ARTICLES
STEM down under students are on top of the world (continued)
The unique feature of our 2018 Young Scientist ISEF team was
their amazing camaraderie, gratefulness and a community of care
and support that was generated by the chaperones, students
and all the accompanying adults. Each member looked after the
welfare of each other and as a result they had the most enjoyable
and rewarding time imaginable. This sense of community is so
vividly expressed in these two letters of gratitude to the Sapphire
Foundation, from one of our rural students and our rural teacher
chaperone, both of whom have given permission to include these
excerpts:
Emma Serisier (Year 11), Bishop Druitt College, Effects of
Storage Conditions and Time on Egg Quality
Emma found that over time environmental conditions that eggs are
stored under have a significant influence on their internal quality.
There were identifiable interactions between temperature and
environmental factors which affected the egg quality. Increased
storage temperature resulted in weight loss, increase in pH and
visual factors such as size of air cell, runniness of albumen, form
of yolk and odour. An increase in pH was observed in most eggs
regardless of storage conditions.
“The Emma that left Australia last Thursday was just an ordinary
farm kid from northern New South Wales who was just interested
in eggs. When I arrived at Sydney airport, I was in awe of the
other students who appeared so confident, intelligent and from a
different world to me. I felt I shouldn’t be there as how could you
compare an egg to the incredible engineering projects created by
the other students. I did not realise that someone my age could
even understand robotics.
The first few days were amazing as we travelled around visiting
the local sites of Pittsburgh, however, I continued to struggle
with whether I was good enough. On Saturday afternoon, one
of the parents sat with me and was genuinely interested in my
project and challenged my ideas and methodology and helped
me consolidate my thoughts and thus started the most amazing
journey of my life.
From that time on, the chaperones, other parents and students
validated who I was and why I was there. It didn’t matter where I
was from and what I had done, I was amongst equals. I have had
a few life changing moments in my lifetime, mainly from negative
events, but to have such a positive life-changing experience is
wonderful.
The Emma that is returning to the farm in Northern New South
Wales is different. I have grown in confidence, knowledge,
inspiration, passion and vision. Quite simply, I am looking at the
world through different glasses.
Two Rural Reflections on the ISEF Experience
I cannot thank you enough for providing me with the ability to
participate in the best experience of my life. From interacting with
other students, it was clear that rural students do not have access
to the resources that city students do, let alone students from all
over the world. I now know what is out there and my journey in
science has only just begun.
As expressed earlier, the 2018 Young Scientist ISEF trip was a
genuine team effort. With many of the finalists, chaperones and
accompanying adults meeting for the first time at the airport,
they could have easily gone over to Pittsburgh as a group of
individuals representing their country and come back having
an exhilarating personal experience – but this did not happen!
The students and parents who had been to ISEF before could
have concentrated on developing their own networking skills to
advance their academic and career opportunities – but this did
not happen! The rural students may have harboured a sense
of inferiority when mixing with fellow team members – this was
initially apparent but quickly vanished!
Thank you
Emma Serisier.”
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 2