Recently we had the pleasure of hearing about Chelsea’s time at the recent National Youth Science Forum from the 10-25 January.
Awarded the 2022 Yass Rotary Club Scholarship as the Yass High School’s participant in the NYSF program, Chelsea exudes enthusiasm and confidence and her presentation at our meeting encapsulated how she embraced all aspects of the forum.This year once again due to Covid19 the forum was virtual - and though disappointed that she didn’t get the full campus experience, Chelsea was very grateful for the opportunity and elated with her newfound science discoveries.
Highlights of her time at the forum were:
- Meeting with Rotarians and students from districts all over Australia
- A practical science segment where chilled combinations of toilet paper and water proved much less brittle than blocks of ice
- Dr Karls House Party- which was a very cool fusion of loud music and information delivered at speed -with no time for note taking
- A Marine Talk, concentrating on the impact of global warming on our Great Barrier Reef and ways to reduce bleaching, by introducing heat tolerant corals that withstand water temperatures of 40 degrees. Also - coral nurseries that now exist as a part of the rejuvenation process and adoption options where the students can have their own coral nursery at their school
- Chats with other Universities - local and interstate regarding the many science degree courses on offer
- A live cross to CERN in Switzerland -the state of the art Large Hadron particle accelerator
- Virtual tour visits to the Investigator research ship and the Natural History Museum in London
- A live cross to the Casey Station in the Antarctic - where they learned of their research into penguins- from breeding, to health and habits. Plus an incredible virtual tour of outside the station
- They completed the forum with social chat, networking, escape room games and fun facts - like if the ocean was a soup - water, salt, meat and veg?
It was wonderful to listen to Chelsea’s rendition of the forum and she intends to share her recent adventures with her school community.
She did admit that she has fallen under the ‘NYSF Curse’ - her dream of being an aeronautical engineer has now been shelved and she now dreams of becoming a marine biologist.
We wish Chelsea all the very best for her final year at YHS and we will be keeping a very keen eye on her future as it is bright.