CREST

CSRIO CREST is well underway and students are coming up with very original ideas for projects to undertake this year.

This is one of the hardest parts of the science project journey, but to all our CREST students – please keep brainstorming and jotting ideas down in your log books! Ideas are as spontaneous as they are random, and they can appear at any time.

Silver and Gold CREST Awards

The feedback from CSIRO CREST has been overwhelmingly positive of projects that were completed last year. A big thank you to the CREST teachers of 2018 – Miss Sumaia El-Sayed, Mrs Hisu Lee, Mr Bihter Altunas, Miss Safiye Sertkaya and Miss Elizabeth Borschman, as well as the students’ mentors.

The following students have earned Gold CSIRO CREST Awards – they are the first to achieve this at Sirius College:

Project Title: Spliceosmome Component 65k in Splicing Introns in MAPK and Braf Genes by Russel Alrubaiey.

Russel worked with Dr Karen Doggett, an amazing mentor at the Walter and Eliza Hall of Medical Research. Russel has consistently produced high quality work in her years in the CREST program, and thoroughly deserves this award. Great work Russel!

Project Title: The effect of storage time on protein contents of Australian chicken eggs, by Sara Saleh - Silver CREST project upgraded to Gold CREST Award.

Sara’s mentor, Dr Raymond Chia from the Australian Egg Corporation, helped her develop her project idea and provided expert guidance along the way. CREST’s decision to upgrade Sara’s award from Silver to Gold level shows the hard work and quality results she produced - well done Sara!

And the here are the students who earned Silver CSIRO CREST Awards:

• Project Title: Which type of oil preserves bread the longest, and extend its shelf-life? By Zainab Al-Fadh and Nida Ahsan
• Project Title: UV blockers made of natural Australian fruit extract, by Alizza Ali, Sadf Gul and Suamia Khan
• Project Title: Sweet torture - modifying the parameters for tempering chocolate, by Fizzah Khalid, Ayah Awad and Inci Baba

These students worked hard all year, including their holiday break, mastered their scientific techniques and wrote high quality reports – and the results were outstanding! I expect they will do very well in the upcoming Victorian and Australian experimental research science project competitions.

More student reports are being finalised and I’ll keep you posted on their CREST Awards.

Genius Olympiad – State University, New York

The following students have been selected as finalists to fly to Syracuse, New York to present their projects in the prestigious Genius Olympiad:

• Zainab Al-Fadh and Nida Ahsan (Project Title: Which type of oil preserves bread the longest, and extend its shelf-life?)
• Fizzah Khalid, Ayah Awad (Project Title: Sweet torture - modifying the parameters for tempering chocolate)
• Sara Saleh (Project Title: The effect of storage time on protein contents of Australian chicken eggs)
• Tasnim Thamer and Sara Alzahabi (Project title: Maximising the amount of protein in yogurt using different milk samples)

They are currently spending their Saturdays working on their posters and preparing to be grilled by judges at State University New York, for what will be, no doubt, be an exciting trip.

Thank you to their parents and Mr Ilhan Eroglu for supporting the girls this year (and Mr Mehmet Cicek in 2018), and to Mrs Gordana Janev for volunteering to accompany the girls overseas.

Science Teachers Association of Victoria Science Talent Search Competition

A reminder to all 2018 CREST students to finish your final report edits by the end of this week so your projects can be submitted to the state competition. Best of luck, girls!