Rotary Campbelltown assisted in sponsoring three candidates for National Youth Science forum in 2020. They gave a detailed report of this life changing experience.
NYSF Report to the RC of Campbelltown
By Irina Bal from St Ignatius College, George Karageorge-Nguyen from Pembroke, Silas Hansch-Maher from St Ignatius College.
RINA – The Beginning
We started off the forum with a bang. After a peaceful flight to Sydney, the first and last quiet moment of the trip, we were greeted by some Staffies at the airport. Staffies are the student staff member and NYSF alumni. They work together to ensure the trip runs smoothly and that everyone is having as much fun as possible. Some things you may not know about the Staffies is that they share one collective mind, nicknamed The Hive, and run solely on the mysterious staffie Juice, which we suspect to contain a cocktail of coffee, tons of sugar and other substances which, for legal purposes, we cannot name.
After a long wait at the airport, where we were given our first opportunity to meet the other participants from across the country, we boarded the bus ready for the second leg of our journey. During our bus ride we each had the opportunity to chat one on one with a staffie, get an idea of the itinerary for the 10 days and, most importantly, get our Wouches. What are Wouches, you ask? Well, it’s a pouch… with a wow factor! The Wouch, patent pending, is perfect for all your NYSF needs. Equipped with an adjustable neck strap, pockets in the front and rear, and an ever-so convenient pen holder, the Wouch.
According to the laws of NYSF, Wouches MUST be worn at all times. When you wake up, the first thing you do is put on your Wouch, and when you sleep, your Wouch is the last thing you take off.
Throughout the bus ride we were all haunted by a single thought. A thought that would change our lives forever; the breeze. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the breeze. From the moment we boarded the bus the breeze begun, and with each kilometre it grew stronger and more deadly. Finally, as we passed the ‘Welcome to Canberra’ sign, the breeze became all too much. The Staffies were going crazy, searching high and low to find the source. They stood, defeated, in the aisle of the bus, and it was then that we learnt the true source of the breeze.
Yes, indeed the breeze was not actually a breeze, but rather an allusion to the first of many chants we would hear and learn on the trip. Not one hour would go by where we hadn’t chanted at least once, and they soon became a common method of communication. Some of the many chants we learnt include ‘Bananas’ ‘Oh no you can’t go to heaven’ & ‘I am a little coconut’.
Once we arrived in Canberra, we were welcomed with some of the best air in the world! Our lungs sang with excitement and our noses tickled with each breath; it was like nothing we had ever experienced. Soon after arriving we were escorted to our dorms and had the opportunity to unpack and meet in the common room. Whilst we waited for dinner, we spent our time in the common room, meeting lots of new people and enjoying the many games ANU had to offer, including table tennis and Pool.
Moving onto Day 2, where we were thrown headfirst into the NYSF experience. After a much-needed breakfast we met in our interest groups for the first time. Interest groups, which you will hear about later, were created based on our subject preferences during the application process. Your group would be your main company during STEM visits, group activities and in-between lectures.
SILAS - Daily stuff
So, what happened each day?
Breakfast was at 7:30 in the morning. That being said, there was a long line to get into the dining room, and you really needed to get there at around 7:15. At all of our meals, we lined up for the Staffies to give us some hand sanitiser before we entered. They also asked us all question before allowing us to enter, such as if you Page 2 of 6 could be any vegetable, what would you be, what’s your favourite kitchen utensil and, my most memorable one, what’s your favourite bipedal mythical creature. The food was just in a buffet set out and we filled our plates with what we wanted. Considering how much food they had to make the food was pretty good.
Breakfast, and all other meals, would last for about an hour, before we’d go and start the day’s events. Throughout the day we’d have a few breaks, which we could spend in our rooms, but most people spent it in the common room. Here there were some intense games of pool, table tennis and Uno. It was a big room a great place to talk to people.
After dinner, we’d often have another event, but then at around 9:30 we’d go up to our floor areas. Each floor was split into three sections, I was level one middle, and we’d all have a chat and reflect on the day. After that, people would go off to have showers, brush their teeth etc. and then have to be back in their rooms by 10:15, or else the Staffies would chase them to their room while making various different animal noises. One day they were chickens, another cats. Then we had 15 minutes in our rooms before lights out at 10:30. The rooms themselves were nice. We had a bed, some storage space, a sink and also a mini fridge, which was very nice. There was no air-conditioning, but we did all have a fan.
