BRIDGETOWN High School Students attended the Growing Science Forum held at the Manjimup town Hall last week, thanks to the Shire of Manjimup's Royalties for Regions funded Seed Program.
Entertaining speakers on the day included Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Professor Lyn Beazley AO FTSE, Naked Scientist Dr Chris Smith and Professor Andy Whitely.
Dr Karl entertained the students with discussions on great moments in Science, explaining the science behind the optical illusion of the blue dress debate and how today's students are 9 IQ points smarter than their parents.
Professor Beazley, who was the chief Scientist at UWA from 2006 - 2013 and Western Australian of the Year 2014, talked about light, sharing some wonderful examples on what different animals and reptiles can and can't see. She also highlighted the opportunities available to young people who were interested in furthering their studies at university.
"It is such an honour and delight to take part in this Forum," Professor Beazley said. "I am so happy that the Bridgetown students enjoyed the day and I hope they all have an even greater enthusiasm for science now."
Dr Smith explained that by Newton's second law F=ma, acceleration of bowel gasses would have to be 622/0.000037 = 17,000,000 metres per second per second to achieve lift off and that the speed of sneeze = 30m/s or 108km/hr.
Professor Whitely talked about his MicroBlitz project, a world first crowd-sourcing project that uses DNA sequencing technology to identify the many different microorganisms inhabiting soils.
The Southern Forests SEED Program is sowing the seeds for future growth. It is part of the overall Agricultural Expansion Project funded by the Royalties for Regions program - SuperTowns project, aimed at increasing interest in agriculture as a career path.
