Science Investigations

Semester 1 or Semester 2 

Do you love Science or plan to take a Science at VCE? Then Science Investigations is for you! 

Using ultraviolet light

Science Investigations is an extension Science elective that helps you to develop useful scientific skills and knowledge for future studies in Science. It is a great compliment or precursor to any Pre-VCE Science elective.  

This course is designed to build on your existing laboratory, problem solving and science communication skills and will help you to better understand the scientific method and how to design and conduct your own investigations. We will cover concepts in Chemistry and Physics and use lots of hands-on experiments and activities you might not have seen before.   

We will also discuss the development of scientific understanding and the role of models, and the cross over between science and philosophy, learn how to critically analyse information, as well as develop useful skills for higher-level studies in science such as calculating errors, using scientific notation and rearranging simple algebraic equations.   

Topics we will cover (not limited to);  

Chemistry  

  • Spectrometry  

  • Types of chemical reactions  

  • Balancing chemical equations 

  • Testing properties of matter  

Physics  

  • Forces and Energy 

  • Engineering challenges  

  • Electricity and light 

  • Energy efficient house design  

  • Perpetual motion  

Comments from past students: 
“I enjoyed learning about toothpaste and creating my own.” Sasha 
 
“I feel science investigations was very rewarding for me, as I learnt how to make a full scientific report, which will help me do well in future science subjects.” Evie 

“I most enjoyed Science Investigations because it provided the opportunity to dive deeper into the topics than we otherwise might have been able to in previous Science classes, and being able to do a lot of this in a practical hands on way was very engaging and rewarding.” Annika