GEORGE - NYSF Activities
Unfortunately, we did not have the privilege of attending any lab visits, but this did not hinder our ability to engage with science. Regardless of how long the experience was, being immersed around other young and like-minded people allowed for an incredible learning experience.
We attended various lectures, the first of which occurred after the opening ceremony. We heard about the work of a scientist at ANU who was using Lidar technology to approximate moisture content in vegetation in order to calculate statistics related to bushfire probabilities, which was and still is a very topical and relevant issue being explored. We also had the opportunity to hear from a scientist who worked for the Australian Antarctic Division. She discussed her fascinating experience working in Antarctica and her research regarding the marine life, particularly whales. And on our final programmed day we were visited by a science communicator who spoke about her experience working at ANU with the team running Australia’s most powerful supercomputer.
There were also visits that the entire session A cohort attended. These included a visit to Questacon, the national science and technology museum and a shopping trip to Canberra Civic, where we were able to work in our interest groups and organise costumes for the Disco later that week. Both of these were very fun but also educational opportunities. On the last day we were visited by representatives from the Australian Army and Air Force who talked about the drones they used. It was fascinating to see and hear of these drones, from the small ones that could fit in your pocket but cost around the size of a small car, to large helicopter sized drones used for military and humanitarian purposes.
The NYSF CEO Dr Melanie presented about critical thinking within science and discussed her experiences as a science researcher turned science communicator. We also had various presentations from the Staffies which were mainly about their experiences and informing us about our journey through year 12 and beyond.
Whilst the majority of scientific experiences were scheduled to occur in the second week, we were given the opportunity to be involved in many social activities in the first week. This allowed us to meet many people and have lots of fun along the way. Some of these activities included a relay quiz night in our floor groups which was very amusing. Here we had to run to get the question and bring it back to the table to answer as a group. We also had a swing dancing night where many people were initially sceptical about, but it turned out that we would all have a thrilling and fun time doing it. A highlight for many was the disco. Everyone, including the Staffies were wearing costumes and we all had a great time however bittersweet it was as the last activity we would all do together.
SILAS - The end
So, at the science relay quiz we were all told at about 7 or 8 that we could open our windows at last to let in some fresh air because the air quality was much better, which was great news. However, a couple of hours later, we had to close them again. At just after midnight, we then found ourselves woken by a blaring alarm and knocking on our doors. The smoke had gone from being so thin that we could open our windows to being so thick that it set off the fire alarm in only around 4 hours. We all evacuated to the lawn and it really did just feel like the apocalypse. We were out on the lawn for a while, and we all started closing our eyes because the smoke was so thick. We all had masks though, whether we remembered to bring it down or had one given to us. But I certainly enjoyed just talking to people, and we eventually got to go and wait in another building where we chatted and played riddles.
The next day I remember the smoke was so thick inside the building that I was wearing my mask in the corridors. It did get a bit better as the day went on though, which was nice. That was the home hospitality day. The next day was meant to be our first stem visit in our interest groups. We all assembled in the common room and this was when Melanie unfortunately informed us that the ANU was closing down and had made it clear that we all had to leave.
Obviously, nobody wanted to hear this. However, I was really impressed by how the situation was handled. They’d still somehow managed to get someone to come in and talk to us at the last minute, and somehow the reptile museum was still open, so we got to go to that. Despite the bad news everyone was really positive and we all really did our best to enjoy ourselves on the last day. On our final night we all agreed to have a formal dinner, in place of the Science Dinner we had unfortunately missed out on.
The NYSF team, somehow, managed to organise transport for everyone in only two days which was an incredible feat and we flew from Canberra to Melbourne, then Melbourne to Adelaide. The one problem was, that we had a 30-minute transfer window. To add to this, our connecting flight was in a completely different part of the airport, so we had to go through security. Even worse, our plane was running a bit late. So, off we ran through the airport, to get to where we needed to go. I was one of the first through the security checkpoint but still had to run through an entire shopping area just to get to the gate, only to find out that because our first flight was running late that they’d put us on a different one a little later. So after all that, we still had about an hour till our plane actually left. We obviously got here eventually and proceeded to chant our way to the baggage claim.
