Bibra Lake Campus (Class 9-12)
Class 11/12 Geography
The 11/12 geography elective class has been developing a variety of mapping skills this year. To test their understanding, they were sent on a scavenger hunt around the school on a sunny day to find their assignment page by page. Thankfully they all found it! Some potatoes came in handy when practicing converting contour maps from 2D to 3D, and back again and these implications for landforms and water drainage. Alongside their mapping skills they have been evaluating different cities around the world and through different parts of history for their sustainability. They have analyzed the different criteria important to a city including healthcare, transportation, education and food security to name a few.
Alexandria McLeod
High School Science and Mathematics Teacher
Class 12 - Innocence to Experience
Class 12 Upcoming Event
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Ruby Crowther's Upcoming Event
The aim of my quiz night is to promote awareness towards the problems women face when entering the aviation field, to provide some inspiration and role models for those who may not have considered this as a career opportunity, to inform, and to support women in aviation.
The quiz will be held on the 29th July, in the school hall from 5:30pm to around 9:00pm. The quiz will be mostly general knowledge, with a slight aviation theme. It is tables of six and $30 per table. There will be raffles and beverages (tea), so please bring some money along. All money will be donated towards the Women in Aviation Association, an organisation that supports women in or entering the field and inspires young girls. There will be a few guest speakers who are women in the industry giving informative and inspiring speeches about their journeys into the aviation industry. They will be available to chat with throughout the night.
If you are looking for a night of informative fun, gather your six friends, book a table, and support my project and these amazing women! Thank you!
The link to purchase the tickets is: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ruby-crowthers-women-in-aviation-quiz-night-class-12-project-practical-tickets-656568412797
Class 12 Projects
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Ivy Wolff-Boenisch
Hi everyone. My name is Ivy, and for my year twelve project, I decided to investigate 15-minute cities and their benefits and drawbacks. 15-minute cities are a recent concept designed to provide sustainable living conditions. As such, 15-minute cities are neighbourhoods (of larger cities) that encompass the six most important aspects of life. These are (1) Commerce (2) Education (3) Healthcare (4) Living (5) Working and (6) Entertainment. I chose this project topic as I was interested in urban planning and finding a way to live sustainably while reducing global warming. I also chose this topic because my father is an environmental professor/researcher, and this heightened my awareness of sustainable issues from an early age. Unfortunately, urban planning was too broad a topic for me to delve into. Instead, my project coordinator reminded me of another concept called 15-minute cities, a subject that is very current in our society. I dove into research and database articles to establish a grasp of 15-minute cities and the components needed for them to succeed. As I continued to submerge myself into this new and somewhat controversial idea, I realised that my project choice was very factual and would have to be documented as a report. I began to investigate three big cities: London, Melbourne, and Paris, all of which have the concept of a 15-minute city already in place.
During the writing of my report, I was surprised to learn new things I had not known such as there are already 16 cities worldwide that have implemented this concept. Furthermore, it struck me that the 15-minute city concept is malleable. Paris has a 5-minute city neighbourhood, while Melbourne showcases a 20-minute neighbourhood. It means that the “15-minute” city concept is not as strict as it initially appears. In researching this subject, I struggled somewhat in synthesising the major aspect because most of the literature can be found in technical reports and journal articles written by and for social researchers whose lingo can at times, sound pedantic and verbose.
For my practical, I will be designing a 15-minute city plan of Mandurah to see how it can best accommodate the six main aspects of a 15-minute city. I will be hand drawing the design and then giving it to the Mandurah council to see what they think of it. As for my project’s impact on the community, I hope that especially town planners and architects will find my topic interesting and pertinent to their work. Perhaps it will stimulate a wider discussion about how to turn Perth neighbourhoods into sustainable 15–20-minute cities.
Molly Sherington-Lucas
Hi, my name is Molly Sherington-Lucas, and I am a class 12 student at Perth Waldorf School. For my project I am asking the question: Does social media distort how individuals perceive their body image and lead to negative health outcomes?
