Prospective students visit campus

Several hundred grade 10 students from many high schools visited the campus over the last few days to hear about courses being offered in the new Tasmanian Polytechnic and Tasmanian Academy in 2009 at the Mt Nelson campus.

Here is some of what they did...

More photo's can be seen here.

Robotic Interlude

A number of students have taken a break this week from their normal work to build and program robots. The college has purchased two LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits for use VET IT, Interactive Media and Computer Science students - mostly in 2009.

Several students - and teachers - have been building with Lego for the first time in many years... lots of fun!

A Professional Edge

Hobart College Media Production students are about to begin professional broadcasting from Edge Radio studio on the School of Rock. The video clip below shows the students in a training session at the studio. Although it was their first time live on air all performances were very impressive.

The College is very pleased to have a partnership with Edge Radio and their Education Officer Vanessa Armstrong who will work with HC Radio students for 12 weeks this year. A number of sessions will also include HC Video and Journalism students.

Tune in to Honni, Isobel, Amelia, Hannah, Eve, Tom, Rob and Joel and support our school's radio show. Hobart College School of Rock hour on EDGE Radio begins Wednesday 23rd April.

Tune in to 99.3 from 4 - 5pm - or listen live on the net.

YouTube - OurTube

Our videos have been viewed 2,700 times since we set up a YouTube channel 4 months ago. This success has prompted us to customise the channel to include the new college logo in the background and some Playlists.

The 2006 Videos playlist features videos and photo-stories from last year's LOG DVD. Some playlists include videos from the internet that teachers have highlighted for particular topics.

We will soon be adding final student project work from 2007 in a range of subjects. You can check the link from our homepage or if you have a YouTube account you can subscribe to automatically receive new videos.

The college online photo album has also been reorganised - into sets that can be viewed as slideshows.

Maths At Play

The Maths At Work class built and flew their own tetrahedral kites as part of their Extended Learning Line day this week. Pictured you can see Jess, James, Naomi and Daniel with the smaller and larger kite segments. The larger kite had no trouble taking off and it flew for quite some time before the students had to take shelter from rain and then snow!

First tentative steps...

Today I was invited by Westley who leads the Australian Skoolaborate Project to join him for my first look at the fantastic work students have done in a virtual world.

I arrived in the obligatory white t-shirt and denim jeans sporting large friendly eyes and an over-tanned body that is common to all new arrivals. Before I had time for a wardrobe change and some plastic surgery Westley appeared and took me to the foyer of an impressive multi-story building. Click on the (slightly skew) panorama below. Apparently this building was created by 16 year old Natalie from the USA.

Panorama: Click and drag mouse left/right to have a look around - mouse scroll to zoom.

Hobart College has joined this project to collaborate on 3D design projects, talk about world issues and have adventures in virtual space with students from New Zealand, Japan and other Australian States. Some students from a couple of local high schools will also be joining us soon. The empty yellow frames are where we can put some student artwork - I'll try to find some tomorrow.

Westley then took me up to the 4th floor and showed me a very large empty room with magnificent ocean views - this he told me is to be a room for the Tasmanian teachers in this project! (Our students will be building their own area later - when they have learned how to build...) I placed two large pink flamingos in the room that I found in my inventory - we can decide on our Tasmanian decor later :-)



This project presents us with so many possibilities... some research indicates that 80% of active internet users will be visiting online virtual worlds by 2011 - now is the time to learn what that might mean - for education and for society.

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Thursday Update
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Here are some pictures and video of the first meeting of the collaborating schools. Some of the Tasmanian teachers met later that evening - and bumped into MLC year 11 student Emily who was busy perfecting her scripting skills.

Extended Learning Across the Planet

This Friday was the first "Extended Line Day" for line 5 classes - we are having one per week starting August 10th. Some classes are taking the opportunity for long trips off campus, others are combining to do some different project work, while others are using the extra time to study topics in more depth. A number of guest speakers and presenters were invited to college and there were many "gourmet" lunches.

The panorama below is from Kay Filgate's mathematics class who spent the afternoon roaming the planet studying Earth Geometry, lattitudes/longitudes and the Seven Wonders of the World using Google Earth.

Click in picture then drag mouse left/right to pan around the room. Use mouse scroll to zoom.

The long road to college...

This is how some students get to college - by Ebony and Nathanial.

Life Sucks from HC Learning and Vimeo.

Role Playing for Learning

This video was made by Donna Brown’s Line 1 English Communications 5C class. The aim was for students to adopt a character role and through discussion make connections between three texts they had studied.

Jinx Forum

The video has proved to be a valuable resource for a large number of students including some at another college.

New Worlds of Learning

HC in 1352 AD.

This video clip shows how the Toolset from the game Neverwinter Nights can be used to design a 3D world and create an interactive story for players - in this case the 'world' is the Hobart College campus in 1352AD.

Students in the Games Programming and Multimedia classes are currently learning how to create and link game areas through 'doorways' which may be a cave, a gateway, a light portal or a... door. The Toolset has wizards which allows the game designer to set up characters that act out a story. Object, sound effect and environment libraries allow the designer to set the look and mood of each scene.

