Dance Excursion Week 3 Term 2
On Tuesday May ninth, I accompanied the AP Dance elective class to His Majesty’s Theatre for a matinee performance of Ballet to Broadway, presented by The West Australian Ballet. We attended the beautiful theatre with other schools to be inspired by the dancers and have the honour to experience classical dance in the industry.
The performance consisted of three sections of classical choreography ranging from classic ballet technique to modernised contemporary and finally a ballet rendition of Broadway musical pieces. Every detail, from the costumes, set and live orchestra down to the tiniest detail of choreography, in my opinion, was outstanding! With ballet being a passion of mine since I was very young, I appreciated the incredible technique of the show very much and am very pleased I was able to tag along!
Thoughts from some of the AP Dance students who attended the excursion…
“It was really fun to get out for the day and see the ballet.” – Amber
“I found it very cool how quietly they all landed on their feet!” – William
Keira – Senior School Student
Murdoch University Excursion –Term 2 Week 6
Barna Marlak Middle School arrived at the train station at 8:30 and hopped on the train at 8:45 to Murdoch University. When we got to Murdoch University, Steph from Murdoch, the person in charge of the excursion, met us outside the front. She took us to the university’s new building, and we all sat down to hear about Murdoch.
Steph’s colleague stood up and talked to us about the different pathways we can take after finishing school. It was interesting to learn about the different options and opportunities available at Murdoch University. We then went with Steven who was working for Murdoch and he took us on a tour around the buildings. They had so many different spaces which students could use. We looked at the filming room which was massive and had expensive professional cameras which could be used. They had lots of backdrops, sound and lighting equipment. We also looked at the photography room. Steven also told us that one student had driven a car in once to take pictures for an assignment. They also had a very pretty koi pond that we took photos at.
After the tour we went and ate snack which we had brought with us. We then went with Steph and made rockets. We used empty plastic bottles and filled them with water. We then connected a bike pump and put the bottles on a stand and pumped air into them and they went flying. We did 6 different rounds trying to get the best combination of the right amount of water and the right angle for the stand. Overall, we did the best at an average of 32m and the second highest was 19m. Although we got the best average Olive, Jessica and Seasan got the furthest at 46m.
The other group went to participate in the Rube Goldberg Challenge where they had to make a very simple activity as difficult and complicated as possible. Two groups won prizes for their complexity and effectiveness.
After we finished with the rocket and simple machine’s activity it was around 12:00pm so we went for lunch. They had a bubble tea shop on campus so my friend group all bought some. Then we went into the food court and my friend bought some honey chicken and fried rice.
After lunch which went for around 40 minutes, Steven took us to one of their classrooms and we played with sphero balls. Sphero balls are little robotic spheres that you can control from an app. Everyone got a sphero ball and an iPad to control the ball with. The sphero balls had a LED square in the middle which you could change colours in the app. We then played some games including chasey and gang up chasey. The person who was it would change their LED panel to red and everyone else would be green. Then the person would have to hit the other balls and if you got hit you would change your colour to red. We also had to create a code for our sphero balls. Instead of driving them we had to create a code which we would run to get our balls onto a piece of paper on the other side of the room. I really enjoyed this activity and would definitely do it again!
The other group got to tour the Vet Science museum and see all the specimens they have collected. The facilitator was a PhD student who was very passionate about anatomy and she told us many cool facts. We got to learn how to use the catalogue system and which specimens come from which animal. Then we did a treasure hunt to find specific items.
In conclusion, my experience at Murdoch University was amazing. Seeing everything they had to offer was very beneficial for me later in life when I am choosing a university.
William Forbes – Noorn