Initially, in the project journey I had no strong ideas leading me in any direction. I was interested in criminology, death, horses, philosophy and a range of other things but I believed nothing would keep me totally captivated for the entire year and I struggled to come up with any questions. This was until a random conversation began with my friends and I which was discussing ancient jewellery and body decorating practices from different cultures all over the world. I was set on this idea for a solid few months, with my practical involving creating a small jewellery business inspired by ancient jewellery pieces, however I couldn’t decide on the right question that would relate directly to the jewellery business that I wanted to create, I also didn’t think I had the funds to support a jewellery business. So, after some thought and more spare of the moment thinking my project shifted towards body Image and social media apps. I guess my thought process this year has been set on the idea of beauty, how people present and decorate themselves and so jewellery and body adornment got me thinking about individuals’ body image in general.
As a Gen Z person, I believe TikTok has truly swept our generation up and away in it. From the beginning of my research, I felt as though body-image issues could be linked strongly to social media and particularly, TikTok. I believed that these issues stemmed from the amount of differing content, tailored to an individual from the algorithms of social media apps. One of the main problems with social media is the ongoing pressure to conform with trending content. This content can be an overload of similar posts that receive thousands of likes and thus convince users that they should step into this trend in order to achieve the same virtual attention. Another large problem is social media providing potentially harmful imagery to its users which force them to compare their appearances with online figures. The last problem I focused on in my essay was unrealistic standards, social media seemed to be almost condoning this and leading to adolescents to gain rising feelings of body dissatisfaction. These ideas led me to my thesis question: Through comparison, conformity, and unrealistic standards, social media distorts individuals’ perception of their body image, and this leads to other negative health outcomes in adolescents and adults.
When I began writing my essay this idea of negative body-image issues stemming from social media seemed to come to light, although I wasn’t finding a lot of research that proved that TikTok was the driving force behind these negative outcomes, rather Instagram and Facebook were, with a smaller amount of research proving that TikTok was as well. This surprised me, so I decided to broaden my range and look at all social media platforms that affected individuals. These platforms are extremely popular among the younger generations, and it is even sometimes seen as strange or un-cool if you do not have an account on one of these platforms if you are a young person. So, another force relating to body image issues was pressure from peers. The need to fit in with a group of people, often your friends, is so important to most adolescents that they do anything to conform with what is popular.
The most liked, followed and viewed Instagram and TikTok accounts are of people who are attractive and viewed as ‘perfect’ by the public eye. These accounts seem to be shaping the standards that people feel they must strive for in order to receive attention, attraction or just overall likeability from peers and strangers. As a result, negative body image issues like body dissatisfaction, and poor mental health outcomes arise increasingly. A surprising piece of research I found was when a large news company leaked TikTok’s manufacturers corresponding with the moderators of the app, asking them to supress certain TikTok posts. These posts included individuals deemed as overweight, unattractive or unordinary. I was surprised and alarmed to read this, but it furthered my belief of social media promoting unrealistic standards and leading to higher body dissatisfaction in individuals.
Now, after looking into this topic and gaining more of a sound understanding I find myself deleting certain social media apps all the time. I am currently taking a break from TikTok and trying to remain stubborn with myself and not re-download it. As is the same with Snapchat.
For my practical component I am creating a children’s book. My aim is for the book to be shown and read to the class 5 students which will be experiencing social media concerns in their future. The book will have themes of friendship, social media prevention and self-esteem each which I hope will tie together my project understanding for a younger generation of people and will allow these students to build strong body positivity mindsets.
Oliver Stein
I have been at PWS my whole schooling life. During this time, I have always looked up to those in their final year of schooling undertaking their year 12 projects and saw it as a symbolic milestone that schooling was over and pursuing independent academic studies had started to begin. I thought I would know exactly what I wanted to study as my project, come this final year. Primary playground discussions were often held with friends, each sharing what we were going to do when our time came to undertake this project. This, however, was not the case when it did come time to produce a project topic.
Towards the end of year 11 I started brainstorming ideas. I would start off with a potential thesis at the top of a page and then re-work/re-word this idea until the topic at the end of the page resembled nothing like what I had started with. I had hoped this process would aid in idea development and allow me to see a trend in what topics I was interested in. This did not quite work in the manner I had imagined. Instead, I began to see the enormity that this project would entail. I found that giving birth to an idea; focusing on one drop amidst an ocean of thoughts, to be one of the most difficult processes of the entire project.
