing South Morang campus.

In a plan then developed between our College and specialised energy strategy firm ‘Mamachi’ we are now about to turn on its very own power plant! A 270kW solar PV system - made from 981 (x 275w) panels and inverters have been installed by Autonomous Energy and is expected to be turned on by the middle of this Term. The installed system is projected to reduce our current annual consumption by over one third. From a sustainability standpoint, the system projects an average annual saving of 201 tonnes of CO2, offsetting as much as 2,500 tonnes over a 10 year operating life.

Solar Panels Now Lining Several Buildings Across our Grounds.

Solar Makes Sense:

“The ability to play a leadership role in the local community and for our students during their formative years was too important. Not just adopting renewable energy but ensuring it was tactile for teaching purposes, and tangible as part of our broader community message” explains Business Manager Paul Romanin. 

What About Batteries?

Importantly, we had expressly included consideration for battery storage from the get-go. Energy reliability is topical in the media, and top of mind following recent power disruptions in our local area.

“Between 22-30% of the solar energy produced may not be utilised by us – consider School holidays and weekends. The benefit we do obtain is compelling – that’s why we have installed it! Nonetheless, there is still a meaningful proportion of solar energy that could be utilised. Over time we believe that will mean storage - and potentially more solar!” Paul noted.

The system – now fully installed and awaiting final permission to energise – offers up to 80MWh per year in generated, but not used, solar energy - perfect for storage.
 
Solar in School @ Marymede Catholic College

Another factor which drove our investigation into solar energy was the idea that it could be integrated into the classroom environment. 100kW of inverters now sit on proud display at the Trade Centre, clearly visible to students and within observable reach for use in a range of identified curricular applications.

Trade Skills Centre (Far Right)

“STEM and the interaction between students and technology is becoming integral to the learning experience. This will only continue to impact the nature of employment and society as our students go forwards in life. We want to take every opportunity to prepare them for this, so utilising the solar data was important from the outset.” comments Paul.

Thanks to an existing, site wide fibre network across the College all data created by the solar system is directly fed into our School LAN Network. As well as supporting compliance requirements for local grid-operator, Ausnet, our IT network can monitor performance data of the system to be captured, managed and utilised.
 
Students will therefore be able to interact with the solar system, which we believe can play an increasing role in our curricular objectives - creating readily available data for use in both science (Climate, Environment and Renewable Energy Studies) and technology (such as Data Science, Business Intelligence or Analytics) streams from early primary years into VCE.