The 2025 National Science Week school theme this year was "Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature's hidden language". During Science Week at WHSC we looked to the theme of Decoding to capture the hearts and minds of our students in a range of Coding and Decoding-themed activities.

Day 1: Across the college students explored the language of computers. Primary classes created bag tags with their initials in binary code, while Secondary students raced each other and the clock to crack the binary code puzzles.

Day 2: Science Week activities shifted to a focus on the code of chemistry... specifically the chemical code of pH. Our Secondary students had a go at water testing to crack the pH code and work out a hidden word that was spelt. In Primary a similar code-cracking occurred where students used pH to work out the colours in their colouring in sheet.

Day 3: Science Week celebrations focused entirely on animals. In Primary, scheduled classes practiced their observing skills in a big scavenger hunt to find clues hidden and piece them together to work out what animals had visited the area. In Secondary, students opted to do a giant animal quiz where they tested their knowledge with 60 questions.

Day 4: On our last day of Science Week we looked at the closest code to us - our DNA. Primary students made friendship bracelets or matching bag tags learning about the 4 key bases of DNA and how they match together into two strands. In Secondary, students could opt to also make matching friendship bracelets or investigate the probability of traits to create an organism.

Thank you to all our students who came and participated during Science Week, and thank you to the amazing staff who gave up their time to help students celebrate.

Emma Scotney
HOD - Science and Digital Technologies