Soon into the year I decided on a topic to focus my project on: What causes autoimmune diseases to develop?
This (as I quickly came to realise) was not a concise question as there are so many factors at play. I came to this question topic as I had often asked this same question when I was struggling with an autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) as a young adolescent. I reminisced on the times when I would be called to “get up for school” and I couldn’t get my body out of bed. My joints would be seized up and I couldn’t get moving at all. My ankles and knees would be too sore for me to keep up with my friends when boarding a train, or even just walking a small distance around the house would be a painful task. Often when I was really in pain and just lying in bed, not being able to move, I would think why me? Why has this happened to my body? All I wanted was to be pain free and to have an answer for why my pain was occurring. This questioning lead me to focus this project on autoimmunity causation as I wanted to shed light on a topic that I don’t feel is widely discussed at a social level. I want to create conversations that can lead to others understanding why they may be experiencing autoimmune conditions.
As part of this year 12 project, we are to write a report or essay. I decided to write a report. The focus of my report centred around explaining and providing evidence on how stress, hormonal imbalances, epigenetics, and environmental factors (e.g., diet) can be attributed to the onset of an autoimmune disease. I have been focusing my research and study on the general causation of autoimmunity, not just specific autoimmune diseases.
What has struck me as fascinating during this research period, (I would spend long nights researching autoimmune disease causation by pouring over medical journals and papers that took multiple read throughs to make sense of what was being said), was the emphasis on how such prevalent factors of our modern lifestyle can be the potential contributing factors of an autoimmune disease developing. Examples being stress, the Western diet (high sugar, salt, saturated fats) additives, and pollution (air, water, soil etc...)
As of the 5th of May 2023, a finding was published in The Lancet (a prestigious medical peer reviewed journal) from one of the largest studies ever conducted on autoimmune prevalence. It found that, from the 19 autoimmune diseases chosen to be studied (diseases such as Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes, and Coeliac disease) they affect about 10% of the population –13% of women and 7% of men. This is higher than previous estimates, which ranged from 3-9% and often relied on smaller sample sizes and included fewer autoimmune conditions. The sample size used in this example was 22 million UK individuals as part of the study that ran from 2000 to 2019.
This I find is fascinating that 10% of the exceptionally large cohort of people presented with an autoimmune condition. It drives this question for me even further... why are there so many people developing these autoimmune diseases? What causes this? I know first-hand how debilitating living with an autoimmune condition can be; I felt sad, unmotivated, in constant pain, and filled with a sense of helplessness. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. To me, this project is more than just a school assignment because I really want to shed light on this topic that has so greatly shaped my life and outlook on living.
To further explore this topic and form my practical component I soon will be hosting a podcast with a range of medical professionals and people who are living with an autoimmune condition. This is to hear and share a diverse range of perspectives and opinions on the topic of what’s causing autoimmune diseases to occur.
I believe this to be such an important and relevant topic to talk about, and I’m excited to share more of what I've been learning come the project presentations.
Alicia Scallan
Headache? Sore throat? Rash? Fever? What do these symptoms mean and how do you treat them? My name is Alicia and for my Class 12 project I am looking into the concept of self-diagnosing due to social media.
At the end of Class 11, I found myself seeking answers on social media platforms to help explain my excessive anxiety and stress. As I began to go down the rabbit holes of ADHD and anxiety diagnoses, I found that my symptoms were being amplified. I found out later that I was unconsciously doing a phenomenon known as self-diagnosis. The concept of self-diagnosing intrigued me, why would people feel the need to diagnose themselves based on the opinions of others and the misinformation shared on social media platforms? I worked on a definition that fit my topic, Self-diagnosis due to social media is the process of diagnosing, or identifying, medical conditions in oneself with the impact of social media platforms. This led me to my Class 12 project question: In recent history there has been an increase in people self-diagnosing medical conditions due to social media and other influences. What role has social media played and what are the effects of self-diagnosis on an individual’s physical and mental health?
