Science 

KIOSC - Science Communication Conference 2023

On Friday 28 August, the Year 10 Biology and Psychology class, as well as Heath Agar and Mitchell Steenhuis from Year 11 and Bek Howarth from Year 9 attended the KISOC Science Communication Conference. 

During the conference, we were given an amazing opportunity to present the work we had been completing over the semester to other schools, judges and guest speakers! In between presenting, there were many games, competitions and opportunities for prizes. We all had a wonderful time partaking in these.

The Year 10 students presented work on a ‘Bee’s Wax Wrap’ campaign to promote the use of more sustainable products as opposed to single use plastics. We also wanted to raise awareness on the concerning decline of the bee population across the world, the impact that will have on us and how people can help. My group, consisting of Aaron Carter,  Emma Foden and myself won the ‘Outstanding Project’ award for our work. 

Year 11 students presented their findings from the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge. During this program they researched the benefits that would be provided to Australians if a communication satellite were to orbit around Australia.

As part of one of the competitions provided at KIOSC, we were able to have a go at a titration! A titration involves a very precise chemistry technique. Heath Agar won the competition and subsequently won an award for this.

As for Bek in Year 9, she did a wonderful job talking about her time spent at the Melbourne Zoo for the Zoos Victoria’s Youth Leadership program. Bek with assistance from Erin Bourgein told everyone about all the wonderful things she had done, and her love for the environment. Bek spoke about the science skills she developed while growing as a leader in a group environment and how she was supported to undertake a Science research project that will help inform a wildlife conservation project. Bek won an award for her excellent science communication skills.

To conclude, we got to hear from guest speakers from Dandenong Secondary College who had taken part in a competition where they built cars running on hydrogen and raced them. They shared with us their process from start to finish, including hardships and victories, and it was overall a very inspiring presentation! Then, we heard from Medical Scientist Ms Jean Moselen, from Victorian Infectious Disease Laboratory (COVID labs) about her science career and working to set up an international COVID lab in Solomon Islands. She worked incredibly hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also shared with us how she got to where she did, the complications and reality of being a scientist. Once again, this was all incredibly inspiring.

Overall, we all had an amazing time with what we were doing, and I would love to do it again! We met some wonderful people and would all be thrilled to take part in events like this in the future! It was a very successful day, and everyone involved should be proud of their work!

Storm Pasqua

Year 11