STEM AWARD 

Audrey and Wheng, year 9 students at Ballarat High, were finalists in the Peter Doherty Science Award competition. They received the 2021 Highly Commended Award. They have written an account of their experience. 

We entered the Peter Doherty Science Award competition with the topic “Do all Skittles taste the same without seeing the colour”. We conducted our experiment in our class and gathered our data from them. We found out that all Skittles do have their own flavour but when blindfolded it was more difficult to distinguish between them as there is a link between sight and taste.

We were a part of the Girls in Stem program which is run by the Ballarat Tech School and that’s how we heard about the PDSA. We had to create a poster to display our findings which followed the scientific method. 

Then we became finalists for the PDSA, which meant we had to present our findings in the form of an oral presentation in front of a judging panel. On the 25th of November we attended the Awards night held at the Ballarat Tech School and then we were presented with the Highly Commended Award after the presentations. We are very grateful for the opportunity and would highly recommend both the Girls in Stem and the PDSA for anyone who is interested in STEM.

Belinda Wehl - Year 9 Core Teacher