Peter Doherty Science Awards

Recently, two teams from our Science Academy were working with our teacher, Jackie, on a presentation for the 2020 Peter Doherty Science Awards. We started to conduct research and experimentation on a chosen question of ours that we felt, needed an answer.  I was working with James and Casper on the topic ‘Which Softmed face mask is best for containing Covid-19?’ We found tests on the internet and picked our favourites. After testing the masks using four tests, the tests showed that the N95 Respirator was the best as it passed all of the tests. 

We made a poster and a PowerPoint to display our results. Next, we filmed ourselves presenting. We later found that the footage was unnecessary because restrictions had been lifted and before we knew it, we were off to the Tech School to present to the judges. Inside the building there were a lot of gadgets and it was a really cool place. 

We were the first of four to present our projects to the judges. They asked questions once we had finished which was surprisingly easier than we thought it would be. We watched Helena and Ruth, the other group from our school, present and then went back to school. There were two teams that were from Ballarat Grammer but they presented remotely. 

A week later, the video of us presenting was live streamed on YouTube. We invited our family and friends to watch from home. The overall award went to Casper, James and I, but Helena and Ruth didn’t go unnoticed. They came out with the Communications Award and some really cool gift vouchers. The group I was part of won some spending money for ourselves and $600 dollars for the school. We all got cool show bags from Fed Uni.

Thank you, Jackie, for your help, we couldn’t have done it without you.