Out of 7.87 billion people in the world, 56.8% of the population use social media, regardless of age or internet access. Devastatingly, about 80% of social media users self-diagnose due to social media per year and the numbers are rising. The impact of self-diagnosis through social media can be complex and varied. Misinterpretation and amplification of symptoms can lead to unnecessary worry, and increased anxiety or stress. Misinformation can limit exposure to diverse perspectives and evidence-based information, reinforcing biases and misinformation surrounding mental and physical health. Delay or inappropriate treatment can lead to individuals either self-medicating or not seeking professional opinions when it is necessary. However, it is important to acknowledge that there are some factors that are beneficial for individuals seeking medical advice by self-diagnosing due to social media which will be addressed in my practical component. There is a sense of bias that needs to be acknowledged in topics like this and I completely resect the opinions of others when it comes to self-diagnosing due to social media. For the purpose of my project, I have picked the more negative viewpoint which is what will be portrayed throughout my Class 12 project.
When starting my research, I was surprised to find that there was hardly any information relating to my topic, and most of the information was from blogs and new sites that are not reliable. Out of the 80% of people who self-diagnose themselves per year a vast majority of these individuals are unaware of the severe repercussions it can bring, due to the lack of self-diagnosis due to social media awareness. Because of this, my practical idea was formed. I wanted to try and bring awareness to the dangers faced by people who self-diagnose mental and physical health on social media. To do this I am making a documentary. I'm searching for people to take part in an anonymous survey, or to be interviewed for my documentary, who have either self-diagnosed themselves as a result of social media or know someone who If you are interested in participating in the survey, I have included the link at the bottom of the page. For those who would be interested in taking part in an interview please feel free to contact me on a.m.scall@icloud.com
Survey Links:
I have self-diagnosed due to social media: https://forms.gle/RpY8wix7TVEEfjki8
I know someone who has self-diagnosed due to social media: https://forms.gle/oMo4DpfENmMDYWoQ7
Bailey Imgrund
Hi, my name is Bailey Imgrund, and I am a year 12 student at PWS. I have been a student at PWS from the very beginning since playgroup. For my year 12 project, I am exploring the benefits of upcycling and repairing bicycles for the individual and community, and I will be answering the question:
“These days, many of us replace items like bicycles when they are no longer useful. What’s involved in learning skills that repurpose/ recycle bicycles, and what are the benefits?”
My idea was inspired when I uncovered numerous bikes in various states of repair and disrepair lying around collecting dust. I had a moment when I was confronted by the waste that they presented. Much to my mother’s delight, I became motivated to restore the bicycles that I had lying around the house, and in turn, my Project topic was formed.
When I was researching bicycle organisations, I found one called Dismantle, located in West Perth and previously in Fremantle. Dismantle is a youth development program that uses bicycle mechanic activities and mentors to help young people develop social skills, build confidence and connect to educational and vocational opportunities. I was pleasantly surprised to find they fix up and repair most bikes in almost any condition, and then they give them away to people who are in need or who worked on a bike.
Dismantle encourage volunteers to come in and help with working on bikes, and each person fixes two bicycles. Bikes can be donated to charity or can be sold, and the money goes back to the organisation or to people in poorer countries who do not have their own mode of transport. The other bike can be someone's own creation, which they are able to keep, or can be donated to Dismantle.
I tentatively gave them a phone call to tell them about what my project is about, and what I was hoping to do for my practical. I spoke with one of the workers from Dismantle, who was really receptive and supportive of my Project. I have been volunteering at Dismantle in order to build up my skills.
Dismantle is a great place to work, and the community is friendly. Added to this, I have learned many skills and knowledge ranging from how to check over a bicycle, doing a maintenance check, changing a tyre, and taking apart a bike.
By doing this project, I hope to gain knowledge and skills around bicycles, the maintenance aspect, and environment and community bike workshops.
My Practical event
For my practical, I will be running my own pop-up bicycle workshop for students of all ages, and bicycle enthusiasts.
I will be holding two sessions:
- This will be an instructional session where I will give an overview of a safety check and bike maintenance (no bike required)
- Interactive bike session where students will bring their own bikes in to be guided through a hands-on experience, through basic maintenance (bring your own bike to this one)
My aim is that those attending my session will gain an overview of bike maintenance and be able to do a simple safety check as well.
Please see the flyer for booking details or email me.