The Neverwinter Toolset has been used by international educators to create engaging learning environments to teach communication skills and elements of journalism.

Design In Metal Challenges

In this 6 minute video MDT teacher Ian Burleigh describes some of the tasks and challenges in the Design in Metal, Metal Craft and VET Engineering Courses including:

• Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) - Salamanca 6 Hour Challenge
• The Spin Cycle - Recycling Challenge
• The Trident Steel Cutter
• Cold Forming and Twisting in Metal Craft
• Industry Workplacement

Design In Metal on Vimeo

Lively Science!

Ruth and David team teach combined Life Sciences classes - and it's very lively!

This year the combined classes have been on several science trips. Describing the expedition to Snake Island (pics below) on 17th March one student wrote:

"Different groups in the class chose a particular object or creature they wanted to observe and study. Some of the things chosen included crabs, birds, spiders, plants and salinity levels. Due to the lack of time we could spend on the island we didn't get as much information as we would have liked but it was still a joyful experience."

Maria Island was the classroom from 9th-11th May. From a student report:

"The Maria Island was a three day trip to look at the marine wildlife creatures and fossils on the island. When we arrived we put our stuff into giant trolleys and took them down to our cabins. After we had set up our rooms we went on a walk to the fossil cliffs... On the walk home we saw a lot of different animal bones and different rock formations along the cliffs. The rest of the day we just relaxed, cooked some tea and listened to the possums all night.

On the second day we went to the painted caves. I liked all the different colours in the rocks and the creatures in the rock pools were pretty interesting. Then we went down to Darlington and tested the water - very boring. After that we walked back to the cabins and relaxed and cooked tea.

The last day of camp we cleaned our cabins, packed up our stuff, and put it back into the trolleys to go back to the wharf. We had one last thing to do before we had to go - a survey of the creatures living under the wharf. We found a few different types of fish, some rays and a few other little creatures living on the wood under the wharf. Then the boat arrived and we packed all our stuff on and left. I think it was a good camp."

The class has also been to the Hobart Wharf to sample plankton; Blackmans Bay; the Marine Discovery Centre dredge; a Primary Industry Tour of Fleurties, Trial Bay Orchards and Grandview Cheeses; Ralphs Bay - once to study geology and a second time to study birds with two Ornithologists...

According to one student:

"The excursion to Ralphs Bay was to explore the different geology. The first thing we did was collect five shells from the shoreline and five from about 4m away. This was to see how the ground was pushed up. The second thing we did was to go along to an area of sedimentary rock where we collected different fossils using geology picks. By doing this we proved that the rock was once at the bottom of the bay and over many years it has slowly been pushed up to the point where it is now.

This was a very educational and enjoyable trip and helped all of us understand the geological cycle better. "

Tribute to Pacman...

The Computer Games Programming class have been busy building their skills... Early work started with some basic Flash 8 productions such as the following grass skier "game".



This progressed to more adventurous productions such as Hunters and Assassins by Tom:



Others have been using game development software such as GameMaker. The following is Daniel's tribute to the very early Pacman games. It might look simple but getting the trigger keys to time correctly was not easy...



Next term students will begin to use more complex 'game engines' from some successful commercial computer games.

In the meantime some students have been playing the new game PeaceMaker. This is a difficult game where the player takes on the role of Palestinian or Israeli leader and attempts to bring peace to those countries. The game uses actual historic events and the player chooses from a range of security, political and development options to bring peace.



You can watch some video clips about the game here and here.

Humans 1 - Vehicle 0

Humans proved more resilient than machines in this year's Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Salamanca Six Hour Challenge. The Hobart College '07 HPV Team entry ended with high drama... and pieces of aluminium strewn all over the floor!

The scrutineering session prior to race was a little daunting, but our machine passed all requirements for an all weather human powered vehicle, which as it happened was a wet race day. We were confident of putting up a good showing with our small but enthusiastic team.

The mechanical problems that led to our early demise stemmed from weld failures of the aluminium frame components and rear hub gear problems. These problems surfaced after our vehicle was involved in several collisions which resulted in flip overs, but there was no damage to the vehicles occupants thanks to careful attention to vehicle design safety.

The pedal pushers for the event were a little thin on the ground consisting of Lizz-ann, Estelle, Anton and Scott. All participants managed to complete a number of breathless laps during the cut and thrust of racing. That's one of them speeding on the left!




All the members of the Hobart College '07 HPV Team had a very positive experience from being involved in the project and are determined to be back there better prepared for the event in '08 - with multiple spare parts.

Click here for a 3D panorama inside Princes Wharf on the day - after the crash...


Photos: Top left - Cloe and Scott, Team mechanics; Top right - Seated at Pit Central Estelle, Lizann with Anton; Bottom - HPV Design Team: Jess, Ben, Leigh and Andrew.
Story and photo's Ian Burleigh, MDT teacher and Manager of the HPV Project.

Ghosts on Campus?

Here are some recent 3D panorama taken on campus. We are still learning how to do this so you might pick up a ghost or two as you pan and zoom.

Click on the pictures to open the viewer.

We also need to watch the postion of the sun...

Here is the Canteen...

And the area outside the College Theatre