Week+2

Monday 15 August

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What is Oobleck? A solid, a liquid, mmm, good question! Today our guest speaker Hank from Monash Uni joined our very own Ms Clayton to demonstrate the amazing properties of Oobleck. Oobleck is a nonnewtonian substance meaning it can take the form of a liquid and a solid. Our experiment was extremely hands on and it got just a little messy to say the least. (I hope Jeff the cleaner will talk to me again) The students had to think of some applications for this product and had some terrific ideas eg speed humps, horror movies, haunted rides and many more. We discovered why this material reacts like it does and had a lot of fun in the process. Research and development continues with certain aspects of the design element being a major hurdle. Hank took us through his design port folio and explained the 6 step process undertaken from design brief to final presentation. We thank Hank and Ms Clayton for their time and I thank my students for their dedicated clean up. **Tuesday the 16th** Man Made Marvels- The Sydney Opera House What an amazingly complicated yet simplistic structure the Sydney Opera House is. In this episode of ‘Man Made Marvels’ we discovered the controversial story that plagued the building of this iconic structure from day one. The project began in 1959 and was finally opened on October 30, 1973. In fact, at the time the project commenced they did not have a fully completed set of workable plans in place. Did you know that Danish architect Jorn Utzon creator of the Sydney Opera House never saw his finished work? He was terminated by the NSW government due to his perfectionist nature and costing blow outs and has never seen his completed design in person. The eye catching white sails on the roof were a mathematical and structural master piece of the day but at the same time an engineering nightmare. In recent times the NSW government has offered Jorn a chance to implement his original ideas on the inside of the venue. Currently his son is working to complete the inside to the highest standards to match the impressive and truly unique outside of the structure. This demonstrated to us that our own Sydney Opera House, really is a man made marvel. **Thursday the 18th**

**Big, Bigger, Biggest** **Bridges- coming soon**