Student scientists win problem-solving award

THE scientific investigation and problem-solving skills of young people were celebrated at Ballarat Tech School last week.

Small teams of secondary school students who took part in the annual Peter Doherty Science Awards presented their research and experiment findings on a chosen everyday topic, with one group taking out the top prize.

Ballarat Grammar year 8 students Trisha Kaura and Maggi Cai won the major award for their investigation which asked the question, ‘how much can fabric stain remover be diluted, while still having affective cleaning abilities?’

The ratio they thought would be the best, used on towels, was the one-to-one ratio of one part stain remover spray, and one part water.

“I was surprised that even when it was the one-to-four ratio, it still cleaned pretty well,” Maggi said.

Trisha said the pair’s experiments prove that those buying sprays, like the Preen Vanish Oxy-Action Gold product they tested, could be saving a lot of money.

“Dilute it, and it still cleans just as affectively as if there were only stain remover,” she said.

Students from Good Shepherd College Hamilton, and Marian College Ararat won the highly commended and communication awards respectively, for querying whether eggs can be replaced in a cupcake recipe, and for comparing cling wrap brands.

Other participating teams representing Mount Clear College and Phoenix College also took part, investigating the heat-retaining abilities of different jumper materials, and the strength of sunlight-affected plastic bags.

The students presented their findings to a judging panel made up of Committee for Ballarat’s Kelly Lappin, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research project officer Dr Miku Kuba, Vitrafy Life Sciences biomedical lab team leader Will Hoskin, and Ballarat Tech School associate director Damon Minotti.

“The overall winners were a group we believe communicated affectively, followed the scientific method incredibly well, and were able to show us the results of that study on stage,” Mr Hoskin said.

“The use of visual cues, and things they could hand us to help with that presentation, made that presentation really engaging as an audience member.”