Messages from the French Department
Bastille Day Performance
On Sunday 16th July, a group of year 7 French students from Eastmeadows and Keysborough campuses performed at the Bastille Day French Festival in the city. These students sang a French song entitled ‘Dernière Danse’ by Indila, a French artist. Their performance was very well received by the audience and students enjoyed exploring the market stalls for French food and gifts afterwards.
“We had people at the festival come up and congratulate us after our performance. I was really proud of myselfâ€. – Zeyneb Samci, 7B Eastmeadows Campus
Well done to these students who gave up their time on the last day of the school holidays to perform and represent our College. We look forward to performing at the festival again next year!!
“C’est Si Bon!†Music and Dance Incursion
On Tuesday 25 July, year 1 and year 7 French students enjoyed an engaging music and dance incursion at Eastmeadows campus. This incursion, presented with much energy and enthusiasm by Philippe Carroll from Global Grooves, was a vibrant and educational journey through the history of French music and dance. French students listened to folk songs from different regions of France, and joined in regional and medieval folk dances, such as Bouree and Lou Pripet (Languedoc).
“I enjoyed learning the different dances of France†– Sana Omar 7C
“Learning about different French folk music and culture was very interesting. It was fun when we sang together†– Rafa Umer 7C
Students had a great time singing in French, dancing and playing musical instruments.
Language Perfect Certificates Awarded
Congratulations to EMS French students Raweeha Shafiq, Khadeejah Ahmed and Zahraa Al-Mosa! These girls worked extremely hard during the Language Perfect World Championships, earning themselves either a credit (500 points) or bronze (1000 points) certificate.
Year 11 & 12 Unit 4 Biology students visit Melbourne University
On 17th July, our year 11 & 12 Biology students (unit 3 & 4) went on an exciting excursion to the Bioscience Department at Melbourne University. We started our experimental investigation at 9.30 am and completed it at 2.00pm in two different sessions. Practical investigations were carried out in the Genetics Laboratory and the topics covered were linked to the new approach especially applying knowledge and develop thinking skills in genetics. The teaching session was very well organised and relevant to our current area of study on gene technology. The girls were engaged throughout the whole presentation and enjoyed the technique very much. There was a good mix of hands on and listening time.
These activities provided an insight into how genes coding for resistance to an antibiotic are transferred between bacteria.
OUTLINE OF THE EXPERIMENTS
BACKGROUND
The discovery of antibiotics in the mid-twentieth century revolutionised medicine and saved millions of lives, enabling treatment of previously fatal infectious diseases and development of more successful surgical treatments. However since this time, resistance to virtually every antibiotic has been documented, a problem that has largely originated from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human and animal health. Across the world antibiotics have been overprescribed and also used in animal feed as growth promoters in intensive agricultural practices. Continued low-level exposure to antibiotics selects for resistant populations of bacteria which may then be able to spread through the environment and into humans.
The problems caused by the emergence and spread of resistance to antibiotics has been recognised by governments across the world and in June 2015 the Australian government released the first national Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2015-2019 aimed at increasing awareness posed by the threat of antibiotic resistance and promoting appropriate use in the animal and human health disciplines.
