2008 Finalists
Timothy Bailey and Matthew Bolton
Year 10 (2007) Redeemer Baptist School, NSW
Project title: Prescribing Safe Handling Times for Marine Animals
Timothy and Matthew investigated the rate of oxygen uptake of marine animals
so they could predict how long they could be kept without aeration.
Sally Barrett
Year 12 (2007) Keebra Park State High School, Qld
Project title: The effect of anthropogenic carbon dioxide on the shell development
of ostracods
Sally used the shell thickness of small marine creatures to measure the effects
of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and found that shells become thinner
as carbon dioxide increases.
Morgen Bose
Year 12 (2007) Keebra Park State High School, Qld
Project title: The effects of lead and zinc salts on the
growth and development of plants
Morgen’s research found that increasing amounts of lead and
zinc salts were detrimental to plant germination and growth.
Luke Fletcher
Year 9 (2007) Marist Regional College, Tas
Project title: Dry Coal: Squeeze Please
Luke’s project was based on the premise that removing water
from brown coal made it burn more efficiently. He found that squeezing
out the water required less energy therefore was more efficient than using
evaporative methods.
Alexandra Gowdie
Year 12 (2007) Trinity Anglican School, Qld
Project title: Energy Efficiency in Roofing
Alex investigated the insulating properties of different colours
of roofing materials and different types and thicknesses of insulation.
She found that glass wool was the most effective insulator and that a white
roof reflected the most heat.
Storm Holwill
Year 9 (2007) Marist Regional College, Tas
Project title: Just a Drop in the Ocean?
Storm’s project used marine algae to remove carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and produce bio-fuel through photosynthesis, thus reducing
the need for agricultural land to produce fuel and assisting to reduce
global warming.
Sarah Manning
Year 12 (2007) Urrbrae Agricultural High School, SA
Project title: Does Iodine Prevent Fusarium?
Fusarium is a fungus which causes disease in crop plants. Sarah
experimented with different concentrations of iodine to find an effective
method of preventing Fusarium from growing.
Stephanie Parsons
Year 10 (2007) Keebra Park State High School, Qld
Project title: Effect of basil/mint essential oils on Ochlerotatus
notoscriptus larvae
Stephanie was looking for natural methods of preventing mosquitos
from growing. She extracted the oils from herbs and added them in varying
dilutions to containers of mosquito larvae. Her results were inconclusive
leaving scope for further investigation.
Daniel Pospischil
Year 10 (2007) Patrician Brothers College, NSW
Project title: Preventing Soil Erosion due to Water
Daniel was looking for the most effective way to prevent soil
and sediment erosion due to water flow along a gradient incline. He simulated
natural water flow using models and found that planting trees and using
drop structures (devices to stop water flow down the slope) were the most
effective ways to prevent erosion.
Timothy Ronald
Year 10 (2007) Sydney Church of England Grammar School, NSW
Project title: NSW Fertilizers Influencing Water Storage in
Crop Soil
Tim found that fertilisers not only improve soil by adding
nutrients but they also retain water in the soil. He measured water content
of the soil by comparing the weight of wet and dry samples and found that
cow dung is the most effective fertiliser in retaining water.
Rory Stokes
Year 9 (2007) Australian Science and Mathematics School, SA
Project title: Three Second Memory?
Rory dispelled the myth that goldfish can’t remember things
for more than 3 minutes. He taught them to come for food when a beacon
was placed in the tank and showed that they did associate the beacon with
food, even after some days and could differentiate between different coloured
beacons.
Shaun Williams
Year 12 (2007) Keebra Park State High School, Qld
Project title: Chlorella protothecoides as a carbon sink and
biodiesel source
The aim was to investigate the effects of carbon dioxide enriched
atmospheres on the growth rate of Chlorella protothecoides, to find a biomass
yield for the alga and to test the energy content of the oil derived to
that of oils currently being used for biodiesel production. This green
alga gave a 30% oil yield although results for increased levels of Carbon
dioxide were inconclusive.
Hannah Younger
Year 9 (2007) Marist Regional College, Tas
Project title: Fowl Water?
Hannah compared the water quality in a duck pond with flowing
water above and below the pond. She found the pond had less oxygen fewer
sensitive macroinvertebrates and more faecal coliform bacteria than the
flowing water. She concluded that water birds contributed to poor water
quality and could be a risk to human health.