STEM Horizons Program

Recently Year 7 students Liam Astbury, Benjamin Ditchburn and Jamie Waddington were invited to take part in the STEM Horizons for High Achievers Program.

On Thursday 12 September, Ben, Jamie and Liam met at the William Gunn Jetty in Manly as part of the Energy at the Bottom of the Bay workshop. Throughout the day, students worked in small groups to conduct seagrass surveys using underwater video gliders. 

The boys' second workshop, titled The Water We Drink, took place at the Brisbane Urban Environmental Education Centre at Newmarket State School. At the start the day, students identified the contributing factors that results in the contamination of water and the impact this has on citizens on a global scale. After morning tea, students conducted an experiment to see how effective different filtration mediums are at reducing geological contaminants. To determine the effectiveness of the samples, students examined the turbidity of silica, sand and glass beads and investigated ways that contaminates can be removed from the water we drink. After lunch, students were reminded of the power of science and how it can solve real life problems to remove chemicals from drinking water, and observed the challenges that people face with the arsenic crisis, which affects more than 20 million people alone in Bangladesh. Students conducted experiments to test how effectively a solar still is at reducing chemical and geological contaminates from a water sample by testing the pH levels, turbidity and whether iron, copper, chlorine and salt were present.

The boys will take part in two more workshops in Term 4 at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Griffith University.