Seventeen-year-old Jade Moxey has always been creative, curious and interested in why things work the way they do.
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The Numbugga resident has returned home from her second trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles with fourth place in the Animal Sciences category for her research challenging the global use of sheep to control the spread of fireweed
”The main challenge is thinking of a problem to face and finding something that has never been done before,” the Sapphire Coast Anglican College Year 12 student said.
“There is a sense of creativity about it.”
Sheep are commonly used to control the noxious weed, yet Jade's research contradicts this notion and has shown the animals can actually spread it through their manure.
She has generations of dairy farming in her blood, and growing up on the family’s beef and sheep farm, she noticed the weed would congregate where the sheep was present.
“I think my parents were kind of expecting the result to be honest, because we’ve had fireweed in areas it has never been in before after the sheep were there, and it is concentrated where they camp,” she said.
Over seven million high school students around the world enter original projects in local science competitions, with only 1700 winners of local, regional, state, and national competitions invited to take part in the week-long event.
“It is the largest pre-college fair in the world,” Jade said.
“It’s not just about the projects, there’s lots of events, and we even booked out Universal Studios for a party.”
She has made a close friend along the way, and the pair hope to join forces for next year’s entry.
Along with Macinley Butson from Wollongong, Jade plans to venture into the world of engineering.
“We just clicked the first year we went, and we are both determined to go again,” she said.
“We are hoping we will actually have a at the end of it, and that will give me a sense of achievement.”