1998 Student Winners
Categories:
- Biology and Microbiology
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Environmental and Earth Science
- Physics, Engineering and Technology
- School of the Year Award
Biology and Microbiology
Erik Procko
Year 12 Marryatville High School, SA
'Chemicals and Foods as Bacterial Cryoprotectants'
Erik chose an extremely interesting topic to investigate -the use of 'cryoprotectants', or chemicals which preserve organisms on freezing. Of course this type of work is valuable in the relatively new scientific areas of freezing embryos, microbes and even small vertebrates.
Erik's passion and enjoyment for microbiology and microscopy was evident from his research paper. His experimental design showed a thorough knowledge of scientific process and his interpretation and presentation of the data was very high calibre. The basis of his experiment was to freeze a variety of bacteria in various chemicals including some well know anti-freeze agents and common foods to determine whether the chemical protects the bacteria during the freezing and thawing process.
After testing a number of foods, Erik found that milk was the best cryoprotectant for the particular bacteria he tested. Whilst Erik greeted this finding with enthusiasm, it does have different implications for the food industry, with many milk products, including ice cream being frozen. It means that any bacteria present when milk based products are frozen would still be viable after the product thaws. As Erik points out, this means that as with any food industry organisations needs to have strict hygiene rules during preparation of frozen foods.
In addition he tested many well known anti-freeze agents such as alcohols and glycol, and even though they have effective anti-freeze properties, their toxicity adversely affected the survival rate of the bacteria. This result is seen when alcohol is used as a disinfecting agent in medical procedures
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Sonia Gulati
Year 10 Cheltenham Girls High School, NSW
'The Decomposition of Fats and their Role in the Human Diet'
In this day and age of fast food and convenience lifestyle, Sonia's investigation into different types of fats and their effect on health is very pertinent. In her initial research she learned that saturated fats can increase the chance of heart disease, while mono- and poly-unsaturated fats are essential for normal body functions.
This led to an investigation in which she tested a number of different foods to determine the percentages of saturated and unsaturated fats. Sonia found that even in similar foods such as potato chips, the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats varies dramatically. But perhaps the most interesting part of her experiment was testing the effect of heat on certain oils. She found that the saturated fats (the bad ones) oxidise, or break down, very quickly when heated, whereas unsaturated fats decompose at a much slower rate.
This has implications for industries such as fast food outlets and restaurants which fry foods in the same fats and oils over a long period of time. Sonia showed that palm oil (a saturated fat) degraded by as much as 20% after only three 20-minute frying periods. In comparison, olive oil, a mono-unsaturated fat didn't oxidise at all.
Sonia' s recommendation of course is that food preparation facilities should use monounsaturated fats if they intend to reuse the oils for cooking so the quality of the food is retained. Her final comment however was also insightful - that this recommendation may not be fully supported by the food industry due to the economics involved - mono-unsaturated oils such as olive oil are usually more expensive than their saturated counterparts.
Environmental and Earth Science
Rosalyn Moore
Year 6 Warrandyte Primary School, VIC
'Macro Invertebrates: How are they Affected by Stream Habitat?'
Rosalyn Moore is an amazing 12 year old who has undertaken a major environmental investigation into the link between the quality of physical habitats along urban creeks and the 'health' of the creek water. She was able to demonstrate that the health of the creek water and its ability to support aquatic life was directly related to the level of degradation of creek habitat (soil erosion, poor shade and vegetation), thereby illustrating the importance of our environment on quality of life.
Interestingly, the way she measured the health of the creek water was through identification of small invertebrates such as nymphs, mites, snails and worms, and other factors such as turbidity and temperature of the water. Her measurements were extensive and the painstaking task of collecting, counting and identifying these tiny organisms would have taken many hours.
Showing a scientific capability and maturity way beyond her tender years, Rosalyn carefully analysed her collated data to reach some meaningful conclusions. She obviously has a real passion for the environment and love of scientific investigation, qualities which our society will highly value in the future as our way of life places more environmental stresses on the world.
Physics, Engineering and Technology
Eduard Wittig
Year 12 Trinity Lutheran College, Qld
'Computer Voice Recognition'
'For years, it has been humankind's, dream to communicate verbally with a machine' says Eduard Wittig in the opening line of his entry into this year's BHP Science Awards. It is this dream which he set out to achieve.
Although voice recognition computers are now becoming a reality, for a Year 12 student to successfully develop his own 'artificial neural network', or 'model of the biological nerve structure' is quite amazing.
In essence, Eduard's investigation culminated in the development of a system which enabled him to control a character moving around a computer screen by using the words 'left', 'right', 'up', 'down' and 'read'.
In true scientific fashion, Eduard first conducted a feasibility study to determine whether an 'artificial neural network' could be used for computer voice recognition. Once completed he set about developing his own computer voice recognition system.
This entailed recording various words, converting the audio wave from a binary code (computer language) to numerical values which are needed for the neural network, (the file for one word contains thousands of numbers), compressing the file, entering the data, adjusting and training the network, then linking the commands to the application.
Eduard was not only capable of understanding the complex nature of this research and using correct scientific methodology, but he also communicated his work clearly and succinctly, a skill which will stand him in good stead should he choose a career in the science area.
1998 BHP School of the Year Award
Primary
Summer Hill Public School, NSW
Secondary
Telopea Park High School, ACT