2022 Young Scientist Awards Program winners have been announced! 


 

The winners of Science Teachers Association NSW Young Scientist of the Year Awards have been announced, with  Kai Turner, Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly, and Alexandra Prokhorov, PLC Sydney, taking equal first place in the Awards. 
 
Alexandra Prokhorov’s project, Demystifying the Soapberry, looked at the effect of concentration, temperature and pH on the effectiveness of soapberry as a detergent, and compared the effectiveness of soapberry to commercial detergent and bio-detergent. She found that the surface tension of water decreased as the concentration increased, and soapberry was more effective than water, which suggests that it is a viable alternative as a detergent.
 
Kai Turner’s project, TARS - (Transmission-line Assessment and Review System), was a winner of the Innovations and Engineering Category. Working in the electrical industry is one of the most dangerous professions, so with that at the forefront of Kai’s mind he created the TARS robot. The TARS machine is designed to assess transmission lines and do so in both a practical and safe manner.
 
Mayesha Islam from Moorebank High School received 3rd place for her project Abundance of PhIP activity on beef marinated with various substances, while James Harrison from Lambton High School, received 4th place for his project Characterisation of the Chaotic Behaviour of a Simple Two-Transistor Single-Supply Resistor-Capacitor Circuit.
 
The Science Teachers Association NSW (STANSW) Young Scientist Awards Program celebrates the scientific investigations, technological innovations, and mathematical inquiries of K-12 school students across NSW. It encourages students to undertake innovative projects and investigations to find creative solutions to real-world problems. 
 
Other notable awards included the Rural Young Scientist of the Year, which was awarded to Ridhima Saroya, from St. Raphael’s Catholic School Cowra for her project The Effect of Environmental Stressors on Green Peach Aphids, and the Rural Primary Young Scientist of the Year, which was awarded to Xavier Louie from Sapphire Coast Anglican College for his investigation, Roll Ball, Roll. 
 
Over 700 entries were received for the 2022 competition, with over 160 prizes being given at the Awards Ceremony, which was held on Friday 4 November and sponsored by UTS. 
 
Irena Tasevska, Executive Officer of STANSW said “The Young Scientist Awards gives students the opportunity to use their scientific thinking, innovation and creativity to tackle real-world problems. The students this year have shown incredible diversity and skill, and the judges were highly impressed by their creative ideas and their excellent scientific communication skills.”
 
“STANSW is incredibly grateful to our generous volunteers and sponsors, who all give their time and resources to encourage and inspire the next generation of STEM students through this program. We are particularly thankful to our volunteer organising committee, judges and our convenor Anjali Rao from Castle Cove Public School. We are looking forward to growing the program in the future, and expanding the reach of the program to more schools across all corners of the state.”

View the full list of award winners here.

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