Students at St Monica’s Primary School in Footscray demonstrated their aptitude for science at their big science fair late last month.
Held across Wednesday May 28 and Thursday, May 29, the science fair featured projects made by students across a range of year levels, including a collaboration between year six students and Latrobe University’s Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS).
The collaboration came about after two students, Jonah and Lucia, read an article from one of the professors at LIMS and then wrote to him to see if he could help with their science fair project.
The professor agreed and they went out on the field to collect samples together.
In doing so, the two St Monica’s students managed to culture Trichoplax organisms from a part of the coast that La Trobe researchers had previously had no success in.
The clones are now getting genotypes and if the students have managed to identify a new genotype, LIMS will send it into space as part of ongoing research.
Another feature of this year’s science fair was a new deodorant developed by a year five student.
After being irrigated by a commercial deodorant, the student decided to develop his own samples and trialled them with members of the community to find the best product.
Star Weekly’s Damjan Janevski recently visited St Monica’s Primary School and photographed some of the students with their science projects.
