Next gen scientists celebrated

STUDENTS who participated in the Ballarat Tech School’s annual Peter Doherty Science Awards were honoured last week.

All involved were tasked with investigating an everyday problem of their choice and undertaking experimental research, before presenting their discoveries on a poster, and in a speech.

Ballarat Grammar year 9 students, Mackayla Culvenor, Sammy Deacon and Angela Sun won the major award with their project, Are electric toothbrushes worth the money?

“My mum’s always complaining about how expensive electric toothbrushes are, so we wanted to find out whether there was a benefit in having one, compared to a manual toothbrush,” Mackayla said.

“We brushed a whole bunch of eggs that we stained and determined that the electric toothbrush was more effective than the manual toothbrush.

“It was a great experience for all of us, meeting lots of different people that excel in science, and learning a lot about scientific careers.”

Ballarat High School year 9 students, and participants of the Tech School’s Girls in STEM program, Audrey English and Wheng Marbella were highly commended for their investigation, Do all Skittles flavours taste the same without seeing the colour?

“We heard a rumour that all of the Skittles were the same flavour,” Audrey said.

“We found out that lemon was the easier flavour to recognise when blindfolded and that all Skittles had different flavours, although it was harder to recognise the flavours when you couldn’t see the colours.

“The Awards definitely teach you more about scientific method and it improved our presentation skills.”

Lindy Zhang and Zoe Wright from Ballarat Grammar received the communication award for their work prompted by the question, Does it really matter which flour you put in your cupcakes?

Other groups from Woodmans Hill Secondary College and Ballarat Grammar respectively investigated whether the size of a parachute affects the rate of its fall, and how much weight a plastic bag can hold.

The Awards were judged by the Committee for Ballarat’s Michael Poulton, Vitrafy Life Science’s Brent Owens, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza’s Dr Miku Kuba.