Science Teachers ’ Association of New South Wales Inc .
Providing leadership and promoting excellence in science education
2017 STANSW Young Scientist Presentation Ceremony hosted by the University of Wollongong On Wednesday November 1st , the University of Wollongong hosted the STANSW Young Scientist Awards Ceremony , for the fifth consecutive year . 400 finalists and guests attended the ‘ Celebration of STEM ’ with a record 109 students receiving awards , 13 more than our previous best set last year . We had 57 primary and 52 secondary finalists and 58 % of all prizes were won by girls . 38 NSW schools were represented at the event with 16 DET schools , 16 Independent schools and 6 Catholic schools . 9 of these award-winning schools were regional schools .
The 2017 STANSW Young Scientist Coordinator Ann Hanna was the MC for the event and Associate Professor Rodney Vickers welcomed all visitors to the University of Wollongong . He later presented awards to our K-6 scientific investigation winners with the help of Macinley Butson , our 2016 Sebel Young Scientist of the Year .
A ‘ Celebration of STEM ’ A unique feature of the STANSW Young Scientist Awards has been the collaboration between the professional teacher bodies that represent STEM education in New South Wales . STANSW , IIATE and MANSW each sponsored fifteen or more K-12 awards in the respective focus area . We were also honoured to have either the president or the vice president of each association present their awards .
Largest ever Australian ISEF team announced at the Presentation Ceremony With a team project being selected as one of the two best rural projects , Sapphire Foundation agreed to increase their donation to make it possible for both team members to attend ISEF . Likewise , with a team project being selected in the top 5 projects selected by the ISEF Panel , our principal sponsor Sebel Furniture agreed to increase their level of sponsorship to make it possible to send all 5 selected projects . Consequently , our STANSW Young Scientist team for 2018 ISEF Pittsburgh is a massive 9 members and they will be joined by our rural teacher chaperone and our Year 7 / 8 Broadcom MASTERS International delegate .
2017 International Science and Engineering Fair ( ISEF )
Stuart Garth
Young Scientist team have best ever performance . The STANSW Young Scientist ISEF team performed outstandingly at the 2017 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair ( ISEF ) held in Los Angeles , May 14-19 . The all-girls team came home with USD $ 6,500 prize-money between them , three major global media reports , a few thousand pins and hosts of memories that they will cherish forever . STANSW has been sending teams to ISEF , the ‘ Olympics ’ of school science and engineering fairs since 1999 and this has been their best-ever performance .
Leading up to 2017 ISEF , more than 7 million high school students around the globe developed original research projects and presented their work at local , regional , state , and national competitions in a bid to compete for more than USD 5 million in awards and scholarships at ISEF , the largest secondary school science fair in the world . 1778 students from 78 countries participated at ISEF 2017 , with 440 ( 24.7 %) winning Grand Awards , presented to 1st to 4th placegetters in each of the twenty-two categories .
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