Collegians win science award

YEAR ten students Archer, Makayla and Nicholas from Good Shepherd College Hamilton have won this year’s Peter Doherty Science Award at the Ballarat Tech School.

The group were announced as the winners last week for their experiment investigating if the ‘five second rule’ is fact or fiction.

They discovered that it didn’t matter how long a piece of food was on the floor, there was growth.

Makayla said the experience has helped her develop her writing and problem-solving skills.

“In terms of writing the poster and writing the speech, it was challenging getting all the terminology right and getting it timed,” she said.

“Lots of problem solving was needed like we couldn’t get the agar agar which we wanted to use instead of gelatine because it was outside the budget.”

Students from Good Shepherd College Hamilton have entered the competition for several years, but this is the first time they have won the major prize.

Science teacher Jared Male said it was exciting to see the students persevere and win.

“It’s wonderful, these guys were our first group that attempted the project and we’ve been building it up into a three-year program,” he said.

“These guys have just gotten to the end of the program and they’re at the point now doing this project they actually need very little input from teachers.”

The highly commended award went to Carly, Sienna and Oliver from Phoenix Community College who looked at whether a diet of coloured paper for cornu aspersum snails affects the colour of their excrement.

Darcy and Oli from Ballarat Grammar took out the communication award for their investigation of whether the cost of toothpaste has an impact on its effectiveness.

The pair discovered that the more expensive toothpaste is, the better at raising the pH of saliva.

“We thought [the investigation] was relevant to the real world with inflation and dental hygiene being an issue all around,” said Oli.

Any students or schools who would like to take part in the Peter Doherty Science Awards in future are encouraged to contact the Ballarat Tech School.