6 LUMEN | ACHIEVEMENTS
Our
National Science Challengers
Create History
By Shaun Hue and Samuel Murugasu
SJI ’ s team emerged 3rd in the National
Science Challenge on 6 September 2015 . This unprecedented result in SJI history gave the community much to rejoice over .
They climbed their way up the ladder , overcoming obstacle after obstacle , challenge after challenge . First , by making it through the preliminary qualifiers to the quarter-finals before advancing beyond , against prestigious schools such as Raffles Institution , NUS High and Victoria School . They then clinched victory in the semi-finals and turned the tables with their sheer determination on Raffles Girls ’ School and Dunman High School . Finally , our four exceptional Josephians of the National Science Challenge team - Le Nguyen Nguyen Khoi ( Lawrence 303 ), Aw Kinn ( Fintan 302 ), Yuknavell S / O Thiyagarajan ( Lawrence 302 ) and Lee Yhu Fhei ( Lawrence 302 ) - reached the climax of their journey . Pitted against the fierce competitors of Bukit Panjang Government High as well as Raffles Institution ( once again ), victory in the Finals would be no easy feat .
The Finals of the National Science Challenge consisted of two stages : The Onsite Challenge where competitors visited a field site to conduct investigations and solve scientific problems and the Studio Competition Round where competitors rely on their knowledge to answer numerous challenging questions , all done nerve-rackingly in front of a live audience .
Onsite Challenge
The Onsite Challenge for the Grand Finals on 1 September 2015 required our team of young scientists to travel to St John ’ s Island where they were given the daunting task of locating the position of a pinger in a vast lagoon , using only hydrophones to detect any sounds present in the lagoon . The accuracy of their results and presentation would contribute to the points awarded . Yuknavell ’ s reaction was : “ It sounded pretty challenging . I was quite excited but also nervous .”
The team tackled the problem by first filtering out the unwanted noises with their hydrophone to pinpoint the rough location of the pinger . Then , with Khoi ’ s expertise , they further estimated the object ’ s position using triangulation , the inverse square law and other complex scientific concepts . Eventually , our team managed to derive the general location of the pinger and successfully managed to outscore Bukit Panjang Government High . However , due to the Raffles Institution team ’ s closer estimate of the pinger ’ s location , their score surpassed our National Science Challengers ’. “ Although we only