UHC students have shown their scientific skills to win big at the annual NIWA Wellington Regional Science Fair. Teacher, Chris Viczko reports.

During the week starting Aug 26th, we took the brightest and best entries from our UHC Science Fair into the Wellington regional event to represent the school. And boy did they do well! The specific experiments and what students were awarded is listed below.

Year 9 results

Fraser Burns & Finn O'Brien -  How short videos are ruining our attention span

They tested Year 9s' attention span by using the Stroop test. They found the more short form content Year 9s viewed the worse they tested on the Stroop test.

Prize: Highly Commended

Layla Cocklin - How do temperatures affect vitamin C

Layla tested how the amount of vitamin C in orange juice changed as you heated it up. Linking to the importance of food storage in nutrition.
Prize: Highly Commended

Kyle Hogh -  The Secret of Piezoelectricity
Kyle promoted the use of piezoelectric pressure plates. He created a prototype shoe that generates electricity as you walk.

Prize: Highly Commended

Methuli Welegedara - From roots to leaves

Methuli investigated how differing soil pH affects plant growth in tomatoes and lettuce and discussed the importance of soil type or household or commercial growers.

Reese Lingad - Smartrash: Training AI to Identify Common Recyclables

Reese created a machine from a shoebox, Raspberry Pi camera and computer and trained it with AI to recognise common recyclables.

Prizes:
Royal Society of NZ Wellington Branch Prize for the runner-up best overall exhibit
First in Class 3 Engineering New Zealand.
Reese won a total of $1150 in prize money!

Reese also presented his findings to the Royal Society Wellington Branch meeting, you can read about it here:

https://www.royalsocietyofnewzealandwellingtonbranch.org/niwa-science-fair-prize

Year 10 results

Phoebe Garmonsway - AI Emotions
Phoebe tested how well aligned AI prompts with emotions match the actual emotion we interpret.

Kennedy Rushton - Harnessing the Tides
Kennedy designed a tidal generator that flows between two bays in Auckland that have offset tidal times. Using this unique feature, she calculated the flow rate and estimated electrical energy that could be acquired by running a sluice through the land between the bays.
Prizes

New Zealand Coastal Society 
Engineering New Zealand
Kennedy won $350 in prize money

Charlie Wylie - Memomusic
Charlie studied how music while completing cognitive tasks impacts your ability to do that task. He tested no music, ambient "study music" and then the test subject's favourite song.

Mackenzie Diesch-Priest, Payden Fox & Dannika Watt - Breaking through Bacteria

These students tested the effectiveness of different sanitizing/filtering methods like charcoal, bleach, and citrus peels. They swabbed some water on agar plates after filtration and observed bacterial growth as their metric for effectiveness.

We had a grand time! An excellent experience for our young scientists.