Personal Reflection - Irina
I was in the Oliphant Physics group, named after Australian Physicist Mark Oliphant. I had been set on a career in medicine for as long as I can remember, however in recent years my exposure to physics had increased, as had my interest in a career in the field. Although I did not put physics as one of my top preferences, I was pleasantly surprised with my group, as I knew I would get some great exposure to different pathways and careers in the area of physics.
For me, without a doubt, the best thing about Session A was the people. I’m sure you’ll have heard it before, but upon arrival the atmosphere was one I had never experienced before. You would walk up to anyone, introduce yourself and before you knew it you had become the best of friends. NYSF is one of the few places where there was so status quo, no social order, everyone was there to have fun and experience STEM at its finest. Nowhere else could you be having dinner whilst working on a conjecture for that mathematical induction question you thought of on the way, and have people approach you and ask to help. An event which highlighted just how amazing the people were, was the disco on our last night. Despite the devastating news that the session was cancelled, we were all able to come together for one final hurrah and dress up in the costumes we had prepared.
Although my time was short, being at NYSF taught me a great deal about the enormous variety of careers paths STEM can take you on. What might begin as a job in science communication can turn into a career at the one of the best supercomputers in the world. it gave me some comfort knowing that even if I pursued a career in medicine, I would still be able to branch out to other fields I was passionate about, such as physics.
Personal Reflection - George
My interest group was Cornforth Chemistry, named after the Australian Nobel Prize winning chemist. Initially everyone in my interest group were all somewhat reserved but by the end of the program I can say without a doubt that we all became really good friends. There were many activities conducted in interest groups, namely the NYSF Olympics, of which Cornforth had come first in. This consisted of a series of collaborative tasks that developed our team working skills. We also went shopping in interest groups for costumes to wear at the disco night. My group dressed up as corn and we all wrote a science related pun on our shirts.
I would really like to thank the Staffies who were on session with us. They were some of the most inspiring people I have met. Regardless of how sleep deprived they were, they would never stop singing, dancing and looking out for us thought the whole experience. It was also clear to see that they shared our heartbreak in hearing that the program was coming to an early end.
The NYSF was a transformative experience for me that reaffirmed my love of science. I was able to hear about many fields within science that I had not thought of pursuing as a career as well as the various jobs and activities performed within these fields. I also learnt that science itself is very broad and heard about how the roles of people in various stem careers adapt and change over time which was very interesting. Alongside its scientific aspects I also thought it was a wonderful social experience and have I have met so many amazing people. I definitely opened myself up and was put in many situations outside of my comfort zone.
Personal reflection - Silas
I was in the Curie chemistry interest group. I completed year 12 chemistry last year and it’s a subject that I really enjoy. I made some really good friends in my group. My buddy, Alex, was an amazing person who had played violin for 13 years and played some excellent Vivaldi for us at the end of the session. He was also an incredible long-distance cyclist who had rode, in total, around 9000 kilometres last year. I spent a lot of time with many of my group members, solving riddles and a couple of us aimed to solve them all by the end of session which, despite the early ending, we achieved.
The best thing for me about session A was certainly just getting to meet everyone. I made some amazing friends and met some incredible people, and even ended up seeing someone again who I hadn’t seen in more than a year.
I certainly learnt a lot from the NYSF, from discovering that there’s such a job as a science communicator, to finding out how satellites can be used to determine bushfire risk. I think the main thing that came apparent to me, however, was realising how much you can branch out in a career in science. We heard from a microbiologist who had ended up studying whales and their movements. Melanie, the CEO, who had started with medical research and ended up communicating science. Just seeing all these possibilities has given me a lot more to consider for deciding what I want to do but it’s also nice to see that it is possible to branch out if I don’t end up liking where I start.
All three NYSFers expressed their grateful thanks to
1. NYSF admin for looking after them so well in such catastrophic conditions, and then for getting them home safely when ANU was shut down due to the smoke.
2. The NYSF Staffies for keeping them constantly amused and making the whole experience such FUN. Page 5 of 6
3. Rotary, this Rotary club for sponsoring and mentoring them; especially Margaret Northcote, chair of NYSF for D9510, who saw them leave and welcomed them home.
4. The D9510 NYSF committee for choosing them and preparing them for NYSF.
