News

Mildura students earn top science awards

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 08:23:00

The Victorian Science Talent Search (STS) has unearthed two budding scientists at St Joseph’s College Mildura.

Eamonn Whyte, 16, and Finley Japp, 14, were among a small group of students from across the state to win a top award for their work in the competition.

Eamonn received a major bursary of $200 in the intermediate section for his research into the most effective type of fruit fly trap.
The year 10 student compared three different traps and found that one of his homemade traps was more effective than the patented variety currently being supplied to local households.
Eamonn said he hung one of each trap in two trees at his Irymple home, and counted the number of fruit flies the traps had caught at the end of two weeks.
“A whole lot of fruit fly traps had been delivered to our house because we live on a block, and I decided to try and work out how well they worked compared to a few I found online and made at home,” he said.
“Ultimately, the patented trap was the worst – it caught the least.
“The one made of apple cider vinegar and detergent came second, and the first was a mixture of milk, pepper, sugar and detergent.”
However, Eamonn said the patented trap – made of hydrolysed proteins and attractants – had a better shelf life.
“The trap that worked the best turned into a sort of cheese after two weeks,” he said.
“The patented one is probably best in terms of life span, but it was still interesting to see the results.”
Finley entered the junior section of the competition and won a major bursary of $100 for his research project.
The year 8 student developed a matrix to quantitatively describe smells.
“I was really interested in this idea because we can record sound and what we see, but we can’t really record smell,” Finley said.
“I devised a way in which you might be able to take a smell and sort it out in relation to other smells.
“My base smells were vegemite, fresh lemon, pepper, nutmeg, turmeric, fresh mint, and a whole range of other household items.
“After I recorded them, I saw how they all fitted together and the relationships between them, so I made a graph that showed all the quality difference points between one smell and another.
“Things like black pepper and mint were quite far apart – almost opposite, whereas brown rice and parsnip were quite similar.
“I had four variables, and one of them was the sweetness of the smell, so if I had something that was zero sweet, a quarter sweet, a half sweet, and one sweet, people could test the items and see where they sat on the spectrum.”
Finley said he would like to reproduce the project again in the future, basing it on previous studies.
“This was just an idea I had, so if I did it again I’d base it on the wine tasting chart, a similar experiment done in 2005, and I’d look at the molecular composition,” he said.
Science teacher John McGlashan said St Joseph’s College students had been participating in the STS for more than 30 years.
Mr McGlashan said students from years 7 to 12 could submit projects, and the school selected the best ones to enter the statewide competition.
“It’s a really great way to engage kids in science, and the students who succeed in it often come up with these brilliant ideas themselves,” he said.
“These ideas aren’t coming from us – it’s all them, and that’s what’s so great about it.
“Some people don’t think so, but science can be a very creative endeavour; you have to think outside the square to come up with these ideas.”
Mr McGlashan said major bursaries were the highest level of award presented at the STS, and were awarded to very few students across the state.