Guided by the principle that every child can learn and excel, and its vision - Inquiring Mind and Innovative Spirit - the Science Department embarked on a journey of transformation, improving on the quality of interaction between the teacher and the learner, to bring out the best in our students. Based on the unique needs, aspirations and abilities of our students, differentiated programmes were conducted to engage our students and help them acquire lifeskills and the values, attitudes and mindsets that will serve them well in life.

Mathematics & Science Learning Festival 2016

The Math and Science Learning Fest is collaboration between two departments. Teachers team up for the fourth year to bring forth exciting activities for the entire school.

Our objectives of the Math and Science Learning Fest are mainly to:

fuel the passion in Math and Science through play,
provide a fun platform and encourage for interdisciplinary study,
provide authentic learning experiences for both students & staff, and
inculcate key values & characters through the Scientists.

Students from all levels got the chance to participate in Games, Exhibitions, Learning Journey and Learning adventures throughout the two days.

Every year, a Mathematician or Scientist is chosen to be highlighted during the learning fest for their importance in certain discovery in the area of Math and Science. In addition, they are also selected based on the positive character traits that they exhibit as a Mathematician or Scientist to achieve breakthrough in their discovery. This year, the selected scientist is Archimedes, famously known for the Archimedes' principle of buoyancy and the law of lever.

Some of the highlights for this year Math and Science Learning Fest 2016 include the Archimedes Room whereby students will be tasked to solve a series of clues related to Archimedes's discoveries, logic and Math questions in order to break free out of this room. Zombie outbreak which students will be challenged to contain a virus outbreak by solving some missions using their Math and Science knowledge, in order to obtain the antiviral to save the world. The annual carnival-like exhibition where students showcase their projects at the various game booths. Some Primary 5 students from Peiying Primary School also participated in the event.

The Learning Fest definitely heightens the experiences of our Navalites and staff in the learning of Math and Science.

NBSS Crystal Growing

NBSS Chemistry Department has embarked on crystal growing since 2011,

when our students first emerged Top for overall schools in the YJC Crystal Growing Competition. In 2012, our boys team achieved overall championship at the National Crystal Growing Competition organised by National University Of Singapore (NUS). Three of our students were given a hononary mentioned for the International crystal growing competition in 2014. Three teams of our students participated in the same competition organised by NUS this year.

The journey has greatly enriched our students with good experimental skills and instilled in them traits like discipline and perseverance. Our teachers too have gained much expertise in crystal growing. Since 2014, we have used this platform and cascaded it to a yearly structured Crystal Growing Enrichment Programme for our Secondary Three Normal Academic. This programme has aroused many of our students’ interest and allowed them to enjoy the fun side of Chemistry.

As we explore sustainability of this programme, we hope to continue working with our students to discover not just crystal growing techniques, but scientific thinking skills via research work.

Scientific Thinking Programme 2013 @ Republic Polytechnic

NBSS Team wins Outstanding Project Award!

The NBSS Team competed with 50 other STP teams from other prestigious schools for the top five most outstanding award. Each outstanding team will receive certificates, plaque and $200 Popular vouchers during the award ceremony on 28 June. After six months of hard work and preparation, our team was awarded the Outstanding Project Award!

Our project, Effects of Household Wastewater on Plant Growth, seeks to investigate the effectiveness of household wastewaters against a commercial fertilizer on plant growth.

This achievement is impossible without the dedication of our students and teachers. The students involved are Gerald Tay and Toh Siew Tin from Integrity 3-1 and Karina Chua, Tristan Chia and Justyne Siao from Integrity 3-2. Special thanks to our teachers for their advises and support, Ms Lee XF, Mrs Chee, Ms Boon, Mr Kong, Mdm Sakinah, Ms Ma XY, Mdm Koh and Mrs Tan YY (our very own horticulture expert).

2013 NYP Science and Technology Challenge

Winners of the Science and Technology Challenge

On 17 Oct, 40 Sec 3 express students took part in the yearly science and technology challenge organised by NYP. Our school clinched 3 awards namely, Team Innovation Award for Hybrid Boat, Team Innovation Award for radio-controlled aircraft and 1st runner up for Catapult shooting.

Robotics

Robotics has been part of the science enrichment program for our school in order to enhance learning of science outside the classroom. In 2009, our students attended the Underwater Robotics Olympiad organised by Republic Polytechnic and we were highly excited by their robots made from – tupperware! This ingenious use of simple materials to create a highly intelligent robot attracted us very much and hence this year, we took part in the competition again. Our Sec 1 and Sec 2 students did us proud by performing their best and getting into the top 20 teams out of 60 others. This humble tupperware robot has captured the hearts of our students(and teachers) and we are determined to do even better next year!

Naval Base Secondary School embarked on the TLLM Ignite3 Programme, to take on the challenge of coming up with a School-based Curriculum Innovation (SCI) package for our Science (Chemistry) students this year. The team designed a lesson package to study the impact of Inquiry based learning (using the 5E Learning Cycle Model) on Secondary Three Express Science (Chemistry) students in the Learning of Acids and Bases. The team aims to look into two research questions:

Does Inquiry based learning help our student to ask more and higher-order thinking questions in their learning of Acids and Bases in Chemistry.
Does Does Inquiry based learning help to increase our students level of engagement in their learning of Acids and Bases in Chemistry

The lesson package will be implemented in week 2 of Term 3 and will be rolled out for 6 weeks, after which data will be collected for analysis and its findings to be presented in a full report. To prepare our students well for the project, an inquiry based workshop cum questioning skills was conducted for our students on 20 May 10. Students worked on activities with meal worms, slime and testing the hypothesis of how effective different types of drink cans can be crushed. The focus was on asking good scientific questions. It was a meaningful workshop and students had good fun.

Research Outreach Programme @ Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology

NBSS has been selected together with 25 top schools in Singapore to participate in the Research Outreach Programme organised by A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and the Ministry of Education. This programme allows our students to work side by side with scientists using cutting-edge technology in Life Sciences.