NSW Young Scientist Awards 2016 feature Sapphire Coast Anglican College students

Jade Moxey of Year 12 and Emily Smith of Year 9 entered the Science Teachers’ Association of NSW Young Scientist Awards (STANSW) this year. 

When the results were announced at the start of November, Jade learnt she had come third overall.

This means she will travel to Los Angeles, USA in May next year to represent Australia at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair, which she attended last year coming fourth in her category.

“I was pretty satisfied with fourth in the world,” she laughed. 

At STANSW, Jade also came first in Year 10-12 Earth and Environmental Science, received the STEP Environmental Award and came second in both the National Measurement Institute Award and IIAS Science and Triathlon Prize. 

The whole experience at the awards ceremony was “surreal”, she said.

Her major 125-page project she entered was on the relationship between fireweed and sheep. Through research and laboratory testing she found sheep were capable of spreading fireweed through their manure.

Also, the weed had a minimal effect on sheep’s health, although if a human ate the meat of a sheep that had been grazing on fireweed the plant’s alkaloids did have the potential to enter their system – but more research was needed. 

“I’m hoping my research will aid farmers in implementing the most effective strategies to reduce the economic and productive impacts of the plant,” Jade said.  

At the awards, Emily was announced as second in Year 7-9 Working Mathematically and third in Year 7-9 Biology. 

“I thought my project was random and not significant, so I was surprised,” she said. 

Her project was about the parental influence on the healthiness of children’s food preferences, looking for a correlation between dietary choices and who health campaigns should target. 

“It seems the information should be targeted at kids instead of parents,” she said. 

The two thanked Warwick Adams of the Sapphire Foundation and Local Land Services for their support.